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• • September 28, 2022 at 6:34 am #14372728
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    Hi all! This is not really an InDesign question, but I’m hoping some of you who work on magazines, etc. will know. Suddenly I’m working on a guidebook for a show that’s being held in Germany (I have never worked on anything but US publications). I have the old files but no way to contact the person who designed them. I suddenly realized that the left-hand sides of the spreads are all numbered with odd numbers and the right-hand sides are numbered with even numbers. Does anyone know if this is the convention in Europe? Odd numbers on the left? And do you know if there are any other conventions I should know about? I know some of the spellings are a bit different, but I know I have some other dictionaries. Anyway, would appreciate input if any of you know this type of stuff, thanks!

  • September 28, 2022 at 6:44 am #14372729
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    Oh, and just to be clear, the publication is in English though it will be distributed in Germany and I’ll be working with a printing company in Europe as well. It occurs to me that I don’t even know if I should label the covers Covers 1-4 or if those numbers would reference the covers differently there! And I don’t have a clue how to pick the paper weights, though at least I can get a recommendation! Thanks.

  • September 28, 2022 at 6:48 am #14372730
    Steve Davis

    Participant

    I work mainly in Hebrew, English and French (sometimes Russian and Arabic) but I’ve never come across what you’re saying.

    • September 28, 2022 at 6:59 am #14372731
      Phyllis Utter

      Participant

      Okay, thanks! It’s possible there are just anomalies in the file I received. But I think you have to work at it to force InDesign to number this way, so I’m not sure.

    • September 28, 2022 at 7:01 am #14372732
      Steve Davis

      Participant

      Just start your section on that page with the desired numbering (making sure that your other section, most likely the first page) is numbered differently to avoid duplication of numbers.

  • September 28, 2022 at 7:03 am #14372733
    Barry Monks

    Participant

    No, I’ve never come across this either. If you start with the cover page as P1, then logically that and all other ‘right-hand; pages would be odd and the left ones even. You can, of course specify the start page number in Document Setup > Start Page No. if that helps

  • September 28, 2022 at 7:22 am #14372734
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    Thanks, I just got a response from a printing company in Europe, and they think the original setup was a mistake that no one noticed. That’s an odd mistake! I’m switching it back to odd numbers on the right!

  • September 28, 2022 at 7:47 am #14372735
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I think if the document had originally been created with the Middle Eastern (or possible Asian) version of InDesign, the page numbers could be reversed like that.

    @Steve Davis: wouldn’t that be the case?

  • September 28, 2022 at 7:51 am #14372736
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    Thanks, David! Yeah I wonder where it originally came from. It was created by someone who no longer works with the organization that sent me the files, so it’s not possible for me to get in touch with the original designer. So I’m just trying to make sense of what I have here! And wondering what I don’t know about designing & printing in Europe!

  • October 7, 2022 at 2:21 am #14373275
    Chris Thompson

    Member

    Late to the party, but 2 points:
    1/ Very unusual to see “left-hand = odd” pagination in publications that read left-to-right, regardless of geogrpahy, unless there’s a really specific reason, like the spreads are being displayed on a wall or something like that, and not bound in a book/let.
    2/ Other things you might not know about European printing: the conventional direction of the text on the spine of a book can vary by country – here in the UK, the text is right-way-up if the book is flat on a table with the front cover upwards, but all the French and most of the German books I have are the other way round. Maybe there’s a website somewhere with a list, but I haven’t found it!

  • October 7, 2022 at 7:57 am #14373283
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    Thanks, Chris! That’s very helpful! Never would have even thought about the spine direction!

    Thanks, Phyllis

  • October 17, 2022 at 4:25 am #14373757
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    And I’m finally in the process of printing this booklet! The company in Europe has asked me to convert all fonts to outlines in the PDF. It’s been YEARS since I’ve seen a printer request that. Does anyone know how to do this in Acrobat any more? I remember I used to search on “outlines” inside the Preflight dialog in Acrobat, but that option doesn’t seem to exist now. Does anyone know if it’s still buried in there somewhere? And anybody know what kind of problems to look out for with this kind of conversion? I’m working on an 84-page booklet.

  • October 17, 2022 at 5:10 am #14373758
    Phyllis Utter

    Participant

    And I just discovered this method: https://www.w3pedia.com/uk/convert-text-to-outlines-in-adobe-acrobat So I’ll use that. But I’d appreciate any input on problems to look out for! I seriously haven’t seen this request in years and years. And I’d try to discuss it with the company doing the printing, but we have a language barrier problem that would make the finer details difficult to discuss. :-(

  • October 17, 2022 at 11:44 am #14373762
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Here’s another, perhaps simpler, method for converting text to outlines:

    The Best Method for Outlining Fonts

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