InDesign Page Set Up for Spreads

I too am trying to understand how to do this - for printer.

Talking to the printer is ALWAYS the best thing, and you're right Dan didn't say how this was going to be output, but there was nothing in the post that lead me to believe he was doing it in house or needed to impose to save money at the local copy shop, and I've been trying to make clear from the start that either he needs to FULLY impose the file, whether integral cover or separate, to the requirements of the equipment, or he shouldn't be imposing anything at all.

Once you get beyond the kind of customer operated copiers you see in some walk-up shops, pretty much any piece of printing equipment that would do a booklet has some sort of built-in imposition for accepting single page files, or you need a pre-press tech and dedicated imposition software to set up a complex signature. Why put the cover in the same file for a stitched book? If it's a self-cover running on a press, you want it included in the signature, if it's running digitally, you want it in the same file so the finisher built into the machine will fold and staple inline and you don't need to handle the job twice. It's a case of efficiency of handling and added costs.

I don't think there's a separate set of terms for large or small scale operations. Imposing means arranging pages for print, and just moving the back cover onto the same spread  as the front, without rearranging everything else at the same time, just doesn't fit that definition. And, as I said, if this is going out for professional output, you don't want to mix printers' spreads and readers' spreads in the same file. That's just asking for trouble.

Peter

Depending on how the book will be printed and bound, you may not have the right number of pages here. Stitched books need to be in multiples of 4 pages. Perfect-bound or loose bindings like spiral or GBC can have any number of pages, but if you want a spread for the cover it sounds like you plan to fold and stitch. If that's the case, you need to add blank pages to bring the count to 32, or reduce the count to 28.

Peter

InDesign builds documents in the same view your readers will see. When the booklet is closed, they see only the front cover or only the back cover. If this is a "self-cover" booklet you can either put the back cover on the last page, or if you really need to see the entire cover as a spread you can force ID to start on a two-page spread in a number of different ways. I fthe back cover will be pg 32, for example, set the strat page number to 32, and then start a new section on the page for the front cover and restat page numbering at 1.

You design your document in readers' spreads, but it gets printed in printers' spreads. It isn't just front and pack cover that get put together. It's printed as first and last, second and next to last, third and third from last, and so forth get ganged. This is called imposition, and it is the printer's job to do it, not yours. Trying to lay out a book in impposed spreads is difficult, at best, and a waste of your time.

Peter