PocketMod

A pocketmod is a small booklet made out of a standard letter size or A4 paper. Either pre-printed or just blank, this can be useful for reference material, note taking, or simple templated tools (e.g. a financial ledger, paper computers, tabletop RPG's).

I used Pocketmods as a ledger for all my debits and credits when I had my own spreadsheet budgeting system pre-YNAB.

How to make one

You can find an SVG template here (1kb) and a LibreOffice (odt) template here (12kb). Or you can use this version from zserge[1].

Folding the PocketMod way

A single page is laid out in landscape and split up in 4 columns and 2 rows. Then the pages are laid out like this. F means front cover, B means back cover, and u means that cell should be laid out upside down.

┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
│ 6  │ 7  │ 8B │ 1F │
├────┼════┼════┼────┤
│ 5u │ 4u │ 3u │ 2u │
└────┴────┴────┴────┘

The PocketMod way[3] is to make these same folds and crease them, to then cut along the spine where the four inner rectangles meet (the double lines in the ASCII art; the page should still be one continuous piece but now with a single cut). This lets you fold the length in half and then grab both ends and push together, making for something much more akin to a booklet. If this is confusing (sorry), check out their website[3] for a better how-to.

Other fold methods

This can be folded whatever way works for you. Easiest way is to just fold the width in half, and then fold the length in quarters from the outside in[2]. Then you essentially have a book that opens into a gatefold, that opens into a four-page inside. And bonus, you can use the back of the page as it easily opens up.

The ASCII art below means F and B as front and back covers, R and L as the right and left flaps when the covers are opened, and the four inside pages that need to be upside down (u).

┌────┬────┬────┬────┐
│ 4u │ 3u │ 2u │ 1u │
├────┼────┼────┼────┤
│ R  │ B  │ F  │ L  │
└────┴────┴────┴────┘

References

Incoming Links

Last modified: 202503291806