Collating pages used to be an intensely manual process . A pressman – a human being , not a gadget – would produce many copies of the same pages and workers would collate or garner those into the right purchase order for last assembly , whether to become a rule book or a stapled push-down store . collate via impression package is a lot easier . But it ’s also a fiddling muddy since the term does n’t key an act most of us remain familiar with .

In Apple ’s Print duologue , the Collation option under Print Handling has a precise signification when you select to print two or more copy : publish the entire document from start to polish off for each written matter before starting the next . If you invalid Collation , each page is printed the number of times you specified in order from start to finish .

If you have a five - page document and print three single - sided copies , here ’s how that differs :

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Left: For a face-down printer, pages come out 1 to 5, flip over, and they’re in the right order (Collation on, Sheet Order set to Normal); right: for a face-up printer, pages print 5 to 1 (Collation on, Sheet Order to set to Reverse)

There ’s an asterisk involve for the Collation parliamentary procedure , however : with some printers , output page 1 to 5 in society would result in the wrong order , with 1 on the bottom of a spate and 5 on the top . Apple provides a separate function to handle whether a pressman outputs face up down or present up : Sheet Order . The three option for Sheet Order are automatonlike ( the nonpayment ) , Normal , and Reverse .

macOS determines face up or confront down from the printing machine number one wood , so leaving Sheet Order position to Automatic should aright impress collated page in the order 1 to 5 for face - down printing process and 5 to 1 for face - up . With face - down printing process , you pick up the stack and turn it over , and the page are in the right lodge ; with look - up printing , taking the push-down list off the pressman ’s output tray is all that ’s necessitate to see them in the right order of magnitude .

If your Mac does n’t right collate to your pressman , the following more elaborated lot of manual options can aid you sort out what to pick :

Shows collation of pages from macOS printing for face-down and face-up printers

Left: For a face-down printer, pages come out 1 to 5, flip over, and they’re in the right order (Collation on, Sheet Order set to Normal); right: for a face-up printer, pages print 5 to 1 (Collation on, Sheet Order to set to Reverse)

Glenn Fleishman

If your printer pop the question two - sided ( duplex ) printing process , Collation will address that , too . However , if it ’s very obtuse at that task ( as my old printer is ) or you have a single - sided printer , first print collated with Sheets to Print set to Odd Only , then flick the stack , put it back in with the unprinted side face up the mark headland , and choose Even Only .

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