Answered by Suzanne Morgan, founder, Print Buyers Online.com

Question:
One of your recent Tips of the Day mentioned that one sheet of paper is called a leaf and that one leaf has two pages; one on the front and one on the back. I understand a leaf is one sheet of paper, but if it prints on only one side is it still considered two pages? A printer once told me that the number of pages refers to how many pages actually get ink. Is this correct?

C.M.

Answer:
Think of "leafs" as being synonymous with "sheets" and "pages" being synonymous with "sides."

For example, when thinking of a single sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" paper, things are fairly simple; it prints either one sided or two sided. The need for more clarification comes when dealing with booklets or catalogs with higher page counts. If you have a 12 page, 8 1/2" x 11" (finished size) booklet, it is really 3 sheets (or leafs) of 11" x 17" sized paper. There are 3 SHEETS or LEAFS and 12 PAGES or SIDES in the finished book (even if you don’t print on each page/side - you still have that many pages/sides).

Each side of paper in the folded, finished book is considered a page. Each sheet of paper is considered a leaf.