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TomSchenck
TomSchenck
Inspiring
September 13, 2018
Answered

Print Booklet differes from Export... PDF

  • September 13, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 610 views

Hi,

InDesign CC v13.1 on Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 10

I'm seeing a big difference with the Print Booklet command in the output with a cover page. The background is a frame with a radial gradient of a spot color and the image is a tiff file. I make 2 PDFs, one in page order and one in booklet. Every page is fine except the cover; the Print Booklet PDF does not include the tiff image, but the gradient is "knocked out" for the shape.

What's the difference in the PDF creation between the commands?

If I change the background to a solid color, everything is fine. The radial gradient background is our marketing departments preference.

thanks!

tom

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer rob day

    To Print Booklet to a PDF you have to use a Postscript or Distiller workflow, which flattens transparency and has few reliable color management options. A regular PDF Exports has none of those limitations. A Postscript workflow would have problems converting colors. Does the gradient use RGB, Spot, or Lab colors; or include transparency?

    2 replies

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    September 13, 2018

    Rob is correct that the Print Booklet output of PDF via the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance is different from the PDF created via direct export.

    Personally, I advise InDesign users to never print directly from InDesign, but rather to export PDF/X-4 and print from Acrobat.

    For purposes of booklet creation, a much more reliable option is to directly export pages (not spreads) from InDesign using the PDF/X-4 preset. If you are going to a commercial printer, in general, it is the responsibility of the printer to impose your pages to yield a booklet; that's part of what you are paying for. I'd be very wary of any commercial printer who claims that they can't do this or that they want to charge extra.

    Alternatively, if you are doing the printing yourself, you have two options:

    The first is to use built-in booklet printing capabilities in your printer itself. Many high end PostScript and direct PDF print devices provide booklet printing as an option. If your printer supports this, there is no cost to you.

    The second is to obtain a plug-in to Acrobat to impose the pages into a booklet. There are a number of third party plug-ins that do this reliably including Quite Imposing and PDF Snake.

              - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    TomSchenck
    TomSchenckAuthor
    Inspiring
    September 14, 2018

    Thanks guys!

    Setting the booklet output to a postscript file and then converting it in Distiller works.

    tom

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    September 13, 2018

    To Print Booklet to a PDF you have to use a Postscript or Distiller workflow, which flattens transparency and has few reliable color management options. A regular PDF Exports has none of those limitations. A Postscript workflow would have problems converting colors. Does the gradient use RGB, Spot, or Lab colors; or include transparency?

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