Skip to main content
Participant
June 22, 2021
Answered

Single page spread, left and right different margins...

  • June 22, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 3637 views

Firstly, I am not an indesign expert (and thankfully the document will go through a pro before it's finished).
We need to produce our document as single page spreads for the printer. However, we want to treat odd and even pages differently, primarily the "inside" margins should be smaller (so the right margin on even pages and the left margin on odd pages). Any suggestions how to do this?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

You are misunderstanding the printer's direction. The reason you think you see a single bleed is that the inside bleed is set to zero. The pages are not joined. You can see this by exporting a PDF. Be sure spreads is NOT CHECKED!

3 replies

rob day
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2021

Not enough, because the margins are showing the same on all pages,

 

Margins are a page attribute. You can set them up globally from Document Setup, or select a range of pages in the Pages panel and set the selected page margins via Layout>Margins and Columns

Ddog9
Participating Frequently
June 22, 2021

Document should be created using facing pages, 1/8 bleed on 4 sides except center, export high res pdf as single pages, upload to printer. This should keep them from having to resolve any issues with Pitstop.

Participant
June 22, 2021

Much as I'm sure the printers would love to be living the 1960s, we use 3mm bleed 🙂 
I have detailed instructions from the printer for their requirements, but as I've not heard of pitstop before I shall go and find out what that is as I love learning. 

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2021

Is there some confusion in this thread between the terms margin and bleed?

BobLevine
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 22, 2021

Use facing pages...that's what it's for. There is no such thing as single page spreads. Spreads are mutipage (though they may be combined from multiple pages, hence reader spread vs printer spreads). When exporting the PDF do not choose spreads and the printer will know what to do. 

Diane Burns
Inspiring
June 22, 2021

To add to Bob's reply, Facing Pages are a checkbox in the New document dialog. Just turn it on when setting up your document. 

To change a document already created with single pages, go to File menu > Document setup and change it there. Add a new master in your pages panel, which will now be facing pages, and use that master page. Margins will be set for "Inside" and "Outside" margins, as opposed to left and right.