Placing PDFs for Booklet printing, how to remove center bleed?

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
September 15, 2025
2 replies
378 views

This is something Ive always wondered about but never actually looked into it till I had to put together a 400 page booklet that my client kept rearranging the pages on me which became a nightmare.

So I have a PDF booklet in single 8.5x11 pages + .125" bleeds and crop marks. I drop the pages into a facing pages InDesign booklet 8.5x11 layout with .125" bleeds so they fit perfectly into the bleed margins. Generally when doing this, I crop down the inside spine bleed so it doesnt overlay on top of the page next to it. If you rearrange pages, it throws everything out of wack and you have to go back and fix a ton of bleeds on most other pages. Is there any way to have InDesign to just know not to bleed one page over to the page next to it if it overlaps the inside spine?

I figure that if there is a way to have a facing pages layout but have the spreads spaced apart about a half inch instead of the left and right pages being directly butted up againt each other, this may fix it but I dont know if this is possible.

Correct answer Peter Spier

Your best bet here might be to simply split apart all the spreads do the inside bleeds don't overlap. Most recent discussion of this is at https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/separate-or-space-facing-pages/m-p/15282591

BobLevine

Community Expert

400 pages? There is no way this is going to end well with you trying to paginate it.

This is the printer's responsibility.

Vico DriveAuthor

Known Participant

I am the printer ;-). I do design, layout and print. So as I am laying out the pages with bleeds in Facing Pages mode in InDesign, I remove the bleeds from the inside. But if I add or remove one page, or just swap pages, then I have to readjust all the bleeds on all pages after which gets frustrating. I just feel like there would be a setting to some how prevent images crossing the middle to not appear on the ajacent pages.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Why do you not have imposition software?

Peter Spier

Correct answer

Community Expert

Your best bet here might be to simply split apart all the spreads do the inside bleeds don't overlap. Most recent discussion of this is at https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/separate-or-space-facing-pages/m-p/15282591

Vico DriveAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks, this looks to be about what I am looking for. The only issue I am having is when I use the Pages Tool (ive never used this tool before) to move the inside handle away from the page next to it, it keeps snapping back. I found a video that seems to be letting the user do this without snapping but it never says how they are doing it. How do I keep it from snapping back?

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I don't like the Page Tool. I would use the script mentioned in the first response in the other thread.

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