Participant

Answered

INDESIGN: want to make a double sided booklet

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
July 18, 2022
4 replies
2985 views

Howdy,

I'm trying to make a booklet, sometimes called dos-a-dos, where there are two front covers for two different stories that meet in the middle. One of the stories is upside down and backwards compared to the other.

I'm trying to make this InDesign and plan to print pdf at MagCloud. I can rotate the pages in "page attribute --> rotation --> 180" and it appears upside down while Indesign. That change doesn't carry through into the PDF export, the export appears to "correct" it.

Attached see a sort of silly example of what I'm aiming for.

Any help sincerely appreciated.

The Real Brooklyn Pirate

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer James Gifford—NitroPress

Also called "Ace Doubles" format after a famous line of discount paperbacks that used the format to include two short novels in the same book.

If you have half the pages laid out 'right side up' and half laid out 'inverted,' the PDF should export them exactly like that. However, I would rotate the text frames directly, not via a page attribute.

Or export the book with all pages right side up (and the second story flow reverse-linked), then in Acrobat, select all the second-half pages and rotate them there.

You should make sure that any publisher/distribution house allows such format, by the way. Kindle/KDP specifically and absolutely forbids it and will reject all such submissions.

—

L

Laubender

Community Expert

@James Gifford—NitroPress said: "Rotating the pages won't change the page flow order."

Hi James,

yes, of course, it does not.

The next step would be to place the pages in reverse order with the help of the MultiPageImporter script.

You can determine the start page, you could check "Reverse Page Order", you could place InDesign pages or PDF pages:

Originally written by Scott Zanelli, now curated by Mike Edel:

https://github.com/mike-edel/ID-MultiPageImporter/releases

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

Peter Spier

Community Expert

+1 for this method, and I'd do it as two independent .indd files, then place both into a new file using the scrript, on regular order, one reversed and rotated.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

Yes, the optimal workflow would be to set it up as two short books, do all the layout, proofing, tweaking etc. with normal page setup (where it's easy and simple to catch widow, orphans, typoes etc.), then as a last step flow the second book into reversed order pages. Then do the page rotation in Acrobat.

Maybe this means Ace Doubles will be coming back! 🙂

—

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi @therealbrooklynpirate ,

you rotated the page view only with that option.

Simply use the Page tool plus the Transform panel and rotate the pages without their contents.

Select more than one page with Page tool:

[1] Start out with the Selection tool.

[2] Select all pages you want to rotate in the Pages panel

[3] Switch to the Page tool. Now all pages you had selected in the Pages panel are selected.

From my German InDesign on Windows 10 where you see the Control panel, the Pages panel and the Transform panel. The active tool is the Pages tool.

Go to the Transform panel and rotate the selected pages by 180°. Rotate around its center point.

Make sure you have the option unchecked that the contents should "move" along.

You find that option in the Control panel. See screenshot above.

Result after the transformation for the selected pages:

Export to PDF and your contents on the rotated pages is indeed rotated on the PDF pages.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

All correct from an ID process point of view, but —

Rotating the pages won't change the page flow order. I don't know of any way to do a reverse flow except manually linking them (in a zoom-out view) before placing the content. Am I missing a feature that will manage this?

And, it's a real pain to work with inverted pages. For simplicity, I'd leave the reverse-linked pages right side up, then rotate them as a group in Acrobat when they no longer have to be worked on or proofed.

—

Luke Jennings3

Community Expert

Here is a link to a related discussion:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/indesign-cc-layout-a-dual-language-book-2nd-language-reverse-order-and-upside-down/m-p/9348673#M66002

T

therealbrooklynpirateAuthor

Participant

Luke thanks. Funny seeing so many of exactly this type of book is what made me think of it in the first place. Thanks I'll read through that link carefully. Appreciate it!

James Gifford—NitroPressCorrect answer

Legend

Also called "Ace Doubles" format after a famous line of discount paperbacks that used the format to include two short novels in the same book.

If you have half the pages laid out 'right side up' and half laid out 'inverted,' the PDF should export them exactly like that. However, I would rotate the text frames directly, not via a page attribute.

Or export the book with all pages right side up (and the second story flow reverse-linked), then in Acrobat, select all the second-half pages and rotate them there.

You should make sure that any publisher/distribution house allows such format, by the way. Kindle/KDP specifically and absolutely forbids it and will reject all such submissions.

—

T

therealbrooklynpirateAuthor

Participant

Oh my worked like a charm! Thanks so much James it just wouldn't have occured to me. This "ace double" type book was incredibly common for dual language history books in the early 1900s. It's just such a cool thing. Really appreciate the help. B.Pirate.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded