How To Create Printer Spreads PDF for Saddle Stitch Booklet?

[Dan Poynor]

I need to output a PDF in printer spread format for a saddle stitch booklet from InDesign.

After installing CS5 Master Suite on my upgraded Mac OS X 10.6.2 MacBook I can't figure out how to do that though.

Has anyone figured this out?

Thanks,

DAN

[BobLevine]

There used to be separation for Win and Mac forums. Given that the solution is the same for almost all problems (this thread being one of the exceptions) the two were combined a couple years back.

Bob

[MooseDesign]

Ah, that explains it... given that I never even noticed the change, I guess that just lends credence to the main thrust of the position. Cheers!

[Dan Poynor]

rmbnoose - "practically identical" doesn't apply since the screens DON'T EVEN EXIST on Mac. Eugene didn't mention using the "Postscript file" option in the screen shots., and even if I do use the Postscript file option those screen still don't exist. I don't know what you're comparing the Windows screenshots to.

In some forums, hijacking someone's question with off topic comments is considered impolite.

It would be nice if folks here could focus more on quality in answering a specific question and less conjecture.

Stop flaming the thread please.

[Peter Spier]

Dan,

Please lighten up. Eugene made an honest mistake, for which he apologized at the time, and rcbmoose has found the ingormation useful, even if you did not. That's the whole point of these forums. I don't see any evidence of "flaming."

[Dan Poynor]

Eugene made a simple mistake which is actually pretty common in forums when replying too quickly or not reading thoroughly. After patiently explaining my OS situation and pushing for a response to my specific question I thought we were done with it. Especially since it's been over a year the question has been marked as answered!

But then rcbmoose says the screenshots are practically identical on the Mac and PC, which after rechecking a couple times seems misleading to me. Some of the screens don't exist on the Mac and can't be compared.

His opening remark saying I should be grateful is not adding useful information either, but rather trying to incite a reaction - flaming. It's not helpful.

[MooseDesign]

This counts as practically identical to me:

So, yeah, that was all I personally needed, not the following screens... I'm sorry his post wasn't helpful to you, but I supposed "off topic" is in the eye of the beholder, because it was helpful for me in solving the specific question posed by your initial post, an issue that I shared. That was my point. And now its a matter of record so hopefully others will find it helpful too. Or any of the plugins or suggestions that ensued as the thread unfolded.

Personally, I found your reaction to his attempt at being helpful far far more impolite than any presumed hijacking (a label I don't agree with in this case, BTW).

Anyway, in case you have yet to give it a shot you should try out the script that Peter linked to above. I found that it worked perfectly for pre-imposing simple files before export. Also, if you have Acrobat (and thus presumably Distiller), you can open your .PS file that results from the above screens with either one of those and create a PDF that way too.

[Dan Poynor]

rcbmoose - You stated "The actual dialogs, and even the placement of the printer settings buttons were practically identical from those depicted in the screenshots."

When called out on this you again insisted the screens where practically identical. You neglected to mention you were only looking at the initial print dialog and that you made a different selection than "Adobe PDF".

Unfortuntely, I spent time trying to figure out how you got to the other screens based on your reply. Very frustrating.

Please try to be more thoughtful and accurate when making such statements.

I've marked this question as "Answered" over a year ago.

[Peter Spier]

Dan,

As you note, the thread is quite old, and you found the information you needed in the original run. All good. Now, another user has come across the thread -- as we hope will happen -- and has a different opinion as to what is similar. That's not inflamatory, nor is it really anything you need to be concerned about. It is not all that unusual for threads to revive or go in a new direction. You have your answer, and now rcbmoose has theirs.

[Dan Poynor]

Peter - I appreciate different opinions. That's not the issue at all. Your missing the points I mentioned.

The information provided by rcbmoose saying the PC and Mac screens were practically identical was simply not correct. You could say he misspoke, or didn't follow through, and then didn't answer the questions I asked him about his findings until after I insisted they were not accurate. I've mentioned this a few times but you're not addressing it as a moderator. In my opinion, missleading information should be corrected.

He commented the I should be grateful for the info Eugene posted and later apologized for. Please help me understand how that's being helpful. Please.

[Peter Spier]

I can't speak for what other posters really mean -- that's part of the problem with forums, but I will say that your initial response to Eugene seemed rude and uncalled for to me (clearly I did not interpret it in the way you intended), and my feeling of what rcbmoose was saying is that rather than berate someone we should be appreciative of the effort that they make to offer some help, even if it turns out not to be useful in a way that is readily apparent to us.

Granted the Windows printer options screen does not resemble what you see on Mac, but I think most users would say that the Application level screens in ID are very similar, and even in my limited work with OSX I believe there are analogous printer settings screens (not identical, analogous) where you would find the same sort of default settings. All of us who answer questions here are volunteers, and we're human, so sometimes we screw up. Nobody desevrves to be raked over the coals about it.

I'm sorry you didn't get what you needed directly from Eugene. That's not a reason to continue to harp on whether his screen shots are "identical." Evidently they are similar enough to what RCB moose has seen to guide him to where he needed to go, and he seems thankful that Eugene posted them, even if in error.

[Dan Poynor]

Peter - having to repeat my question several times is frustrating. I appreciate you don't think I should expect an answer to my question - but I do. I also appreciate you don't promote accuracy - but I do.

Scanning this thread again, I don't see where I raked anyone over the coals either. I should be thanked for patiently explaining the difference between operating systems and following up on the details. Perhaps yelling a couple words in all caps to get attention is too much for some people though. Please accept my apology.

You don't need to keep apologizing for Eugene also. It's really not necessary. And I'm not sure why you keep doing that. But thank you for your effort too.

[Peter Spier]

If you go back, as I just did, you'll see that he did not say you should be grateful for anything. What he said was that your reponse to Eugene struck him as ungrateful (perhaps it's that word that bothers you), and I happen to have had the same reaction, though I used the terms rude and uncalled for, but that's probably because I know how much help Eugene has provided to other users over the past few years. I suspect this is a case where we read inflection into your response that was not intended.

I happen to take offense, too, at the suggestion that I don't promote accuracy. I make every attempt to be as accurate as possible in my own responses, or to state clearly when I don't know what the Mac screen will look like. I laso make a point of posting when I see other responses to questions that are clearly incorrect. I'm not apologizing for Eugene. I'm pointing out that you keep bringing up that his screen shots are not 100% relevant for your Mac. That does not make them useless to all users, and the entire issue was covered some months ago. And I did not say that Eugene had helped you -- if that's what you meant above, I can't really tell -- but rather that he had helped rbcmoose in spite of not helping you.

Frankly, I'm a little tired of you, and I think this thread has gone downhill to the point that there is nothing of value to be added by any of us, so I'm going to exercise my prerogative to lock it.

[Was DYP · Accepted solution]

File>Print Booklet

Set it up

>Print Settings...

>>Printer>Adobe PDF

Not possible on 10.6.x. Use Printer Setting / PostScript® File, then distill to the settings of your choice in Acrobat Distiller.

Doyle

[Eugene Tyson]

Well you can go to Postscript too and distill it, that's fine, you still have those options in distiller.

So yes if PDF isn't there, then Postscript and distill.

[Peter Spier]

Eugene, this is a unique problem for users of Snow Leopard which killed the PDF printer.

If you don't have distiller, you can use a script to do the imposition, then export spreads using ID's standard PDF export. Dave Saunders wrote two that work pretty well for two-up saddle stitch. There are some limitiations though.

[Eugene Tyson]

Duly noted.

[Was DYP]

Use Print Booklet, print a postscript file and then distill it.

Or you could check this link out.

http://bitbucket.org/codepoet/cups-pdf-for-mac-os-x/wiki/Home

Don't know if this would work as I have not tried it.

Doyle

[SmartGraphicArt]

Having the same issue. When I use the Print Booklet option and go through the settings to print to Adobe PDF it seems to be saving, flattening the file, etc., but I don't know where it's saving to and I can't find the PDF anywhere after it saves. Any ideas? Is it really saving to a PDF or just going through the motions?
SGA

[Peter Spier]

If you have Snow Leopard, it's just going through the motions. You'd need to print to file, then distill, or use an imposition script and export spreads.

InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Acrobat’s Adobe PDF Printer Replaced in Snow Leopard

[SmartGraphicArt]

That's what I was afraid of. We bought CS5 during the changeover to Acrobat X and it came WITHOUT Acrobat Pro. We still haven't gotten our license and I might end up to have to buy a standalone version. Bummer. Tried firing up my old CS3 on the PC but of course the version of distiller was not recent enough to work with the 9.0 that Indesign CS5 prints to. Come one Adobe, with all of your incompatible upgrades you're starting to look like Apple.

[Peter Spier]

There are a number of impositon scripts that work quite well for simple 2-up saddle stitch publications. Dave Saunders wrote two.

http://pdsassoc.com/downloads/Buildbooklet.zip is fast and works if you don't have objects crossing the spine.

If you do, then use Dave's CS3 Booklet Script

As far as I know, both will work in CS5, though you might need to create a "Version 5.0" (without quotes) subfolder in the scripts folder to hold them so they are interpreted correctly if you get an error.

[Peter Spier]

SmartGraphicArt wrote:

Come one Adobe, with all of your incompatible upgrades you're starting to look like Apple.

The loss of the PDF virtual printer is all Apple, and I don't know why you think distiller 8 would not handle the postscript generated from any version of ID.