Double-Sided Printing and Binding a DIY Planner

Getting duplex right

Print dialogs offer flip on long edge and flip on short edge. For portrait pages you want long edge, which produces a book that turns like a novel. Short edge flips the reverse side upside down, which is correct only for landscape pages bound at the top.

If your printer has no duplex unit, print the odd pages, reload the stack, then print the even pages in reverse order. Run one test page first with a mark on it to work out which way your particular tray wants the paper.

Laying out a year

The twelve-month option exports every month as a single PDF, which is one print job for the whole year. A common layout is the month grid on the front of each sheet and a notes or weekly page on the back, giving twelve sheets for a year.

If you want a facing-page spread instead — grid on the left, notes on the right — print single-sided and interleave the two stacks before binding.

Choosing a binding method

For a first attempt, a half-inch three-ring binder and a hole punch costs almost nothing and forgives mistakes. Spiral binding at a copy shop is inexpensive and produces the most planner-like result.

Margins for binding

Any binding eats into the inside edge. Punching a hole through a printed date column is annoying for a whole year, so leave the binding edge clear: print portrait and punch the left side, or choose landscape and punch the top.

If your punch positions are fixed and clash with the grid, print at 97% scale as a one-off. That is the one legitimate use of scaling on a calendar.

Adding the extras

A year planner usually wants more than months: a yearly overview at the front, a few weekly sheets, some blank grids and a contacts or notes section at the back. All of them are available here and print in the same theme, so the finished book looks consistent.

Tab dividers by month make it navigable. Cheap adhesive tabs on the edge of each month grid work as well as bought dividers and add no thickness.