You may think that it's a simple task to number pages in any booklet, but that is not always the case. Let us study what really happens when pages are numbered.
A simple document with only one page may not need a page number. However, longer documents might have the page number on each page. Nothing new so far, right?
When a two-page document is printed, one side will show Page One and the other side would be Page Two. That still presents no problem.
However, when we double the number of pages, we begin to face difficulties. Those four pages are the minimum that can legitimately be called a booklet. You might not have given it much thought before, so let's observe and visualize how those pages are numbered. The best way to follow this article is to fold a sheet of paper in half, hold it sideways so that it opens like a booklet, and number the resulting pages from one to four.
Open that little booklet and lay it flat. The outside pages are numbered one and four. When the booklet is turned over, the inside pages are numbered two and three. That's right - the pages really aren't numbered consecutively. You may also note that the back of Page One is Page Two, and the back of Page Four is Page Three.
In order to print out this little booklet, we have to be prepared in advance to print Page Four to the left of Page One. When you lay it down flat it looks as if Page Four comes before Page One! On the inside we can place Pages Two and Three in their natural order.
Of course, this isn't the way pages are printed on a word processor. For most simple tasks, we print one page after another, and then staple them or place them in a binder. However, publishers and printers have to consider the real numbering of the pages, in the way that they will appear in completed booklets.
This numbering was complicated in our sample four-page booklet, and it will become even more so as we add pages.
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Your exercise for this article is as follows:
Explain the basic problem which is involved when numbering pages.
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