Inspiring

Answered

Print booklet in Indesign not user friendly

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
April 28, 2018
5 replies
3006 views

I'm using the latest update of Indesign on OS 10.13.4.

20-page booklet, 5.5x8.5.

The preview of the imposition looked perfect, but the .ps file changed the page orientation to vertical with the ensuing spreads not fitting the space. No settings I tried made any difference.

On deadline, I had to pay the printer to set up the file.

Very annoying.

I used to do this routinely around 4 years ago with a much lower version of Indesign -- and also back in the old-old days even with Pagemaker. What happened?

I read everything I could find online including Adobe Support files regarding this, and nothing I could find addressed this problem -- altho I was able to find solutions earlier in the process. I would like to see a better, fuller explanation of the process of imposing printer's pages.

Thanks for your help!

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer NormaPierce

and got a wrong answer

Unless you see a Staff badge the answers you are getting are from users not Adobe employees.

You are welcome to think imposition should be done from the layout and not at output, but highend imposition tools never have and probably never will be included in InDesign. Print Booklet, as its name implies, is meant for simple desktop applications like making dummies or art books and is not intended for press impositions.

Also there are a number of problems with postscript/distilled output (flattened transparency and poor color management), and it has been abandoned by most users in favor of the more flexible and efficient PDF export.

I never thought imposition *should* be done from Indesign, and after a difficult morning yesterday, I now understand that it's rarely even a good idea!

I appreciate those who participated in this discussion, especially the extremely valuable information from the staff contributor.

My concern is (still) with Adobe support and the following "help" page: Create printer spreads for booklet printing in Adobe InDesign

This was the top result in my original search for info and of course was the one I went to. I spent a bunch of time following all the instructions. On deadline, of course. When I never was able to get an acceptable result, I thought I must be missing something or there was some trick to it and went to the Forum.

I feel that the Adobe help page should be amended with a prominent addition, such as this:

"Print booklet" is not recommended for preparing a document for commercial printing.

Many commercial printing companies include imposition in their bids and estimates at low or no cost.

These instructions are meant only for DIY printing on a desktop printer.

Best regards to all.

elizabeths61297746

Inspiring

I am having this same issue, also on a deadline. I will ask my printer in the morning if they can do it but it's a small mom and pop shop, and up until now, everything I have done with them has been different from my experiences working with larger shops (he doesn't want crop and bleed marks for instance). While I appreciate the insights on this thread about this being something that typically the print shop handles, it seems to me that the issue with the preview not matching the export is still a bug with InDesign, or something (could be on acrobat's end I suppose though ID seems more likely to me...). I have been looking into this for a while now, trying to figureo out how to fix it, to no avail. The preview looks fine, no warnings or anything. But then opening the .ps file in Acrobat shows that it is on vertical paper instead of horizontal which cuts off the image and obviously can't be printed. screenshots attached

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @elizabeths61297746 , If you are trying to Print a .ps file, you need to install the Acrobat PDF 9.0 PPD, which can be downloaded here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/add-acrobat-ppd.html

Even a small press should be able to handle imposition. Do you really want to be responsible for print related properties like creep, signature size, page spacing etc?

Robert at ID-Tasker

Legend

Thank you for sharing this. Unfortunately it looks like the download at the link you shared isn't working. I tried two different browsers and it didn't work in either one. I was able to get what I think and hope is the same file from a link in a comment here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/postscript-trouble-in-indesign/td-p/9595327

Seems like the right file... though it doesn't seem to have worked. Put it in the folder but can't get it to show up in the print booklet panel. Restarted my computer but that didn't help.

And, yes I am back to doing this... printer came back and has different problems with imposition. The software he uses adds a white border so he's not set up for imposing full bleed documents. Not going to switch printers on my timeline, so I decided to give this a try and manually impose it if I have to (Honestly I'll probably do that next). It's a 16 page booklet so I'm hoping the creep/amount of paper the binding takes up won't be a big deal and my margins are sizeable enough I think I'm ok. Luckily it's a pretty small print run too.

Again, thank you for taking the time to help me.

If it's only 16 pages - you can do it "manually".

What I would suggest - export PDF with a name "ImposSource.pdf" - with all the extras - Bleeds, cropmarks, etc. - and then place it on a spreads in a new document - ~~twice the size - with CROP TO MEDIA - then extend OUTSIDE edges of the PDFs to show the extras.~~

Looks like InDesign "no longer" (??) imports full info but just places cropped version?? Or it never worked like that??

So you would need to do it differently:

- create your document with the same HEIGHT - but twice as WIDE,

- then, using A5 as an example - place PDFs on the LEFT side with CenterX = 297/4 = 74.25mm and CenterY = 210/2 = 105mm, on the RIGHT side - CenterX = 297/4*3 = 222.75mm and CenterY the same as for Left - you can do the math directly in the InDesign:

- then create Guideline in the center - 297/2 = 148.5mm

- then crop PDFs on the inside:

(Sorry for maybe to detailed explanation - but just in case, for others in the future)

Order of the PDFs you can get from the mockup - or from the Booklet Preview.

Then save it as a template "Impos.indd" for future use.

Next time - just re-export "ImposSource.pdf" and refresh links in the "Impos.indd".

Of course the same "techinque" can be used for longer publications - even when folding is required.

MW Design

Inspiring

I impose for only a single print establishment these days. He has no inclination to modernize. I use him for both his great two and three color work, service and price.

If you have need to do this once in a while, it pays to purchase one of the relatively low-cost plug-ins or stand-alone imposition software tools, or purchase pdfToolbox, which has other uses than imposition.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Legend

Agree with Bob!

Imposition depends upon so much that is outside the designer's hands -- and responsibility. Printer (digital, ink, toner, traditional offiset, etc.), press-sheet size, run quantity, etc. all affect how a job will be imposed and printed.

Geeze, Louise, even the local office supply store will take your file and impose it for copier-quality printing...at no cost. The software is built into their prepress workflow.

When we designers take on this responsibility, we're also letting the printer off the hook for doing a lousy job...and they can also blame the designer for incorrect imposition, forcing the designer to pay for the bad print job. Prepress functions should be performed by the printer, not the designer.

Find a better printer!

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

N

NormaPierceAuthor

Inspiring

Very unfriendly support forum. The printer was not at fault. I searched Adobe for how to do something I thought I needed to do -- and got a wrong answer.

rob day

Community Expert

and got a wrong answer

Unless you see a Staff badge the answers you are getting are from users not Adobe employees.

You are welcome to think imposition should be done from the layout and not at output, but highend imposition tools never have and probably never will be included in InDesign. Print Booklet, as its name implies, is meant for simple desktop applications like making dummies or art books and is not intended for press impositions.

Also there are a number of problems with postscript/distilled output (flattened transparency and poor color management), and it has been abandoned by most users in favor of the more flexible and efficient PDF export.