Fix CS3's Print Booklet !!

[_Myrna_Larson_]

The Print Booklet feature in InDesign CS3 is a step backward!

CS2's InBooklet could create a new document. I BADLY need that feature, as I must print odd spreads in landscape mode, but even numbered spreads in reverse landscape mode.

Having to export/print to PDF, then rotate the pages in Acrobat and print from there is unnecessarily cumbersome.

[_Stephen_Carlsen_]

It sounds like your document might not be in Facing Pages mode. Email me privately (stephen at carlsenenterprises dot com) and we can pursue it further.

[mstoner15]

Hi Rbert,

You've helped in the past and I hope to possibly get an answer for a footnote query.

Is there any trick to CS2 InDesign to restart numbering of footnotes within a Section. I inherited a project that is one InDesign, 600 page document that needs footnotes to start renumbering within. I told the Author it probably can't be done since it was set up as a huge doc. I know he footnote feature would work if they were brken down but I'm stuck with fixing manually at this point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

[_Andrew_Johnson_]

I need help with impositions of a book in CS3. I may have made a mistake in choosing multiple documents in the book. It's a 28 page book, made of 3 documents in the book panel.

For the life of me, I cannot get it to print or output to PDF the imposition spreads I need for the commercial printer.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Btw, I jumped from Indesign 2.0 to CS3, so, the booklet thing is totally new to me.

thanks.

[Nini Tjader]

qrgret and Andrew - why are you guys posting questions in the feature request area? Head over to the forum instead and start a new thread.

[Peter Spier]

Andrew,

If you are still here, Print Booklet doesn't work with a Book file. You'll need to do something like exporting to PDF and importing the result into a new ID file that can be imposed.

But the real question is why is the printer asking you to supply imposed files? is this getting printed off the glass on a copier? There is no good reason why a printer should ask you to do the imposition for him. Only he knows what the print conditions will be for the job and an improperly imposed file is useless and an expensive waste of time.

Peter

[_Andrew_Johnson_]

Peter,

thanks. I spoke with the printer, and he told me I didn't need to do the impositions, they do it when they rip the file. So, it's all good. I just wanted to be able to give it to him that way.

I wound up re-laying the book out manually in the spreads I wanted, so I gave him the file both ways.

But now I know that I don't have to do that for a printer. They're going to set it up the way they want anyway.

Nini, i'm sorry about that. I'm new and not familiar with protocol here. I apologize.

[_plumeragent_]

Hmmm, I thought I was able to workaround this Print Booklet problem a year ago when I last posted to this thread. Since then I've updated to the latest InDesign, and either it's my imagination, or it's worse than before (currently, 5.0.4 for Mac). Now it seems to ignore the fact that I'm trying to print spreads to postscript files. I saved a preset with Spreads checked in the Print dialog, I select it in Print Booklet, and supply the range of spreads to use in the signature (PS file), starting with 1-2, but instead, Print Booklet ignores the spread option and inserts blank pages. I guess I'll need to use Dave's script and create the booklet with appropriate spreads before using Print Booklet. Seems like I didn't have to do that before. You'd think Adobe could have fixed this broken workflow of Indesign after 3 or 4 CS3 dot releases.

[kellyjaye1]

the print booklet option in CS3 is much worse than how it was in CS2, especially when it comes to printing particular spreads. With CS2, you just had to tell what number spread to print and it did it. with CS3, you have to enter the page numbers for the front and back of each spread. I believe you also have to enter the page numbers in a certain order also or it will arrange them wrong. but if you just enter the two page numbers for the spread you want, it will insert blanks. Its really a mess but you get use to it, though it STILL sux.

I find it easier to just tell it to print the whole thing to a PS or PDF and just delete the pages you dont want in Acrobat Pro, especially if you have more than just a single spread you are trying to make

[_plumeragent_]

Thanks lark1000! I've tried printing a signature since it's ignoring the Spreads checkbox, by entering the range to print for the first signature as 1,2,87,88 (this is an 88 page magazine), and it appears correctly in the Preview pane of the Print Booklet dialog. When I print to a postscript file, then distill it to PDF and open that, it's only actually ading the left page of each spread, so I only get pages 88 and 2, not 87 and 1. I used to get all 4 pages this way, so it seems that the spreads option is ignored. The difference now is that I'm trying to use the Device Independent option instead of specifying a PPD, which seems to disallow setting up the paper size (should be Tabloid) and orientation..., so I guess it's trying to use 8.5x11, and can only fit one page of the two I've specified for each spread.

[Peter Spier]

try entering 2,1,88,87 instead and see if the page order, as Lark suggests, is the culprit.

Peter

[_plumeragent_]

Thanks Peter, but that doesn't work either! It seems related to the fact that when you choose the Device Independent PPD, there is no way to choose the Print Settings... paper size and orientation, since all those options are dimmed. So, I guess Print Booklet assumes the paper size is the same as the setting in the InDesign document, which doesn't work for 2-up spreads (when you have to do the layout on 8.5x11 and then print on 11x17...). Maybe there's something I'm missing.

[_plumeragent_]

It's a shame one cannot choose a paper orientation and media size using the device independent PPD, but I guess then it wouldn't be truly device independent...

Found this workflow here:

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/5.0/help.html?content=WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-7053.html

Create a device-independent PostScript file

Select PostScript File in the Printer menu, and select Device Independent in the PPD menu. A device-independent PostScript file has the following characteristics:

It is 100% DSC-compliant, making it ideal for such post-processing tasks as trapping and imposition.
All device and driver dependencies are removed, so that the file will print to almost any output device. However, special printer features found in PPD files, such as image exposure, available media sizes, and optimized screen frequencies, arent available in device-independent output.
The color output is always composite CMYK, but it also includes spot colors. As a result, it has to be separated in post-processing software, or at the RIP using in-RIP separations.
It cannot be trapped by InDesign; trapping must occur at the RIP, or in post-processing software.
It can only be printed to file (not directly to a device or application) from InDesign.
A device-independent PostScript file is ideal for composite prepress workflows, where the file will be trapped and separated later in the production process, such as during imposition, trapping, or at the RIP (if the output device supports in-RIP separations).
Choose File > Print.
In the Print dialog box, for Printer, choose PostScript File.
For PPD, choose Device Independent.
View or change existing print settings. InDesign uses the current page range when creating the PostScript file.
Click Save.
Specify a name and location, and click Save.

[Peter Spier]

Are you really gaining anything by printing to Postscript and distilling instead of printing direct to Adobe PDF where you have access to controls?

Peter

[_plumeragent_]

It seems the same to me, but it's requested by the printer, who is beyond my control. That's life, as they say...

[Peter Spier]

Call the printer and ask. Often this is a request they make because they are used to dealing with files from Quark which was notoriously bad at exporting PDF. 9 times out of ten you can even send an exported PDF using the PDF/X-1a preset and they'll never even know it wasn't distilled.

[_plumeragent_]

That's good to know, thanks Peter! Unfortunately, I don't have direct access to the printer, he's helping through a third party...and the third party is very busy and not very responsive, but I can't complain since it's all volunteer help! Anyway, it turns out it was the Device Independent PPD that was causing me grief. I got a workaround using a PPD for a compatible printer, so I hope it works for them.

[kellyjaye1]

I was thinking the same thing. Quark is a pain to get to export to a PDF properly, heck its a pain to get it to print on paper the way you want! Pagemaker with me, i can never trust fonts to come through properly on other computers from the one it was made from with PDF's it makes. With Office programs, it never wants to embed fonts unless you do a PS though I believe Publisher is a little better about it.

I never realized PS files were meant to be sent to other people to distill. I figured they had to be distilled from the computer that created them

I dont remember the steps i go through when dealing with the device independent setting but I thought there was some option for Print to Size or something like that, making the PS to print in whatever size the file is thats sent to them

[_plumeragent_]

That'd be cool if I could use the Device Independent PPD, but this project is finished, so maybe in a few months (it's a quarterly magazine).

[_Stephen_Carlsen_]

If Print Booklet isn't doing exactly what you want:

Booklet CE (a script) creates a new, 2-up, imposed InDesign document. From there you can export directly to PDF, or print to either device-dependent or Device Independent PS, or print directly to any printer. Handles page-spanning objects properly, and can optionally add printer marks. Mac and Windows, CS1 through CS4.

Contact me (see website) if you have any questions or problems.

Technically shareware, but you can use it free of charge indefinitely if you don't mind a bit of occasional nagging.

http://products.carlsenenterprises.com

- Stephen

[_Hanna_Cevik_]

dave - i am not a trained designer but self taught. i have a file that print booklet cannot handle for some reason, so wanted to try your script. i run vista and i dont understand how to get the script to work - i'm stuck at "to access the script use view/automation" - where? and what happens next? sorry!

[Peter Spier]

Hanna,

You must copy the script into one of the script locations that InDesign uses to store them. Typically users install scripts for their own use in their user profile under ..[user name]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\Version 6.0\en_US\Scripts\Scripts Panel, but you can put them in the application scripts folder instead and they become available to any user with access to ID.

The fastest way to find the scripts folder is probably just to open the scripts panel, then right-click on a script and select "reveal in Explorer."

Peter

[Sue Sayers]

Wow what a drag.  I work in a print shop and didn't realize it (just updated) and made a 60 page 5.5 x 8.5 book, some spreads reach across both pages.  I went to make a book and bamm!   Gone!!   Now what am I going to do.  I need to make the book so that 60 and 1 are page 1 etc.  Then I take that page and 58 and 3 and put that up on 11x17.  No will I have to make the whole thing into a pdf file, place it into CS2, make the book and then open that in CS4?  What a mess!   Any one have an idea how to do that easier.  I tried the script farther down this list and couldn't get it to work.

Thanks for ANY help

Sue

[Peter Spier]

I guess I don't understand your problem, here.

What exactly isn't working with Print Booklet in CS4?

What version did you make the file in to begin with?

Why are you not able to make the script work?

Peter

[Sue Sayers]

Okay, what I need it to do is like before.  I want to take my 60 page half/letter sized book and start inbooklet, have that make a new document that will turn it into spreads for me.  page 60 and page 1 will be on one spread.  Page 2 and 59 will be the next, etc.  From there it would still be manual so don't worry about that part.  The thing I need is the new document with the spreads.

As for the script.  I guess I don't know what I am doing.  When I tried to unzip it, some files would not unzip, but I still copied the files into adobe/presets/scripts and they wouldn't work.  They weren't in automation.  I usually don't use scripts, so I don't know what I am doing.

I just updated from CS2 to CS4.  I opened the old document (from last years book) in CS4 and started making my changes.  Saved it and went to create the spreads when I noticed that feature was gone.  So now, of course, I cannot open that document in CS2 and do it there.  I would have to export them into pdf files, place them into a new document in CS2 and then create the spreads from the old program.

     This isn't just a small problem.  I do this a lot where I work - - Greenfield Printers.   I make these kinds of books all the time.  I guess until I can get this working I will go back to working in CS2.   I just don't know what else to do.    I cannot be going through all that extra work.  Time is money they say:) ....

[Peter Spier]

First things first, I guess.

Why do you need an EDITABLE document in printer's spreads? By the time it's imposed it ought to be in final form, and it's a lot easier to work in reader's spreads. Print Booklet will allow you to PRINT a PDF in imposed spreads that you can output.

Which script did you download?

>I guess I don't know what I am doing.  When I tried to unzip it, some files would not unzip, but I still copied the files into adobe/presets/scripts and they wouldn't work.

What operating system are you using? adobe/presets/scripts doesn't look like a path that is available for CS4, so I suspect either you aren't giving the right path here, or you aren't putting the files into the right folder on your computer. Open ID and open the scripts panel, then pick a script and from the panel menu choose "reveal in [explorer/finder]" to get to a folder wher the script can be placed for use.

Peter