Print book file with signatures

Report · Apr 11, 2022

I have to print a book of 368 pages, the author gave me a InDesign book file, with 6 documents. How do I export it all divided into signatures ready to be bound, from the book panel? In the book panel I can only print it as pages or spreads, but not into signatures as in the "print booklet" dialog (which would be the most obvious solution for this kind of job –We made this book function to allow users to work on a book that is hundred of pages long BUT we won't let them export it into signatures). I then export it as single pages to Acrobat, but Acrobat's booklet function does not let me print the book into signatures either. Is my only option to manually select page 1 to 32 and print a booklet, then select page 33 to 64 and do the same, and so on and so forth?

Report · Apr 11, 2022

This is a job best left to the printer. Now, if you are the printer, you should have an impositon plug-in to handle this task.

Report · Apr 11, 2022

Did you answer without having anything to contribute to solve my problem because you get points for each answer, and so you thought "let's get a few extre point by having this guy wasting a few more minutes"?

Report · Apr 11, 2022

That's very rude and unnecessary – we are volunteers on this forum.

It's normal for the designer to supply the printer with a PDF (perhaps a PDF/X-4), as separate pages (not spreads), tick Crop Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings. The printer will advise on the type of PDF and other specs and will undertake the imposition.

Report · Apr 11, 2022

You know that I think it's rude and unnecessary, Derek? To reply to someone genuinely asking a question on a support forum with a tone of sufficiency, assuming a position of superiority, and letting them understand that you know how to do, and perhaps they can reach this information if they give you enough importance –Let the printer do the job, oh wait, YOU are the printer? Don't tell me that you don't have an imposition software? Helpfulness on a scale from 0 to 10: 0.

The "designer" in this case is an architect friend who needs her thesis printed from InDesign, and I am also a designer that has its own flow in making books and printing them with my Riso duplicator. In this case I have to work with what she gave me, and I'm trying to find out how to do what I explained in the first answer. So far 2 answer and I'm not a centimeter closer to solving the issue, but hey, I got a few lectures on how to be polite on the internet. Every time I write on this forum I get the feeling that people here are mostly busy at measuring the size of their ding dongs.

Report · Apr 11, 2022

And I tell you another thing: this whole issue started because of a well known flow of InDesign, told across countless pages on this forum: footnotes and chapters. I would simply merge all the chapters into one single file, and do a simple "print booklet" as I always do, but if I did that all the footnotes would be messed up and go from 1 to 1000+ across the whole document, instead of remaining divided by chapter, as it whould be. So yeah, there's that also.

Report · Apr 11, 2022

The answer I gave you is accurate, even if it was not to your liking.

There are a number of free imposition software downloads and plug-ins you could try. (Google free imposition)

I can't recommend a particular one, since this is not something I use, but there are most likely other users here that have used them, and could give you feedback on which ones would be best for your task

Report · Apr 12, 2022

There was nothing to like or not in your answer, it was just plain and simple argumentation for the sake of it. Next time you want to advice something to someone, try to write in plain English: "Dear xxx, I think you might want to consider downloading an imposition software, there's plenty for free on the internet." Assuming you know better than others is a slippery position to have, especially when talking to strangers.

Report · Apr 12, 2022

Imposition questions are common here and in fairness to the other replies, they are often from designers thinking that layouts need to be imposed on the client side—your first post was misunderstood.

In general InDesign expects print related tasks—trapping, imposition, some kinds of color mangement—to be handled in the RIP because the properties of those tasks are often unknown during layout production. It wasn’t clear until later in the thread that you are the printer. Even then Print Booklet is an extremely limited imposition feature, so I don’t think any of the regulars would expect a commercial printer to be using it.

Report · Apr 11, 2022

Is my only option to manually select page 1 to 32 and print a booklet, then select page 33 to 64 and do the same, and so on and so forth?

Hi @Oreri , another option would be to Export the entire 368 Book as a PDF, and then place the PDF back into a new InDesign document using the PlaceMultipagePDF.jsx Javascript, which you will find in the Scripts panel Samples folder. Then you could print signatures from a single document using Print Booklet.

If there is any complex color in the Book documents, Export the book as PDF/X-4 and make sure the color settings for the scripted full document match the Book chapters’ color settings.