Participant

Question

Undoing booklet format

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
June 13, 2025
5 replies
977 views

Hi everyone! Is there a way I can rip a pdf that was created at the printers to print double sided bookets? I need to upload it onto our website so members can print it at home but of course it'll look crazy to them. is there a way to split the pages in 2, and then I can then reorganize the pages in order? The person who sent it off to the printers can no longer find their original. I added a page so you can see what I mean. Help??##!! And thank you!

Japanese_Chin_Book_-_REPAGINATED_FOR_WEBSITE_DOWNLOAD_Part6.pdf

How to

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

"Xerox PrimeLink"

Yah, that's Xerox's workflow. And what you have there is a scanned document; It is not a vector-based PDF at all. It looks like it was scanned from a printed booklet that was taken apart; it's not exactly square and you can see the staple holes in the centre. It's also only 200 ppi, which is typical of a scanner printer like that.

Each flat is an 11x17 scan, so what you could do is what was suggested and place the file into a new INDD documwnt, crop the pages accordingly, and re-export a PDF. BUT you will need to change some settings, Since the PDF is already 200 ppi, do not re-downsample as that will make it look worse, so in Compression, leave all the settings at Do Not Downsample. Try at maximum quality at first, but if the resulting PDF is too large, you can reduce this setting until you get a file of a comfortable size.

The other thing you could do, is extract all the scans from the PDF and save them all as a TIF, and place those in a new InDesign document, which might be easier to work with in InDesign depending on what you want to do.

Acrobat > File > Export To > Image > TIFF

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Just a note of caution based on @Brad @ Roaring Mouse 's observation...

If this booklet was not created by you or owned by your company, do not put it on it on your website unless you have a written release by the copyright owner.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Brad @ Roaring Mouse

Community Expert

Excellent point!

davecourtemanche

Inspiring

You could crop the PDF to individual pages in Acrobat (creating 2 separate PDF files) then merge the two and re-arrange the pages.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Create a new InDesign document with facing pages of the proper size. Place the spreads and then export a new PDF.

Rearrange the pages in Acrobat and resave them.

This, of course, would be far easier with the original files, but absent that, the above is about the best I can offer.

A

Alice-JCSFAuthor

Participant

Under App, it says Xerox PrimeLink

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

What did the printer use to create their PDF? The InDesign file or a supplied PDF? Can you get it back?

If not, you can open up the PDF from the new InDesign. It will convert the PDF into an InDesign file. Then copy-and-paste the contents into a new InDesign file.

OR, import the current PDF into an InDesign file, cropping out the appropriate page. (Each spread will be imported twice, once for the left and once for the right page.) Output as a single-page PDF.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

A

Alice-JCSFAuthor

Participant

Hi Dave, no clue what the printer used and the person who had the original file can't seem to locate it. All they say they have is this. I converted it to INDD but it looks awful, unreadable. I was thinking I could maybe crop each page in 1/2 in Acrobat? But was hoping to not have to do that much work. So annoying.

Ok, thought I was clever and changed page size to 17 x 11, which enabled me to print the even numbered pages on the left. Half the battle. But how to print the odd numbered pages on the right? Thought ok, let me flip the doc upside down and then print the odd numbered pages, which now appear on the left. Nope, Acrobat won't do it. Doesn't care that I flipped the doc, saved it, nothing. Hmmm.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

I would use my third option: create an InDesign document with the correct number of single pages. Import the PDFs in numeric order. When you place the PDF, be sure to select "Show Import Options" so you can select the page you want. As I mentioned, you will have to crop to show the right-hand pages.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)