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• • August 13, 2012 at 10:29 pm #62892
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi all,

    Being quite a novice, I have a problem that seems perplexing to me but I suppose is otherwise rather dumb from your end. So please indulge me while I explain.

    I have two illustrations at the beginning of a book set up as a facing-page Indesign document. The first is on a recto page and the second – on verso, neither of them bleeding off the page. Their width is identical and both are at an identical space from both the inner spine margin and the outside page margin. In other words, when printed on both sides of a sheet of paper, say, they should match, horizontally at least (width-wise).

    The problem is that when I print on my laser printer at home and when the (single page) printer proofs arrived, there is a mismatch: when the sheet is raised against a window or a lamp, you can see a milimeter or so from the illustration on the other page showing through. If that weren't discomforting enough, I see that the crop and bleed marks are also misaligned – by double or triple the mismatch on the illustrations…

    Needless to say, we can't allow this mismatch in the final book, especially on a title page! But I'm at loss as to what causes it – is it the illustrations, Indesign, the exported PDF, the fact that they're on a recto/verso page…

    Would be immensely thankful if someone could chime in and help with this! Thanks in advance!

    Marina

  • August 13, 2012 at 10:46 pm #62893
    Gert Verrept

    Member

    This seems to me a printer problem. Most printers have a problem with recto-verso printing, due to the way they handel paper transport. A difference of a milimeter is often seen. If all the above is correct, both illustrations should end up on top of each other. Just verify it again to be sure. I would think that when it's printed on a press, both illustrations will end up on top of each other.

  • August 13, 2012 at 11:31 pm #62894
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks, Gert, for you reply.

    I suspected it's a printer problem because the positioning and the size (width) is identical. What you say – about recto-verso printing – explains it and I didn't know that – frankly, I had never before paid attention to how printing on both sides occurs mostly because I don't usually print graphics I guess.

    What still bothers me though is the fact that the crop and bleed marks are misaligned too – more than the illustrations. You'd think it's the same problem?

    When I print them as separate pages and place on top of each other, there's still a small – though smaller – misalignment. So, I'm not sure what to think…

    Has anything similar happened to anyone? And, more importantly, was the book afterwards printed problem-free?

    Thanks,

    Marina

  • August 13, 2012 at 11:50 pm #62896
    Gert Verrept

    Member

    Indeed strange, but yet again, difficult to say if your printer takes all the pages exactly the same way? Printing the page twice gives the same difference? You can try this, make a two page doc, make sure all the margins are identical (2 cm all around seems to be good). Make a rectangle which is identical to the magins created and has no fill and a 1 pt stroke and put that on the 2 pages.

    Print it once with crop marks (bleed marks are not needed if no bleed is specified) and once without. If this print is good (no difference or less then the original file with the illustrations), then you'll have to check the original file again.

    On the press, the printer always makes sure the crop and bleed marks fall on top of each other, otherwise the paper cannot be cut.

    If possible, ask the printer if he can run a proof of those two illustrated pages, but printed recto-verso.

  • August 14, 2012 at 12:22 am #62897
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Ha! Thanks very much, hadn't thought about doing that test. As always, something interesting came up…

    I got the same mismatch when I printed this two-page document with or without crop marks – same thing when I printed both from an exported PDF and directly from Indesign (thinking, foolishly, something might be “messing up” at the export stage). Same milimeter or so. In fact, I got the same mismatch when I printed the first page with the rectangle twice and placed the two pages on top of each other.

    The interesting part came when I decided to set up another two-page document with two rectangles without the Facing pages property… No mismatch. I'm baffled beyond belief. Does this happen because of the Indesign setup then? If so, what then – isn't this the standard practice of setting up an Indesign document for print, when it's a book that is – with facing pages? Has anyone had mismatching problems when printing a PDF/Indesign file prepared in such a way?

    The only comforting bit of this whole thing is that when I align the crop marks manually, when raised up against a light source to match through the paper, there's no mismatch on the rest of the content – illustrations or rectangles…

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