The classic booklet: sheets are folded in half and stapled along the spine. Two pages are printed side-by-side on each side of each sheet, then the sheets are nested inside each other, folded, and stapled.
This is great for small booklets, programmes, and zines.
In all probability, this is why you bought Octavo. You can find a booklet tutorial elsewhere in this manual, which explains how to use the Saddle-Stitch imposition style.
In printing, staples are traditionally referred to as ‘stitches’. Before staples, many books were stitched together with needle and thread. (Even today, hard back books are often bound with thread, as are many hand-crafted bound books.) Staples replaced thread as a quick and cheap way to bind small booklets, but the old terminology stuck.
The ‘saddle’ part refers to a machine with an inverted V shaped hump, to help position the staples directly in the spine. Of course, if you’re working by hand you don’t need such a machine; you can position staples by eye, or have Octavo draw some staple positioning marks.
Your pages should be in reading order. Octavo rearranges them for you so they end up in the right places when the sheets are folded and nested.
The page count needs to be a multiple of 4 (since each sheet holds 4 pages). If your document doesn’t divide evenly, Octavo adds blank pages at the end.
If you have a large number of pages, and folding them all together would be difficult, check out the Multi-Signature imposition.
Which side of the finished booklet the spine is on. This determines whether the booklet opens from the left or the right.