How to staple a booklet without a long-arm stapler

A saddle-stitched booklet is stapled through the fold, and the fold is in the middle of the sheet. On an A4 sheet folded to A5 that is 148 mm from the edge; on Letter folded to half-Letter it is 5.5 inches. An ordinary desk stapler reaches perhaps 50 to 70 mm, so it cannot get to the spine. A long-arm (or saddle) stapler reaches 300 mm or more and often has an adjustable stopper you set to the spine distance so every staple lands in the same place. They are worth buying if you make more than a couple of booklets a year.

Foldpic's booklet print PDF marks the two staple positions on the spine at a quarter and three quarters of the page height, so whichever method you use below you have a target.

Most desk staplers hinge open so the top arm can be used like a hammer for tacking paper to a wall. Open it fully. Lay the booklet open and flat with the crease facing up, and put something soft but firm underneath the crease: a large rubber eraser, a wine cork sliced lengthways, a stack of folded towel or a piece of thick cardboard. Position the stapler head over the first mark and press down firmly so the staple punches through all the sheets into the soft base.

Turn the booklet over and fold the two staple legs inward with a fingernail, a spoon or the flat of a butter knife. Repeat at the second mark. It looks slightly less tidy than a saddle stapler but holds just as well. Practise once on scrap so you know how much force your stapler needs to get through 4 to 8 sheets.

Sewing is the traditional binding for booklets of this size and looks better than staples. You need a needle, strong thread (linen, embroidery floss or even dental floss), and something to pierce with such as an awl, a thick needle or a push pin. Cut thread about three times the height of the spine. Pierce three holes along the crease: one in the centre and one about 25 mm from each end, going through all the sheets at once while the booklet is held closed.

Start from the inside at the centre hole and pull the thread out, leaving a tail of 80 mm or so inside. Go in through the top hole, then along the inside and out through the bottom hole, skipping the centre. Come back in through the centre hole. You now have two thread ends inside, one either side of the long outer stitch; tie them together in a square knot around that long stitch and trim. Foldpic's booklet PDF can print small sewing tick marks on the gutter if you switch on full guide marks.

A one-sheet 8-page zine needs no binding: the slit and the way the panels wrap hold it together. Some zine makers leave a tiny uncut tab of a couple of millimetres at one end of the slit so the whole thing holds even more firmly; it is a trick worth knowing if you hand out zines that get read hard.

For a two-sheet booklet (8 pages) you can also skip the stapler by making a tight crease and trimming the fore-edge; the nested sheets stay in place under normal handling. Beyond two sheets you really do want staples or thread.

If you do buy a long-arm stapler, set the stopper to the spine distance so every booklet is stapled in the same place. Foldpic's staple marks are at 25 and 75 percent of the page height, which for A5 is roughly 52 and 157 mm from the top edge.