Creating Printer Spreads from Book File

[kmhdesigns4u]

I'm trying to create printer spreads from a book file in InDesign. It is creating the pdf in order vs. making the printer spreads. I do not have any print drivers installed. Could this be my issue?

[Derek Cross]

Why do you want to do this, it's the printer's job to do the imposition?

[kmhdesigns4u]

I need to create the PDF to send to a client so that they can print out a

sample.

[Derek Cross]

Why not double page spreads (facing pages).

[kmhdesigns4u]

They want to print front and back and be able to fold the book.

[Derek Cross]

This is not realistic on office printers. They can mock something up with facing pages. How many pages (sides) is the extent?

[kmhdesigns4u]

48 pages, 12 spreads

[Derek Cross]

48 pages (sides) would be 24 double page spreads (facing Pages).

[kmhdesigns4u]

Yes, printed on 12 sheets of paper, 2-sided and folded in half. With all due respect, are you here to help or point out your knowledge of printing terms?

[Steve Werner · Accepted solution]

> I expected a book file to have the same technology as the print booklet feature. I guess I shouldn't assume.

With all due respect, the Print Booklet feature is intended for small, simple layouts. The feature has many limitations and was never designed for professional imposition of pages for commercial printing.

Using Book files for print, the vast majority of Book printing users are expecting that their print service providers will use their expertise to set up and impose the job to meet the requirements of their particular press, the kind of size of paper stock, etc. That's why a "print booklet" feature was not included in the Book feature.

[kmhdesigns4u]

Thank you. My client used to work with me at another company where we printed and bound many presentation books in-house (the books were always designed as one whole document). When she asked for the printer spreads, I assumed I was overlooking something.

I appreciate the response and will be sure to pass along this information to others I've reached out to today who were trying to help me find a solution.

[Derek Cross]

No, I’m not here to point out my knowledge of printing terms, but looking at your posts again, I realised you had used the wrong term which caused the confusion. What you called "printer spreads" should have been called "Section"s. In your example, 4 page sections. And there’s no need to be rude to volunteers.

[SJRiegel]

Many, if not most standard office printers have a Print Booklet function built into the printer driver.

[kmhdesigns4u]

I guess what we're saying is that this isn't possible for me to do without a print driver?

[Migintosh]

You're really better off sending them a normal PDF and have them go to Kinko's or Office Depot and have it printed on a more powerful copy machine that can do the imposition for them. I suppose you could impose it manually, but you probably won't want to. Maybe you can find a script for the imposition, but your client will have to figure out how to send it through their printer. It may involve printing the odd pages, turning or tumbling the stack, feeding it back through to print the even pages, possibly in reverse order, and they will probably keep calling you to tell you it isn't working.

[kmhdesigns4u]

Thanks. I ended up sending single pages and offered to manually impose the pages, if necessary. I have a lot of experience printing and binding book from previous in-office positions and I expected a book file to have the same technology as the print booklet feature. I guess I shouldn't assume. Thanks for your help.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

You can print to PDF if using Windows with Acrobat Pro installed. It is more difficult on a Mac.

What platform are you using?

[kmhdesigns4u]

I'm on a Mac, but I don't have any drivers installed and thought that might have been the issue. I *believe* Macs used to have Adobe drivers that would allow it, but I haven't been able to find anything yet. It's possible that I could install a print driver, like Fiery, that might give the option?

I apologize if I have failed to meet terminology standards. I sometimes use confusing references. In addition, I am  not a computer technician and my experience and understanding of print driver installation is very limited.

I've put out the immediate fire on this  project, but it is something I'd like to find a solution for (if one exists). I very much appreciate genuine attempts to provide useful suggestions.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

On the Mac, you need a third-party PDF printer installed. You can't use the Save As PDF or Adobe PDF in the print booklet feature.

In my experience, you can't get the PostScript driver to work properly either. Windows still installs the Adobe PDF print driver, so one can still "print" to it.

Here is a website that lists some of your options:

Top 8 PDF Printers for Mac OS X (High Sierra Included) | Wondershare PDFelement

No worries on the terminology--we all had to learn at some time.

[kmhdesigns4u]

Thank you so much. This will be very helpful!