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What does collate mean when printing?
Collate means the printer puts out each copy as a complete set with the pages in order. Print 3 copies of a 10 page file collated and you get pages 1 to 10, then 1 to 10 again, three times. Uncollated gives you all the page 1s, then all the page 2s, and you sort them yourself.
Collated vs uncollated, side by side
Say you print 3 copies of a 4 page report. Collated, the stack reads 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Each copy is ready to staple and hand out. Uncollated, the stack reads 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4. All the page 1s are together, all the page 2s are together, and so on.
| Setting | 3 copies of a 4 page file |
|---|---|
| Collated | 1, 2, 3, 4 / 1, 2, 3, 4 / 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Uncollated | 1, 1, 1 / 2, 2, 2 / 3, 3, 3 / 4, 4, 4 |
| Use collated for | Reports, booklets, handouts, packets, anything read front to back |
| Use uncollated for | Single page flyers, forms you tear apart, one sheet per person |
When to collate
Collate anything a person reads in order. Reports, training packets, meeting handouts, booklets, menus with more than one page, and proposals all need collating. If you plan to staple, coil bind, or saddle stitch the job, it has to be collated first, because the binding holds one complete copy.
Do not collate when every sheet stands alone. A stack of 500 flyers is one page printed 500 times, so the setting does nothing. Multi-part carbonless forms, a white copy for the customer and a yellow copy for the office, are the special case: they print on precollated NCR stock, so each set comes off the press already in order.
Collate and double sided printing together
Collate and duplex are two different settings. Duplex printing means both sides of the sheet get printed. Collate means the copies come out in order. You can use either one on its own or both together. A 20 page report printed double sided and collated comes out as 10 sheets per copy, in order, ready to staple.
One trap: if you print double sided without collating, the printer prints all the page 1 and 2 sheets first, then all the 3 and 4 sheets. That stack takes real time to sort by hand. Turn collate on any time the job is more than one sheet.
How to turn collate on
On Windows, open Print, then Printer Properties or More settings, and check the Collate box. On a Mac, open Print, expand the options, and look for Collate pages under Paper Handling, or Collated under Copies and Pages on older versions. The exact spot depends on the printer driver. In Microsoft Word the box sits under the copies field in the print pane. In Adobe Acrobat it is a checkbox next to Copies.
Most home and office printers default to collated once you ask for more than one copy. Print shops confirm it on every multi page job. At our counter we ask about it before the file runs, because a 200 copy uncollated booklet is an afternoon of hand sorting nobody wants.
What a print shop does with a collated job
On a digital press, collating is automatic. The press prints copy one from the first page to the last, then starts copy two. The finishing steps that follow, folding, stapling, coil binding or saddle stitching, all take a collated set as input.
At The Printing House in Encino, booklets, catalogs and reports print collated by default, with a file check and a PDF proof before anything runs. Files in by 10 AM are usually ready by 3:30 PM the same day, bound and boxed.
Quick answers
People also ask
Collated prints each copy as a full set, pages in order. Uncollated prints all copies of page 1, then all copies of page 2, and so on.
Collate anything with more than one page that a person reads in order. Leave it off for single page jobs, since there is nothing to sort.
No. Collate is about page order across copies. Double sided, also called duplex, is about printing both sides of the sheet. You can use both at once.
If every copy of page 1 came out together, then every copy of page 2, collate was off. Turn it on and print again. Pages in reverse, or backs upside down, come from a different setting, page order or the duplex binding edge.
Digital presses collate as they print, so it is part of the run. Hand collating an unusual job is quoted before we run, so you know the number up front.
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