a method for manufacturing printed page products includes defining a plurality of subbatches each comprising one or more of the pages , creating layouts for the pages in the plurality of subbatches , separating the plurality of subbatches into n groups each comprising a total number of pages equal or less than m , minimizing the difference between the total pages in the n groups and m × n , and printing the layouts of the pages on a stack of sheets each configured to contain layouts for n pages . the layouts of the pages in the stack of sheets are positioned in n columns .