How to Print to PDF with Multiple Pages in Windows 10 and Keep Page Order
Today, PDF (Portable Document Format) is a ubiquitous format for distributing electronic documents which are supposed to be layout accurate, printable and don't need to be edited. It is the de-facto standard, so Windows 10 which comes with the ability to create PDFs out of the box. In this article, we will see how to create a PDF file with multiple pages using the built-n PDF printer. Also, there a nifty trick that allows controlling the actual page order in the output PDF file.
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In Windows releases prior to Windows 10, you could get this functionality by installing a free PDF virtual printer like CutePDF or doPDF. Because PDF is also a page description language, you could simply print to this virtual PDF printer to save anything that is printable as a PDF document. A PDF printer was visible to the user like a regular printer in the Printers system folder.
Microsoft Office got 'save to PDF' and 'print to PDF' ability previously and now Windows 10 gets it too. You can create PDF files out of the box.
To Print to PDF in Windows 10,
- Run any app which is able to print documents. For example, you can use Notepad.
- Type some text in Notepad and choose File -> Print.
If you want to omit printing the header or footer, first select "Page Setup" from the application's File menu and choose what will be printed. To print only the selected content (for example in a web browser), drag to select the content with the mouse and then choose File menu -> Print. - In the Print dialog, select the printer "Microsoft Print to PDF".
You are done.
However, this will create a PDF file per a document. There is a lesser known trick to merge multiple documents into a single file. As of now, it works only for images, but it is still better than nothing.
To Create PDF with Multiple Pages in Windows 10,
- Place all the image files you want to combine under the same folder.
- Select the files, and right-click on them.
- Choose Print from the context menu.
- Adjust the printing options if required.
- Specify the directory location and file name for the output PDF file.
You are done. This will produce a single PDF file which contains all the selected image files as document's pages.
Note: By default, Windows 10 doesn't allow selecting more than 15 files. If you need to select more than 15, please refer to this:
Windows 10 context menu items missing when more than 15 files are selected
Sometimes Windows 10 mixes the pages in the output PDF file. Let's say you have the files image1.png, image2, and image3.png arranged by the file name in File Explorer. By sending them to the built-in PDF printer, you are expecting to get them merged under the same arrangement, but may get image3>image1>image2 instead. To resolve this issue, you need to adjust the PDF options. Here is what you need to do before printing the files to PDF.
To Keep the Proper Page Order With Print to PDF,
- Open the Settings app.
- Browse for Devices > Printers and Scanners.
- Select "Microsoft Print to PDF", and click on the Manage button.
- On the next page, click on the Printer Properties.
- In the Microsoft Print to PDF Properties dialog, click on the Change properties button on the General tab.
- Switch to the Advanced tab, and turn on the option Start printing after last page is spooled instead of Start printing immediately.
- Click Apply and OK to close this dialog.
You are done. Now, print the files using the Print context menu command as noted above.
This way, you can create a single PDF from multiple image files and retain the required page order inside the PDF file.
That's it!
Articles of interest:
- How to remove Print to PDF Printer in Windows 10
- Fix PDF printer is missing in Windows 10
- Tip: Create PDFs in Windows 10 without using third party tools using Print to PDF
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As an Epson printer user, I must say, this format is suitable for Epson printers. Your information will definitely help with my future work.
Keep in mind that you might have to right click the first page when going for the print button, my order went all over the place at first until I realised I shouldn’t click the page I wanted at the end.
You have no idea how much frustration you just helped me fix! Thank you so much for this comment!
Really.. really helpful and straightforward!
Thanks a million!
I was frustrated that my PDF was being assembled in the wrong order, and not consistently with each attempt. I searched for solutions and found this site advising that I should change the setting to “Start printing after last page is spooled”, but it didn’t help me. I continued searching elsewhere, and found a comment that one should take care where the was made. When I on the first file in my list, it printed my PDF in the right order. I then found that Alex Magnusson had already suggested this his comment below the formal advice on this page.
It would help limit the frustration others might experience when trying to print a PDF from multiple files if this article was modified to incorporate Alex’s advice.
When composing my previous comment to this page, I put ‘Right Click’ and then ‘Right Clicked’ between “Less than” and “More than” symbols, to emphasize that they were actions. Unfortunately I see now that that has caused those words to be omitted altogether from my suggestion.