Printable church directory maker
Built for the printer in the church office, not for a screen. Pages come out at exactly 8.5 × 11 inches, or as a half-page booklet imposed so the stack folds in half and staples on the fold.
Two ways to print it
| Full page | Booklet | |
|---|---|---|
| Page size | 8.5 × 11 in | 5.5 × 8.5 in, two to a landscape sheet |
| Families per page | 1, 2, or 4 (8 without photos) | 1, 2, or 4 (up to 6 without photos) |
| Assembly | Staple the corner, or three-hole punch | Fold the stack in half, staple twice on the fold |
| Paper used | One sheet per page | Half — two pages per side, both sides |
| Best for | Big photos, office copies, binders | Something that feels like a printed booklet |
The booklet is properly imposed
This is the part home-made directories get wrong. A booklet isn't just small pages — the pages have to be placed out of order on the sheet so that folding the stack puts them back in order. On the first sheet, the last page prints beside the first; on its back, page two prints beside the second-to-last.
The app works that ordering out for you and pads the page count to a multiple of four, keeping the back cover last. You print double-sided, fold the whole stack in half, and put two staples on the fold. The pages read 1, 2, 3 straight through.
In your print dialog choose Landscape, margins None, turn on Background graphics, and set double-sided to flip on the short edge — that's the setting that puts page two behind page one on landscape paper. The toolbar reminds you of all four.
Margins that behave
Each page is drawn at its true physical size with a fixed margin, so nothing shifts when you print. Booklet pages get a wider margin at the fold than at the outer trim — the way a bound booklet is supposed to sit — so text never disappears into the crease.
Photo frames are the same size on every card, whether a family has two people or seven, so a printed page reads as a grid instead of a scrapbook. Nothing overflows: the layout is worked out before the page is drawn, and long family lists are checked against the printed height rather than left to spill.
Printing it at the church
- Any printer. It prints from your browser — there's no driver, plug-in, or PDF step required.
- Toner-friendly options. The Graphite theme is all greys with no colour anywhere, which is the cheapest way to run a hundred copies.
- Print a proof first. Run one copy, look at it on paper, then print the rest. Page one always tells you whether the margins are right.
- Card stock covers. Print the cover sheet separately on heavier stock if you want the booklet to hold up in a pew rack.
- Reprint any time. Fix a phone number and print the corrected page, or the whole thing again — nothing is locked.
How many pages will ours be?
It depends on families and density, and the app tells you the exact sheet count before you print. As a guide: a 40-family church at two per page is about 24 full pages, or 6 sheets as a booklet printed double-sided. A 120-family church at four per page comes to roughly 45 pages including the cover, the birthday and anniversary lists, and the back cover.
Turning photos off changes it dramatically — names-only cards are short, so the same church fits eight families to a page instead of four.
Questions churches ask
Do I need a PDF to print it?+
No. You print straight from the browser, and the preview you're looking at is the print. If you'd rather have a PDF to email or take to a print shop, your browser's print dialog can save one — choose "Save as PDF" as the destination.
What print dialog settings should I use?+
For full pages: Letter, margins None (or Default), and Background graphics turned on. For the booklet: Landscape, margins None, Background graphics on, and double-sided flipped on the short edge. The toolbar shows the right set for whichever format you've picked.
Why does my copy have white bars around the edge?+
That's the margin setting in the print dialog — set margins to None. If the printer itself can't print to the very edge, the page will still be correct, just inset slightly on the paper.
Can I print a booklet on a printer that doesn't do double-sided?+
Yes, but you'll have to feed the stack through twice: print the odd sheets, flip the stack, and print the even ones. Most churches find it easier to use the full-page format on a single-sided printer.
Can I take it to a print shop?+
Yes. Save it as a PDF from the print dialog and hand that over. Tell them it's a saddle-stitched booklet on letter stock if you're using the booklet format — the imposition is already done, so they don't need to re-do it.
Will it fit in a three-ring binder?+
Full pages will, with a normal punch. Booklet pages are half-letter, so a half-size binder or a simple fold-and-staple works better.
Print a proof this afternoon
Enter your church details and a couple of families, then print page one. Seeing it on paper is what tells you the directory is going to work.
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