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• • January 21, 2012 at 1:34 pm #61500
    Stevekir

    Member

    I have used InDesign's Print Booklet feature but it won't do what I want.

    I have looked at ClickBook (squirrelsoftware), CocoaBooklet, and Create Booklet.

    Do they work well?

    Any others (not hugely expensive ones!)

    Thanks.

  • January 22, 2012 at 2:49 pm #61508
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    It would help if you could describe what ID doesn't do that you need done.

    Another option is to export to PDF and then use Acrobat Pro's Print Booklet command (in the Print menu).

    AM

  • January 22, 2012 at 4:49 pm #61509
    Stevekir

    Member

    My printer uses A4 paper. I want to make a boklet where each A4 paper page comong out of the printer has two imposed portrait InDesign pages, with those two imposed portrait pages printed with the paper in Landscape mode. That is, when looking at the paper page after printing, holding it facing you in landscape, the two imposed portrait pages should have their tops at the top of the paper page (as for reading), and positioned on the paper page side-by-side (from left to right). In other words, the left (long side ) of the left imposed page should be close to the left (short) edge of the paper page, and the right (long side) of the right imposed page should be close to the right (short) edge of the paper page.

    In that way I could fold the paper page along its vertical centreline, bind it along that centreline, and make an A5 booklet (A5 is half the size of A4).

    However, InDesign insists in ptintong the paper page in portrait mode. That is, (to repeat the words above but amended), In other words, the left (long side ) of the left imposed page is close to the left (long) edge of the paper page, and the right (long side) of the right imposed page is close to the right (long) edge of the paper page. The result is that, with the two imposed Indesign pages stretching across the width (shorter dimension) of the paper, the two indesign pages have to be correspondingly narrow to fit acrfoss the paper page. (This wordy explanation is necessary since images are not postable on this forum.)

    This results in a tall narrow booklet. I have tried specifying Landscape orientation and altered margins, etc., but it has no effect.

    On Acrobat Pro, I have looked at an Adobe video of Acrobat Pro book printing. Do you have experience of it, and if so, do youthink that it would do what I want? (However, I would rather use what I have got – InDesign.)

    Thanks.

  • January 25, 2012 at 10:12 pm #61553
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    This sounds to me like a simple confusion of settings with Page Setup. You may need to select either landscape and/or short edge binding somewhere for your printer. Have you tried clicking the Print Settings button in Print Booklet and fiddling with the settings there? You can keep checking the Preview panel to see if you're getting there.

    I don't use Print Booklet in ID a lot, but I did the Print Booklet video for Lynda.com's Acrobat X Essentials video, and I know for a fact it can do exactly what you're asking. And you get a preview there too.

    AM

  • January 26, 2012 at 5:12 pm #61558
    Stevekir

    Member

    Thanks. I will have a go.

  • February 27, 2012 at 1:29 pm #61704
    Stevekir

    Member

    Anne-Marie said:

    This sounds to me like a simple confusion of settings with Page Setup. You may need to select either landscape and/or short edge binding somewhere for your printer. Have you tried clicking the Print Settings button in Print Booklet and fiddling with the settings there? You can keep checking the Preview panel to see if you're getting there.

    AM

    ---

    Thanks to your tip about the short edge binding in the area of duplex binding. I set this to “Short-side stapling (Top), and also setting “Scale to fit” in Print settings, and can now do what I want: make an A5 booklet. I had at some time experimented with these two settings but there are so many variables in Printing a Booklet that some other setting must have been wrong which caused failure.

    Thanks for the help.

    However, because of the large number of variable settings, Adobe's help files could, in my opinion, give some more guidance. Also, I have recently bought the Quickstart Guide to Indesign 5.5 and there is only a tiny mention of the “need to experiment” with the various settings! Too true! Some guidance on curing bad results could surely have been given.

    Also, I wonder why InDesign can handle only 2-up booklets. I have made myself an InDesign document imposed with 4-up, each of the imposed pages flowing the text in the correct order, just using the InDesign document (no Print Booklet). Time-consuming to set up but it works well.

  • February 29, 2012 at 6:46 pm #61719
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    All too true, there are plenty of places where Adobe docs could be much clearer.

    That's where InDesignSecrets.com comes in :D

    If you've figured out how Adobe *should* write this up, and have some writing talent, contact me and/or David off-list and let's do an eBook about it!

    AM

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