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Question

8 A6 pages (4 per side) on A4 sheet with imposition

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
December 12, 2024
3 replies
2903 views

Hello! : )

I really hope someone can help me, or redirect me in the right way. I want to print a book with size A6 pages for my nepfew. I'll use jpeg images for each individual page. I can do this by placing 4 images manually on 1 page in a sertain way so they can be imposed with the next page, but is it possible to just add them all ( for example 150 jpegs ) consecutively and then the InDesign somehow make them all imposed? Thanks!

Import and export

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Check out this old thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-imposition-script/td-p/13302954

You might find waht you want there...

A

Alex_28DAuthor

Participating Frequently

I couldn't find anything to help impose 4x4 A6 pages on one A4 sheet. : (

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I haven't tried them, but it looks to me like both the scripts in the first link that Eugene posted, and the script that Rob Day linked to will do 4-up

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Alex_28D

How many pages do you have?

If 16 - then what you've done is wrong.

A

Alex_28DAuthor

Participating Frequently

The picture is croped. There is one more page. And its done with 2 booklets with 8 pages each. The new layout is done with all 16 pages in 1 booklet. The idea is to print for example 10 booklets with 16 A6 pages and bind them together afterwards. This is how it looks like now, but I have to repeat the manual positioning of the pages on each 16th

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

@Alex_28D

Looks like now your pairs of numbers are correct.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Doing imposition (as the process is formally called) or "booklet printing" is a little tricky, but InDesign combined with Acrobat Pro make it pretty straightforward.

First, though, you need to set your document up as single pages. Don't try to do the layout or imposition on document pages — the software will handle that.

When you have your pages set up (at A6 size) and your content laid in, in linear page order, you should have a multiple of 8 pages so that every "booklet" page has content. Include a front and back cover layout as part of those pages.

Export those pages to PDF, again in linear order. (While InDesign has an inherent booklet printing feature, it's not as flexible or reliable — going through PDF and Acrobat is much preferred.)

In Acrobat Pro, use the Booklet printing option to impose your pages on any larger sheet size — I think this is limited to 2-up, with 4 pages on any one sheet, so you may need to use A5 paper to get 2-up A6 pages.

Ask away if any of that isn't clear or complete enough!

A

Alex_28DAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you very much, but this really is a tricky thing to pull off ... I tried the Acrobat thing, but at the end, I have to use A5 size paper. My idea is to print on A4 paper and cut it afterwards. I though someone else tried this 4x4 booklet on A4 with imposition, but I guess it's not very common thing to do. I cant find any tutorial online. Is it even possible to create such a contraption using InDesigh and Acrobat ?

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Well, I guess "tricky" is relative. What I suggest needs nothing more than the linear pages and the software does all the work, requiring no cut-down of the printed sheets.

The only alternative is for you to work with four A6 pages in your document, with a grid laid on each with guidelines, and impose the 16 pages images in correct order yourself. That's a bit tricky, as is cutting A6 pages down to 2-up pages with any accuracy. (FWIW, I've done lots of this kind of manual printing and assembly — bless my huge HP tabloid-page workhorse printer! — and somewhere it's going to take ingenuity and skill. I'd say letting the system print to A5 pages is the easiest route.

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