Horizontal Top Binding

[francist69854885]

Hi Everyone, I have a small brochure, 11"x8.5" landscape, that has a side binding. We now want to produce it with a top binding. Do I need to set up the file differently? Can I send it to the printer as is and just specify binding at the top? And is there anyway to produce a pdf showing this top binding? I don't want to do any rotation as the pages are already at the correct rotation. Thank you!!

[Spenno]

I did calendars like this, which were landscape with coil binding on the top. I'd design everything the correct way up but rotate every even page 180 degrees in Acrobat, and have a slightly bigger top margin to accommodate the binding.

[Eugene Tyson]

As mentioned by @Spenno - increase your top margin to account for the binding.

I'd leave it at that - I wouldn't rotate pages or anything.

If you wanted to you could print out a mockup yourself and video the binding you want.

I usually do this and send a video along to the printers.

Not really necessary but works - and a real time saver.

[Luke Jennings3]

In the past, I have included a non-printing layer with lines indicating the spiral or wiro binding on the master page. It's a good idea to make a mock up of your brochure, to confirm the pages are in the desired rotation, particularly for calendars. You can also place your original InDesign file into a new InDesign file where you can rotate each page as needed before exporting to a new PDF. If you want to set up your file to show top binding, you can rotate the spread view in the pages panel. Here is a link to a related discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/how-to-set-up-indesign-print-file-for-horizontal...

[francist69854885]

Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like for the printer I can just keep the file as is and specify top binding, is that right? I don't need to rotate every page when I deliver it to the printer? I'm also wondering if there is an easy way to create pdfs for the client to review so that they understand how it will look. I've tried a bunch of things but it seems impossible to do easily. There are going to be a dozen brochures, 20 pages each, so I was looking for a fast way to create pdfs showing top binding spreads. Thanks again.

[Randy Hagan]

Actually, that's not quite right.

Spiral binding for a 10-sheet/20-page brochure is going to "eat up" anywhere from an eighth- to a quarter-inch of your alternating top-bottom margins (bottom of the top/even pages; top of the bottom/odd pages).

If you've provided large margins at the top and bottom of the document pages, it will allow for functional room to hold together your brochures, but the layouts will look out of balance visually outside of the spiral bind. If you have tight margins, the consequences could be much worse.

Rather than just go with you got and hope it works, you may want to get with your print provider to find out how much of the page area will be hidden behind the spiral bind, then account for it on an alternating basis between the recto-verso (or in this context, more like summit-solum) pages of your document. I truly believe you will be happier with the end result.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Eugene Tyson]

As I mentioned - put together a video using your phone and email them.

It doesn't even have to be a print out - just a quick pen and paper exercise - and execute the binding method yourself using selotape or something.

Just a visual for the printer to follow.

As per @Randy Hagan suggests get together with your print provider to discuss margins etc.

[Spenno]

I believe the term for one side being printed the other way up is 'head to foot'. So if you gave the printer the file without rotating anything but specified that, with top binding, that should be adequate.