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will_montgomery
will_montgomery
Participant
September 19, 2018
Answered

Make 2 Copies of Each Page in a PDF from InDesign

  • September 19, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 2095 views

I have a set of badges to print. About 130 of them. The document is setup to size with each page an individual badge. The printer would like to have a PDF with duplicates of each page...so two copies of one badge, then two copies of the next and so on for it to print double sided on their machine.

I can find no easy way to do this...when I duplicate a page I can only do it one page at a time and it puts it at the end of the 130 pages then I have to drag it up to be right after the correct page.

If I try to print multiple copies to a Postscript file (it will not ALLOW multiple copies to print to a PDF) somehow I can't get it to print 2 copies of each then the next two ect.

I wish I could just select all the pages and hit a DUPLICATE but have them be placed right after each instead of collated so I have to drag 130 pages around.

Happy to do this from InDesign OR Acrobat with the final press-ready files but just can't find an easy way.

Any insight?

    Correct answer Roxbury

    Indesign export to a PDF. Change your page RANGE 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5, and export. Your pdf will have  2 page 1s, 2 page 2s,  2 page 3s  and so on. You can generate lists with commas in xcell. 

    3 replies

    Roxbury
    RoxburyCorrect answer
    Participant
    March 9, 2024

    Indesign export to a PDF. Change your page RANGE 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5, and export. Your pdf will have  2 page 1s, 2 page 2s,  2 page 3s  and so on. You can generate lists with commas in xcell. 

      D
      Dean36981671w9fj
      Participant
      April 25, 2024

      This hack is genius. I've needed to do this so many times. Thank you.

      winterm
      winterm
      Legend
      September 19, 2018

      Try the script from the very last post in this thread, it does exactly what you want (well, just did a quick test with two copies of a simple indd document - it worked).

      And I absolutely agree with SJRiegel - that's a printer's job.

      S
      SJRiegel
      Legend
      September 19, 2018

      Not easy, but easier than InDesign. 

      In Acrobat, you can open the pages panel and option-drag each page to the side. This will create a duplicate next to the original. 

      But it sounds to me like this is something the printer should be doing, and not pushing back on you to do their work for them.

        will_montgomery
        will_montgomeryAuthor
        Participant
        September 19, 2018

        You're right, the printer should be doing it but this is a super quick turn situation and they mentioned that would speed the process along. I would think prepress software would be able to that much more easily.

        In Acrobat I tried option-draging without luck. I'm on a Mac...tried command, option and control draging without luck.

        Strange that there isn't a DUPLICATE option.

        winterm
        winterm
        Legend
        September 19, 2018

        Just try the script from the link above, it's javascript, so will work on Mac, too.

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