# Printing for binding -way to adjust margins on left pages?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-for-binding-way-to-adjust-margins-on-left-pages/503117>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 15, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-for-binding-way-to-adjust-margins-on-left-pages/503117 "2009-07-15T15:39:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-for-binding-way-to-adjust-margins-on-left-pages/503117/1 "2009-07-15T15:39:21Z")

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I need to print out a couple thousand pages of PDF documents which were originally designed to be single-sided, so they have a fat margin on the left and a pretty tight margin on the right.

I am going to print both sides of the paper and spiral-bind them, so they will lay flat. However, this is going to make my even-numbered/lefthand pages kinda funky, since they will have an expanse of unused space going out to the left edge, and the right edge will be smack up against the binding.

I have two duplex laser printers, a Brother and the Lexmark c544.

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.

It seems that in the year 2009 this problem should have a ready solution, some way to set it up so the even-numbered pages will be printed closer to the left edge, leaving more room near the binding.

But I am thus far stumped.

While I am on a Mac, and that is way easier and more comfortable for me, if there is a perfect solution in Windows I can fire up the Parallels if I must. But that’s such a headache it’s last resort.

Anyone have any solutions?

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-for-binding-way-to-adjust-margins-on-left-pages/503117/2 "2009-07-15T17:02:23Z")

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Take a look at [ClickBook](http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cbmac/). It’s sort of like an intelligent print driver - you can select a binding margin in addition to the regular left/right margins.

I’ve never used it myself, but it looks like it should do what you want.

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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/printing-for-binding-way-to-adjust-margins-on-left-pages/503117/3 "2009-07-15T22:40:32Z")

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Well, I found my answer.

I used the “crop” feature in Acrobat, and “cropped” the left margin by an inch. That balanced the printout on both sides.