Stapled booklet printing

[emilyw92354939]

I am just finalising the A5 booklet for print. It is currently 12 pages, stapled.

I ran a test print with a local company and noticed that some of the images are creeping over into the next page (see images attached for what I mean)

How do I avoid this for the next print run?

Many thanks, Emily

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @emilyw92354939,

Thank you for sharing the details and images! The issue you're experiencing is called "page creep," which occurs when inner pages shift slightly during the stapling process in thicker booklets. A few steps to help you resolve this for your next print run:

1. In InDesign, you can use the Print Booklet feature to compensate for page creep. This will slightly adjust the position of the inner pages to ensure the content aligns correctly when folded and stapled.

• Go to File > Print Booklet.
• Under the Setup tab, look for the Creep option and input a value based on the thickness of your booklet.

2. Make sure your design has sufficient margins and that important elements are not placed too close to the page edges. A standard margin of 3-5mm is recommended. Also, ensure a bleed of at least 3mm is set for images that run to the edge of the page.

By following these steps, your images and content should align better in your final booklet. Let us know if you need guidance with setting up the Print Booklet feature or any other adjustments! 

Best of luck with your project!

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao

[BobLevine]

The OP is not printing inhouse. They are using an outside printer and suspect this is simply a poor job of page imposition.

[BobLevine]

Have you asked the printer? What kind of files did you submit? PDFs? Native InDesign files? Did you set inside bleed to zero?

[tomr-leguptools · Accepted solution]

Take out the staples from the booklet, so you have three folded A4 sheets. You'll see that the photo on the left side of the folded sheet, which should end exactly on the fold, is instead slightly across the fold. This could be as Bob says because of poor imposition, but I think it is more likely that either the sheets aren't folded in half exactly, or if they are folded in half exactly then they have been guillotined inaccurately so the center of the sheet doesn't exactly match the edge of the photo.

If you are supplying your printer a 12 page A5 file, I can't think of anything you can have done in InDesign that would cause this - it's almost certainly an issue related to how the booklet has been printed and saddle-stitched.

I can't see it will be related to page creep, that's an issue that affects the right edge of the booklet - the edge you open to read the pages.

[BobLevine]

Excellent points but I'd still like to make sure there's no inside bleed. If there is, it could easily cause this but I can't help but think it would be obvious on screen.