Print Booklet in InDesign CS3
Many of you are familiar with the InBooklet SE plug-in which was included with InDesign CS2 for doing simple impositions. (Impositions, sometimes called “printer spreads,” arrange the pages in the order needed for printing.) In InDesign CS3, this has been replaced with Print Booklet, available from the File menu.
Why was InBooklet SE replaced? It was created by ALAP, a very good plug-in developer. ALAP had a more full-featured imposition package called Imposer Pro. Adobe paid ALAP to develop a simpler version which was originally included with the Pagemaker Plug-in Pack for InDesign CS to replace a simple imposition plug-in in Pagemaker. InBooklet SE was then rolled into InDesign CS2. The problem was that Quark (the company?not the software) bought ALAP and dropped ALAP’s InDesign products. That meant that Adobe had to develop imposition on its own.
When you open Print Booklet the interface looks similar to that of InBooklet, and the features are very much the same. It opens to the Setup panel, where you set the basic parameters of the imposition. The features are only designed for simple booklets?2-up Saddle Stitch, 2-up Perfect Bound, and 2-up, 3-up, and 4-up Consecutive. But there are more sophisticated controls like “creep,” which compensates for the effect of the innermost pages getting narrower in a thick booklet.
There are a couple essential differences from InBooklet SE, however. One of InBooklet’s features was the ability to create a separate InDesign file of the imposed pages. While this was a nice feature, it sometimes didn’t work correctly?especially when you had images crossing over the pages of the spread, or with more complex formatting like anchored objects. I believe that when InBooklet created an imposition, it had to build the pages itself, it couldn’t rely on InDesign’s own internal print mechanism. This process probably broke down with more complex layouts.
So that feature was dropped in Print Booklet. Print Booklet only produces impositions as part of the printing process. Instead, there is a much closer relationship between the Print Booklet dialog box and the Print dialog box. Notice that you can even choose a Print Preset (shown at the top of the Setup panel). To switch to the Print dialog box, just click Print Settings at the bottom of the dialog box.
Imagine I want to create a 2-up Saddle Stitch imposition. I make the choices and click Preview to view a preview of the page.
I’m warned the page doesn’t fit because I have the wrong printer selected. I can just click Print Settings, which opens the Print dialog box. I choose the proper printer, choose the paper size I need, add printer’s marks using the Print dialog box controls. When I click OK in the Print dialog box, I’m immediately taken back to the Setup panel in Print Booklet. Now everything fits perfectly!
When I described Print Booklet on the InDesign Mac User Forum, a couple people were upset because they needed to send the imposition to their printer. (One of them was a designer who had taken over the in-house layout for a small printer, for example.) I said, “No problem!” Just choose the Adobe PDF printer installed by Acrobat 7 or 8 in the Print dialog box. It will create a perfect PDF using Distiller in the background. Below is a portion of my sample 16-page layout as a PDF imposition. I included images which crossed over the spread to see how Print Booklet handled it, and it did just fine.
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Steve,
The settings “space between pages” and “bleed between pages” grab my attention. What relation if any do these settings have to the Document Setup “Inside Bleed” for facing pages documents?
From the Help file:
“SPACE BETWEEN PAGES. Specifies the gap between pages (the right side of the left page and the left side of the right page). You can specify a Space Between Pages value for all the booklet types except Saddle Stitch.
“For Perfect Bound documents, if you are creeping in (with a negative value), the minimum Space Between Pages value is the width of the Creep value. If you?re manually creating signatures (for example, if there are different stocks in the same document), you can enter a Space Between Pages value to specify a starting creep for spreads that belong to different signatures.
“BLEED BETWEEN PAGES. Specifies the amount of space used to allow page elements to encroach the gap in Perfect Bound printer spread styles. This option is sometimes referred to as crossover.) The field accepts values between 0 and half the Space Between Pages value. You can specify this option only when 2-up Perfect Bound is selected.”
Hi Steve, I contacted you on adobe forum, I have a sample file showing multiple problems in InBooklet in CS2, I would like you to see it and maybe see if you have the same issues in CS3…. It could be the way I laid out the file or booklet settings, but I have had frequent problems with this.
cheers
Phil
Phil,
Click on my name in the InDesign Mac User Forum, and you’ll see my email address. Email me the file, and I’ll try it tomorrow.
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… Just choose the Adobe PDF printer installed by Acrobat 7 or 8 in the Print dialog box. It will create a perfect PDF using Distiller in the background…
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But that will create a flattened PDF which is a bit of pity isn’t it?
I’m affraid this is a step back and there’s no point in closing our eyes instead of facing it.
Normal…
Distiller does not manage transparency but only distills PostScript files so it is flattened…
I agree… It would certainly be better if Print Booklet were accessible from Export PDF dialog box! We should request it for CS4.
Well, that’s what I mean. Imposition during print isn’t very flexible. It’s a matter of push-the-button & pray. I hope they will add back the option of imposing into a native INDD file. (incuding placeable indd file into solution would be even better). Direct print output can remain as an option, I just don’t trust it. Office use only if you will.
Not that it matters much to me being still on version CS :(
Thanks for quoting from the Help file, but it does not address my question. Let me rephrase it: Does a zero inside bleed in Document Setup interfere or conflict with creating a Bleed Between Pages in Print Booklet?
Also, does Print Booklet work by generating imposed postscript page spreads directly from the InDesign file, or does it work by generating single page postscript pages from the InDesign file, and then imposing those?
The excellent sample illustrated is composite output. Does Print Booklet also do separations? Does it handle trapping?
You’re asking a lot of questions I don’t have answer for, and this is a busy period so I don’t have a lot of time for testing.
I’ll see what I can dig up from my Adobe sources, and report back.
How the new imposition plugin handles footnotes? Specialy footnotes that span over two pages?
What I do know is that Print Booklet uses InDesign’s normal print stream. It should be able to include anything that can be put on an InDesign page, just as the Print dialog can. It also should handle separations and presumably trapping, for the same reason.
But I’ll get back to you for the more technical questions after I talk to my Adobe contacts.
Steve, thanks for being brave enough to open this can of worms. :)
I’m glad Adobe is including some sort of imposition option, even though it sounds like it’s not as perfect as everyone would like.
Maybe another third party (that finds a way to be immune from being bought by Quark) will come to the rescue.
I believe there’s already a third-party that has something for CS2 (not the Alap solution), so maybe they’ll take a look at this issue and update their program for CS3 is necessary.
Obviously I have no inside info into what goes on at Adobe when it comes to features, but I’d like to think that a public beta (like Photoshop) might have allowed feedback on this issue early enough to have provided something that is more to everyone’s liking.
Remember, that the sale of ALAP to Quark happened mid-way through the CS3 development process. I think it’s remarkable that Adobe did as good a job as it did considering the time they had allocated. (Plus, there were many other outside developments impinging at the same time?support for Windows Vista, support for Intel, merger with Macromedia products, etc.)
Mike,
The only detracting comment has been Weller’s. But he needs to explain why he wants the imposed pdf, which is on it’s way to output, to have live transparency.
I agree with Steve that the development team appears so far, to have done a good job with Print Booklet. The questions I raised do not indicate my dislike of it. Phil Taz also has only had questions.
Al,
I think you wrote far more into my comments than were actually there.
Sorry if any one took things personally or felt I was putting more meaning into anyone’s comments than was intended.
Lesson learned.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not whining. Quite contrary. I’m grateful they knocked something decent up in spite of closed door at ALAP.
I don’t have to muck with imposition at all, I was just playing the devil’s advocate. So I don’t need imposed PDF with live transparency. But some printer doing his PitStop based magic would probably appreciate to have his transparent objects in one piece.
So here are some answers (from a CS product manager) to Al’s questions about Print Booklet:
(1) He doesn’t think a zero inside bleed (meaning “no bleed,” right?) should interfere or conflict with creating a Bleed Between Pages. That setting is used for perfect binding, not saddle-stitch.
(2) How is the code generated? Each individual InDesign page is converted to PostScript. The PostScript is imposed and put back into the print stream.
(3) Print Booklet definitely can do separations, but he didn’t think it supported trapping.
Weller,
IME, any printer that can handle live transparency is NOT going to want you to impose the document. They have their own hight end tools for this.
In fact, many printers will charge you extra if you do impose it since they’ll have to break the file up for their own equipment.
I’m sold! Sounds perfect. When can I get it?
Garrett
Thanks for the answers Steve. But:
(1) Zero inside bleed (no inside bleed) becomes available in the Document Setup dialog when facing pages is checked, no binding style is required, so there may be some unwarranted assumptions here.
(2) Very interesting, so this is not exactly the same postscript that the normal print to file produces, which is for a whole range of pages in one shot. Does it do it all in RAM, or does it use scratch disk space?
(3) Separations without trapping in 2007?
Sorry, Al, now you’re getting into engineering-level questions. I may or may not be able to find answers to those. You may just have to wait until you have your hot hands on CS3!
The Help file says that the two specific features you asked about aren’t available for saddle-stitch binding. Look at message #2.
Also, remember that this feature had to be put together quickly. Adding trapping just might not have been possible with the time constraints.
I just ran a test using Print Booklet for Phil Taz who was having problems with InBooklet SE. Here’s how he described his imposition problem:
“I am using ID2 4.04 and frequently have had text frames in threaded story change their dimension by a tiny amount and sometimes cause a reflow. But the main issue is with images that span the spine, if you make a booklet from spreads where pictures span, they will often be cut off or reappear on the wrong page. I have an example here from yesterday, it is quite scary….”
I could replicate his problems when I ran his file through InBooklet. However, when I imported it into InDesign CS3 and used Print Booklet, the cross-overs were handled perfectly!
Steve, Just to clarify were the problems with creating a new file or printing?
Al’s problems were both with creating a new file and with printing. He had many images crossing over pages. His 16-page spread had six errors with image crossovers! Of course, they looked fine in InBooklet SE’s preview.
Perhaps in #26 you meant to reffer to Phil’s problems, as I submited no sample.
Sorry, yes, I did mean Phil’s problems. I’m trying to do too many things this morning.
help,… I have indesign cs and access to cs2 i need to have imposition facilities…does cs2 have this option, is so where…do i need to download something else for cs2 to do it?
In InDesign CS2, you’ll find it in File > InBooklet SE (at the bottom). More information in InDesign Help.
Thanks Steve, can i make the document up in cs and then transfer it to cs2 to ‘imposition it’…
Sure, because CS2 can open up CS files.
As I replied under another section, I will repeat problems with CS2 and InBooklet here.
I have CS 2 version 4.0.5, and InBooklete 3.0.5 (their last update). InBooklet does not work with this version of CS2 (their latest), so check it out before you do anything.
You can download ALAP InBooklet from the Web if you want to use it with your CS. This is probably your safest option.
I found that if you dont have any objects on a page Print booklet doesn’t recognize it as an actual page. For example, I just tried to impose a 16 page doc and page two didn’t have anything on it. Print booklet read my doc as only having 15 pages. I even tried putting some white text on the page and it still didn’t recognize it. Only after I put coloured text on the page did it finally work properly.
Can anybody give me an answer other than Print Booklet is handi-capped?
Alex,
I think there may be a “Print Blank Pages” check box in the print dialog, and perhaps also in the Print Booklet dialog. Does that help?
Can Adobe InDesign CS open Adobe InDesign CS3 files without any problems? If there are problems does anyone know what they are?
Is it still possible to purchase the ALAP InBooklet for InDesign CS? Does it work okay with CS?
Please help…I’m extremely frustrated. I’ve had ID 2.0 and needed to create a booklet. I couldn’t find any existing plug-ins or scripts for 2.0 (especially due to the loss of the ALAP plug-in). SO, after buying CS3 (and then Tiger) and waiting and a ton of hassle installing it–way behind schedule, this Print Booklet feature is not working for me. I have 5.5 x 8.5 pages so that it will print (on a laser printer) 2-up…36 pages total, 2-up saddle stitching (they’ll be low-budget, printed on a laser printer and staped in the middle). But it imposes them incorrectly, adding another 3 blank pages (I’ve already added needed blank pages). ALSO, assuming I can get it to impose the pages correctly, how do I print double sided (odd pages only) or do I need to use a copy machine to get it how I want it?! Any help or suggestions will be appreciated…
Heidi,
I just did a test, creating a 36-page 5.5 x 8.5 inch layout, 2-up Saddle Stitch, and using the Print Booklet feature. It definitely DIDN’T add extra pages. It imposes it correctly for me.
As to printing double-sided, that is a feature of your printer. It’s not something that InDesign or any piece of software I know of does for you. If your printer had duplexing (the formal terms for this), it would be available by clicking the Printer button in that particular printer’s settings.
I’d recommend creating a PDF file (using the Adobe PDF printer is the easiest way, if you have Acrobat), and take the PDF to a copy shop to back it up.
Okay, I figured out a fix for this stupid bug in Print Booklet (not recognizing blank pages as pages unless they have text on them)…print to PDF, then use the Touchup Text Tool to delete the word you had to add to the blank pages. I can’t believe Adobe couldn’t come up with something better than this extremely limiting way of creating booklets.
Print Booklet in CS3 can recognize blank pages.
In the main Print Booklet window, click the Print Settings button at the bottom. This opens up the regular multi-panelled Print dialog box.
At the bottom of that dialog box, in the General Options area at the bottom, turn on Print Blank Pages.
You could also create a Print Preset that includes that setting (as well as the other ones you might need, such as specifying the Adobe 7 or 8 printer, choosing a Job Options setting, and so on).
I just created a 16-page completely blank PDF via Print Booklet.
For double-sided printing without a duplexing printer, use the Print Odd Pages/Print Even Pages options in Acrobat or ID. After one set is printed, you flip over the output, load it in the printer, and print the “other” pages.
Thinking of which pages are odd or even with an already imposed 2-up layout makes my head hurt, though. Put together a printer’s dummy and figure out which spreads should print on the back of which other spreads. Number the spreads manually on the dummy (outside covers are spread 1, inside covers are spread 2, the spread with pg 32 on the left and pg 1 on the right is spread three, the spread with pg 2 on the left and pg 31 on the right is spread 4, and so on). If the PDF of the imposed booklet doesn’t match your dummy, then drag spreads around in Acrobat’s Pages panel in order to get them to match — so they’re in the right odd/even order.
I’ve printed thousands of double-sided (unimposed) multipage files on my non-duplexing printer, and it can be a nightmare if one little thing goes wrong… ugh. Best investment I’ve made this year is to get the same model printer with automatic duplexing. Now I just choose “double-sided” as a printing option and it takes care of it for me.
Thank you Anne-Marie and Steve! I just saw that this “Print Blank Pages” was mentioned earlier on and I could have saved myself an extra step. As for printing, my mock-up did help with keeping track of even and odd pages/front-to-back pages. Steve, I was referring to the fact that the usual option of page sequencing (selecting printing even pages only or odd only) is grayed out when I go into Print Settings through Print Booklet. But I was able to do this with the PDF. Thanks again…
After the demise of InBooklet SE, I decided to write Booklet CE. It creates a new, imposed InDesign 2-up printer spread document from a reader spread document. There are versions for InDesign CS1, CS2, and CS3. It handles things like crossing images correctly, and can add printer marks. I like it better than Print Booklet; but then again I’m biased. :-)
Stephen, this looks very interesting! I haven’t used Booklet CE yet, but if anyone cares to try, you can check out here. It’s shareware, so if you like it, send him a bit of lucre.
We just made the switch to Indesign CS2 (CS3 came out a few weeks later) from PageMaker 6.5 and I am wanting to make printer spreads of multiple documents (booked pub in PageMaker). This can’t be done with InBoolket SE. I’m wondering do we buy Imposer Pro for CS2 or just upgrade to CS3? Does CS3 handle books (multiple files)? I think we are leaning toward the upgrade (which is a hard sell since we just purchased “new” software. Plus I don’t think Imposer Pro ($400.00) will work in CS3 when we do upgrade. What are your thoughts? We waited until we knew Indesign could handle converting PageMaker documents without a lot of hassle because we have thousands of PageMaker files we didn’t want to recreate from scratch. So far I like CS2 a lot. My only complaint so far is that I have a glitch with my shortcuts not working at times. I have to shut down Indesign and reopen it to reset them when it happens. Any ideas on this one? We use Windows XP.
Thanks.
I have been having problems with the In Booklet SE in InDesign CS2. I gave up on the create new file option and am trying to print to PDF. My goal is to take a 44 page document 5.5×8.5″ and make a PDF in a booklet-spread layout with a creep margin set. I cannot figure out how to get this to work. The closest thing i get leaves off the back page. (the back page has an image and black text on it.) I tried it on a coworker’s computer and got the same result. I called adobe.com and they told me they couldn’t help me unless my agency paid them a minimum of 39 dollars for a support package, and that is not even promising they can help at all. i’m kind of stuck here… any help is appreciated!!!
J, are you sure it’s 44 pages total? No more, no less?
Steve, I don’t have a good answer for the shortcuts-not-working problem, except for this post.
As for imposition: No, I don’t think CS3’s booklet feature helps any. The only good solution is to make a PDF of the whole book (from the Book palette) and then use an imposition program for Acrobat. One of the best out there is called Print Collection, from a little company called… Quark! Bizarre, but true. Not sure if it’s updated for Acrobat 8 yet.
J,
If InBooklet SE isn’t working for you — and it does have its problems — try ImpositionCompanion, at rorohiko.com (free), or, better yet, Booklet CE, at products.carlsenenterprises.com (shareware).
Stephen, I cannot thank you enough for getting me through this day!!! I tried the shareware and didn’t understand that, so i tried the InpositionCompanion and it worked perfectly!!! I still don’t understand why it works, or what happens when i use it, but i am saving as separate files, and getting the PDF results that i needed. Maybe when i have time, i can learn a little more. Thanks so much for your help!!!!!!!
If I print to PDF 8, where does it save that PDF? I printed to it but have no clue where the file is to give to my printer (human not computer printer). All that happened is that a distiller named Adobe PDF8 opened (icon looks like a printer) and I still can’ t find the file.
Here’s what happens with me in InDesign CS3. I choose Adobe PDF 8.0. Then I click the Printer… button at the bottom of the dialog box. Click through the warning. In the menu that says Copies & Pages, select PDF Options. Select the PDF preset there (e.g., PDF/X-1a:2001). Click Print. You’ll be prompted for a file name and location to save the file. Click Save. Then click the Print button. This will create the file and save it where you designate.
David,
Thanks! I think we are going to go with Print Collection by Quark. Seems that Quark needs Adobe for pdf files and Adobe needs Quark for printer spreads, they are stuck with each other for the moment.
As for the shortcuts-not-working, I read the posts and I believe it is not an operating system problem on both Mac and Windows, but a Adobe software glitch. I have used numberous programs over the past 20 years and none of them had problems with shortcuts not working. I believe Adobe needs to work on a patch for this problem.
Thanks again for the help. I appreciate it!
I was about ready to yank all my hair completely out when I upgraded to CS3 due to Booklet problems. The new Print Booklet feature was adding blank pages (as mentioned in the “Messages” section of the Print Booklet dialog) for no apparent reason. I Googled everywhere which brought me to this web page. But alas, still no help. There was no reason blank pages should have been added to my eyes.
But after spending countless hours on this, I clicked the “Print Settings…” button for the umpteenth time and I realized the “Print Blank Pages” checkbox was not checked! Ticking that box and clicking OK fixed the problem.
If only Print Booklet could be smarter to report common mistakes like this to the user, we’d all have more hair!
Have InDesign CS3 on a Mac. Was used to Pagemaker on PC… how do I build a booklet and save it as a booklet in pdf? I can’t get page 1 on the same sheet as page 8. Thanks.
Bill,
Check out the script I just uploaded to:
https://pdsassoc.com/downloads/MakeBooklet.zip
This is a very preliminary version of a script that could grow in a number of directions, including support of bleed at the binding, creep, even signatures.
But right now, it is little more than a proof of concept. It produces a document that looks a lot like PageMaker’s booklets except that the pages are imported from your original document — this means you can use Edit Original to update the original and your booklet will automatically take on the edits.
The script is CS3 only. After unzipping, put it in the Scripts Panel folder in the Scripts folder in the Version 5.0 folder in the Adobe InDesign folder in your Preferences (man is that deep!). Just open your original document and run the script. Provided your document length is a multiple of four, the script will make the booklet and save it in the same folder as your original with a unique name that includes “bklt” — this way people are less likely to save over the original document, thereby losing everything.
Dave
Does anyone know how to impose a booklet (.Indb) that contains 3 separate files? The print booklet option under the ‘file’ menu is greyed out. I am probably missing something simple.
When I choose print book, the pages print out in the reassembled correct order for binding, but since I need to copy the back side onto the front side on my copier, I have a problem. The pages aren’t mirrors, even if I choose “center page” on the print dialoge. Please help.
I never had a problem “creating a new document” when using InBooklet in IDCS2 – so I am very disappointed to read that IDCS3 does not support this option. Does Stephen’s “Booklet CE” have this option or plan to incorporate this option? Also, does anyone know if ID3 imports and automatically places a mutliple page PDF in an ID3 document? I had a great script for CS1 & 2, but I don’t think it’s going to be compatible for CS3.
I Just have a question abut How to create Booklet Style. Means How we can add 8up, 12 Up Style in InBooklet.
Don: The best way to impose a booklet is to export to PDF and then use an Acrobat plug-in such as Quark’s Print Collection (yes, Quark!).
Jack: Yes, the PlaceMultiPagePDF script comes with InDesign CS3 (and it’s installed automatically).
Sushil: The InBooklet and PrintBooklet free plug-ins (which come with the program) are only for small booklets. They are not designed for large-scale imposition. Printers need a more powerful program, such as Kodak Preps. Quark Imposer (part of the Print Collection) is also a good midrange solution for 8up.
Not sure if this is the right place for this question…but any suggestions for getting multiple-ups? For example, putting multiples of a business card on an 11×17 sheet. Usually the printer sets this up for me but I’ve come across a need to do this myself.
Lana, often the best way to do this is to export one from the original document as a PDF, then import it into a new 11 x 17 document and use Step and Repeat. (If you’re using CS3, you can skip the export-as-PDF step and just import the original ID file.)
Steve,
I am using CS3 and someone sent me a file that requires the inbooklet plugin and I don’t have it. I also cannot open the inx file he included. It tells me that it is not a “valid InDesign interchange document.” There are some design pieces that I am trying to get out of the document for a project I am doing. How can I open the file in InDesign to get what I need? Thanks!
Rick, that sounds pretty bad! Perhaps they used some specialized plug-in that you need. (InBooklet SE shouldn’t be a required one.) Or perhaps it’s corrupted?
I called adobe’s Tec support on imposing books (as in multiple files in organized with an .indb file).
Apparently that feature was “left out” of CS3, they would file a feature request, and suggested I go to their forum (https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=68) and submit a request there also.
But for the moment their only suggestion was to save it as a pdf and hand impose it.
Thanks Anne-Marie for mentioning to check the box “print blank pages” in the Print Settings. We’ve been looking our asses off trying to find out why it kept adding blank pages in the “print booklet” feature. btw, we do find it a shame it doesn’t have the feature “create document” in Print Booklet anymore, which we used a lot in CS2.
I fully agree with Weller. I almost regret upgrading our pre-press computers from CS2 due to the absence of InBooklet SE alone. There is no substitute for the InDesign document. Sure, the crossovers and bleeds seem to work fine, but what happens when they don’t?
The simplicity and speed of InBooklet was also its best feature, and there is very little ease of use in Print Booklet. Thank goodness for print presets I suppose. Either way I’m hoping that Adobe comes out with an equal alternative to InBooklet in CS4, if not sooner.
and the verdict is in…Print Booklet is a failure. turns out it does not keep black color separations (adds Auto Black and CMY?) and slices images. Horrible for print. I am running CS2 just to get my InBooklet SE PDF. This is what I was afraid of.
Sarah, can you explain a bit more? What do you mean by “slices images” and “does not keep black color separations”? It sounds like you need to click the Print Settings button to make sure you have the correct Print dialog box settings (including the color management settings).
I’ve experienced something that I believe is similar to Sarah’s problem. Mactel, CS3, PDF output.
In my case, where text boxes were over images, there is a fine white hairline around the text box. I assume that this is a transparency flattener problem, but it makes the current InBooklet pretty much useless for my purposes…
Print Booklet has a lot of promise and most of the pieces seem to be there, but I am having a problem that I cannot seem to solve: If I make a PDF from my indd using File > Export and one of my Presets the resulting file looks, and prints, fine. However, when I Print Booklet and select Adobe PDF 8.0 and the same Preset that I selected when Exporting, some areas of transparency do not render properly. When I view the documents’ Properties (File > Properties) I notice that the Exported one uses a PDF Library for its creation and the Booklet version uses Distiller. I have had similar problems when I have used Distiller directly rasther than Exporting the PDF. What is the solution here? I have a large project where the ability to rapidly output imposed PDFs with bleeds and crop marks is vital.
Thanks.
Is there any plugin for IDCS3 that will output a new ID file after imposition? Inbooklet feature in CS2 was very handy.
Hi,
I dont know what Im doing wrong, but after booklet printing all images in the PDF file are in low resolution. I cant find any option to alter the image subsampling on the booklet menu box (neither under print setup).
Anyone?
I’ve got InDesign CS version 3.0.1, but there’s no “Print Booklet” on the File menu. I can’t even find a reference to it in the Help file. Is there something I’m missing?
Dave, nope you’re not missing anything. It’s a CS2 feature.
Suzanne asked: “Can Adobe InDesign CS open Adobe InDesign CS3 files without any problems? If there are problems does anyone know what they are?” and not answered…
i asking again…
thanks :)
Can anyone help with setting up a top-folding booklet? Finished size when folded is 6 7/8 x8 7/8″ – I can not figure out how to set up the booklet so that it opens up (rather than right to left). Thanks.
Hi, I’m only new to InDesign (CS2) and have produced a booklet that I want to print as an A5. I have tried numerous times in both InDesign and then in Adobe to print it but I can’t get the settings right. It prints too small on the page, runs over the page etc etc… Is there a way of submitting documents for your advice?
Thank you!
hi all, i have a 200 book to save as pdf in booklets made of 16 pages (1-16, 17-32, etc…).
What do i have to do?
thanks for the answers!!
Quote: “Is there any plugin for IDCS3 that will output a new ID file after imposition? Inbooklet feature in CS2 was very handy.”
…the Printer Co. wants everything imposed, help!
What can I do to make it fit!? I have the indesign document in A5, in the print settings and the printer itself is A4. A5 is half the size of A4. Still something is wrong: “the booklet doesn’t fit the current paper size. Click print settings etc.” What have I done wrong?
Is it possible to have different page orientations within the same InDesign CS3 document? Example: page 1 as portrait orientation and the next 20 as landscape orientation. How would this be done?
thank you for any advice.
No, it’s not possible to mix orientations in a document.
You could create a book from different documents with different orientations. Or you could create a PDF for PDFs of different orientations.
thank you :)
I am hoping someone can help. I am trying to use Inbooklet to create a “printer spread” PDF. I don’t have distiller. I selected Adobe 8 from the print dialog box, a but it never prompts me to enter in a save location or file name. Any insight to my problem?
Thanks
The InDesign CS3 version of Croptima InPlate, a professional imposition plugin will be available within weeks.
Oncourse: If you have Acrobat Professional, you have Distiller. If you don’t have Acrobat Pro, you need it. I have had that problem (not asking where to save it), but sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Not sure why.
A very useful site and instruction. But i ran into a problem myself. i have a 30page booklet and when i followed your instruction. somehow. Indesign made another 2 blank page for me. Why is this? my setting is 2 saddle stitch.
instead of having page 1 and page 30 printed on the 1st paper. a blank page and 1st page is on the 1st paper.
can someone help me out on this. cheers.
Shaun, if you print a booklet on a piece of paper, there are a minimum of 4 pages. So every “booklet” you create has to have a page count divisible by 4.
How do I set the quality of booklet pdf as in PDF Preset in ID?
The quality of booklet pdf is very poor compared to individual pdf exported in PDF Preset.
I have seen this question before here. Everything works ok, but the resolution of the final PDF is way way too low. For instance a 8 pg pdf at its highest settings turns to be 32 MB. Printing as a booklet I get files that are 500 K only. I spent the last 3 hours trying to find any setting that gives me better results but so far It´s been fruitless…
Well, i think i found a solution to my problem. I opened Distiller, and changed its PDF export settings. Then I produced a booklet from ID, and the new file was a very high resolution one.
Need some help with InDesign/Print Booklet. I have a 36 page document all set and ready to print on our Xerox 7750. My preview in the Print Booklet dialog box looks perfect…blank pages in the right place and margins look great….but I’m having all kinds of issues when I actually print. The margins are all off and the order is not as it appears in the preview. Not to mention only spreads 1-9 print. Seems to me that my printer is ignoring all the Print Booklet settings…..help!
Hello, Steve.
When I print the booklet via Adobe PDF, I don’t get the list of presets that includes press quality, PDF/X-1a:2001, etc..etc.. The whole list is missing here. Generally i don’t mind customizing, but the problem I run into is that, despite selecting CMYK color output and high-resolution, I’m still getting RGB output and small files. Can you suggest a way to resolve this? Thanks!
Need some help in printing a booklet. My catalog has 30 spreads (58 pages), each set up to print on tabloid paper size, front & back & landscape. When I go through the set up of printing the book, it alerts me in the Preview tab: “2 blank pages have been added to create the booklet” (in the Message box) & “the booklet doesn’t fit the current paper size. Click Print Settings to specify a larger paper size or to scale the booklet to fit” (in the Warning box). Going through the Print Settings, everything is set up correctly, according to how the “book” prints straight from going through File-Print…
I don’t need the blank pages added because it messes up the layout. I am wanting to use the Booklet printing because of the Creep option, as to not loose information when the book’s edges are trimmed. Could you please help???!!!!
Thank you so much for any information!!
Steve,
I’m hoping you can help me avoid ripping out my hair.
I’m trying to make a PDF from InDesign CS3. My document is 395 pgs long and each page is 5×7.5in. I can get everything set up the way I need it in Print Booklet but then how do I make it a PDF? I need to bring this to my printer as a PDF in printer spreads and set up in 16 pg signatures for 2up perfect bound.
Do you have a solution or secret?
Andrea: Just “print” to pdf. If you search for the word “pdf” on this page and you’ll see several references to it.
I’ve done that too. But where does it go after it’s a PDF? I have found a log of previously “printed” PDF’s but how do I view them or get one of them onto a disc to transport to my printer?
Mauricio, thank you so much – I was getting the fine white lines / low quality print, but changing the settings in Distiller worked like a charm.
62:
Quark Print Collection requires QuarkXpress for installation.
Bill, I just checked with Quark and they insist that you don’t need QX to install Print Collection (if you’re only using the Acrobat plug-ins).
David (103):
Does that apply to the QPC Evaluation installation? I ran it (Intel Mac). It asked where to put the QuarkXPress extensions and didn’t install the Acrobat plug-in. The installer prohibits installing again.
QPC for Acrobat 8, more details. The Mac installer link on Quark’s Print Collection product page is to version 1. Version 1.1 is required for Acrobat 8. But once the version 1 installer is run, the version 1.1 installer won’t.
help me! anyone!
i have old versions of everything. i have indesgin CS version 3.01 and acrobat pro 6.0.6. i have a booklet that when complete will be 32 pages, LTR size folded in half and stapled, both sides of the paper printed. this is most likely going to be Xeroxed at kinkos, so no help from a pre-press person. right now it’s set up in readers spreads. is there any way to help me repaginate it into printers spreads (and ready for double-sided printing) in the old versions of programs i have? i can’t seem to find any settings anywhere that say 2up saddle stitch, or “print bookelt” settings. i’m totally confused.
help!
how do i save a booklet in cs3 so that i can email it?
thanks.
Croptima InPlate looks very fast. Any idea as to why no version for the Mac?
hello all, i have an indesign document with 19 spreads. For some reason indesign cs3 decides it wants it to be 20 spreads, so it adds 2 blank pages for no reason. These blank pages won’t go away even if i click or unclick “print blank printer spreads” in the set up window, or if i click or unclick the “print blank pages” box in the print settings window. Any ideas on what i could be doing wrong?
I used InDesign and InBooklet along with data merge features to print addresses, etc. on newsletters. This was because a separate file was created that was the booklet file. Can one do a data merge with the CS3 booklet printing?
I am having the same problem as odiseo. My document length is divisible by 4 so I don’t understand why the print booklet (cs3) randomly adds a page or pages – this makes the booklet not be in the correct order. The back is no longer the back. Thanks for any help.
There is also a free online service for making booklets from PDF files.
hi Steve,
How can i go over the printing margins? I would like to have a page with not margins (that small white margin) around the page. How can I set this up?
thanks
Bradford
Bradford: The white margin you see may just be the limitation of your printer. Most printers cannot print all the way to the edge of the page.
I was having the low-resolution problem, too, even after changing the settings in Distiller. I found a solution: in Print Booklet Print Settings, go to Graphics, and change the Send Data field to “All”. Then, as long as the Distiller options are set right, you should have hi-res images.
Slava!! You just saved my life. Thank you!
The “creep” function is brilliant and absolutely necessary. I’m glad Adobe has people that think about these things.
OK, now Im having the same problem as ann and odiseo.
I printed a booklet a few days ago just fine. Now that there have been text changes and a master page item moved, Print Booklet took out my page 3 and added a blank page at the beginning. Please help.
Update: everyone get ready for a head spin.
The problem was, I deleted colors I wasnt using. It turned ALL my black text (this is a black only doc) to registration and caused the above problem. Now, page three is back in and the mysterious blank page is gone. Somebody from Adobe/Apple explain THAT!
After all this time since CS3’s release (particularly given InDesign’s modular architecture), it would have been nice to have a page-imposition plug-in by now. Even PageMaker had page imposition. It’s tedious to do impositions by hand — like in the late 1980s–early 1990s. I’d rather be in as much control of page imposition as possible, rather than leaving it up to the print stream. Call me old-fashioned.
dear steve,
i want to know is there any way to impose 4up or 8up pages in indesign CS3. old alap plugins no longer work in indesign cs3. they now belong to Quark. They have quark print collection.
thanks
[…] PostsPrint Booklet in InDesign CS3 by Steve Werner Making the First Page a Left Page by David Blatner Add a Page to the Right Spot […]
Hi Friends,
Recently i got InDesign CS3 and, is in trouble saving a paginated booklet as IDCS3 dont have InBooklet plugin as in CS, where i can “create new document” using InBooklet. How can I paginate 500 pages booklet with print marks and color codes?!! I want a paginated ID file not the print pdf… you can send your replies to [email protected] while posting here… thank you guys.
Hello…thanks for the amazing tid bits of information. I wish I could export into PDF so that my printer could take care of all the hassle as well. So getting this straight, if I have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, I will be able to export it into PDF?
Thanks.
No…you will be able to print to Adobe PDF.
Having Acrobat will do nothing to change the capability of InDesign’s Print Booklet feature.
It is after all called Print Booklet, not Export Booklet.
I nearly went crosseyed trying to read through all this info….maybe someone can provide me a short answer.
I have a 36pg catalog in 18 spread docs set up in a book. is there any way to print a booklet version without going through pdfing and downloading yet another thing to make it into a book? I am totally lost……
@Sandy, I know what you mean. Lots of info on this page! Unfortunately, you’re going to have to get a PDF out of the Book panel. You could, however, place each page of that PDF into another InDesign document and then use File > Print Booklet. Or perhaps try to merge the book files together.
You could also place each of the InDesign files into a new InDesign file and then use Print Booklet.
But why would use use 18 documents for something such a small project?
A couple of weeks ago we printed a 17 page 12×18 duplex piece that we cut and folded – so 68 pages of 8.5×11 saddle stitched. When printing from InDesign to our Xerox printer we found it worked fine to print the doc uncollated (we were printing 400 brochures in house). When we tried to print collated, the computer was spinning forever as it went through each page of the 68 page brochure 400 times (we never saw it finished and chose to print uncollated then manually collate). We reduced the number to 10 brochures and tried again, but still unbelievably slow for processing, then the printing time was longer as well.
I’m assuming there’s a better way. Any ideas?
Thanks
@Marty: It might be this issue we discussed a while back.
It appears that print booklet has a 60 page maximum. If your booklet is 64 pages or more, the function won’t work. Has anyone encountered this?
I have a dilema. How can I print 2-up saddle stitch for a book is comprised of mulitple indd files? I am only able to get each of the indd files to print at one time. Thanks
@slacosta: See the posts above dated Sept 6, 2008
I’m doing a 300 page book with high resolution images. What is the largest CS3 InDesign file size (not PDF) that will be stable? Do I have to break it into smaller sections as I did with Quark?
There’s no hard and fast rule. 300 pages should be safe in one file but you might want to break it up just to make it easier to work with.
I have a question regarding exporting a large file in printer spreads. I seem to have followed everything to a “T”, however when I print to Adobe 8.0 it doesn’t great a PDF file of my project. Rather it creates a “log” listing errors. Need to help in order to move forward!!!
You are my hero.
I guess I’ll go back to using pagemaker or CS2 for those simple booklet tasks. Too bad they went away in CS3, I make CD booklets & recipe books & user manuals & newsletters, all used build a booklet. Also have used build a booklet to print administrative rules.
I am having problems with CS3 InDesign and Pdf’s. I work at a company that does a lot of in house printing. I frequently create documents that are double sided, one page per side. As there is only one page per side, I can’t use Print Booklet. When I send the document to the printer it prints the pages on separate pieces of paper, it wont print double sided. If I export it as a Pdf and then print that I can print double sided, but I have problems with the transparency. Text over it sometimes looks thicker even when it was originally on another layer, and sometimes the transparent areas have a yellow tint.
I’ve been reading about some problems encountered with creating a book. I have just switched from PageMaker and am using CS InDesign 3.0.1 (old, I know), but need to be able to make booklets easily. Am I to understand that 3.0.1 will not allow me to make a booklet spread; if so, what would you suggest?
I found written: “In InDesign CS3, this has been replaced with Print Booklet, available from the File menu.”
I have InDesign CS 3.0.1 but in the File Menu I don’t find any “Print booklet”.
Where can I find?
Nico
I would like to know why i can’t create a new document in print booklet???
@Nico: I’m sorry, but I’m not sure why that doesn’t appear in your File menu.
@Eve: Print Booklet just doesn’t do that. I encourage you to go to Adobe.com’s feedback page and tell them that you want that feature. If enough people do that, they will add it in CS5, I bet.
How can I change the generated pdf spread names in either Print Booklet or in the pdf to something our copy center can use easier in the printer software? The copy center operator would like “1” etc better than “Spread 1 of 20 – Pages (40,1)” etc.
i have a large booklet i want to make, but the problem i’m having is i cant seem to tell the computer to print the pages at different times because i want to print on both sides of each piece of paper. cause at the moment its just printing them all on seperate pages and therefore i have to stick 2 pieces of paper to gether to form a full page.
does anyone know how to do this??
i’m not sure whether you have to do print odds only or something like that.
thanks
I am trying to upload a press ready pdf to Lightning Source (POD). They require single page output yet it needs to be imposed. CS3 seems to only have options for 2/4 up spreads, etc. I don’t see a way to paginate single page output. Any solutions? I must get this book out quickly and don’t see a way for CS3 to support this requirement.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
You have no idea how much this tutorial helped. My friends and I tried to publish the first installment of our zine and couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t print.
You have no idea how much you’ve helped us!
Hi,
I have some trouble with the the PDF printer. I’m not sure if my file is turned into a pdf file. Where can i find it? What happens is that the printer ADOBE PDF 7.0 shows up in my dock and since i don’t have an actual printer installed it pauses and there’s no sign of a distiller or a saved pdf file…
What should i do?
one more thing whenever i push the resume print button it shows a pop up that says: ‘client-error-not-possible’
???
Please i need some help with this…Thanks!
Muy buena informacion, tarde un monton de tiempo en encontrar este sitio.
Very good tutorial. I have long time looking about Booklet. Thanks…
Has anyone tried this InDesign page imposition software? It says it produces editable documents as well as PDF files.
https://www.croptima.com/index.php?modul=home
Answering my own post after using a free trail of the Croptima plug-in. It can’t handle graphics that go through the gutter. Also, the measurements are for European paper sizes.
I’m trying to print an a5 magazine. so its a4 spread but I don’t know how to set it to paper where printers marks will fit.
Any help greatly appreciated
@Guus: It often just puts it on the Desktop (on my Mac). No idea what the client error is; you may need to reinstall Acrobat Pro.
@Chazmo: If your final document will be A5, then you should make the page size (in InDesign) A5, not A4. Don’t try to build your own spreads on each InDesign page.
Hi! I have a slight bit of problem after exporting PDF from Print Booklet from inDesign CS4. What happens is, its export everything nicely, no error, nothing, places file neatly on desktop for me.
However when I try opening the document – with Acrobat Pro, it prompt an error saying the document is damaged, Preview is not opening it either.
For such a small book of 80pages, the booklet PDF is 650MB! which is way beyond its size – even though they are high quality images in half of the pages.
Help and Thank you for reading!
Hold it! I guess it was a fluke.
I repeated the same steps, but this time instead of exporting directly to PDF, i exported it to a Postscript(PS) file which was about 650MB (as well). Finally I oped the PS file in Distiller – it checked it and – sort of fixed my PDF for me – its now 28MB (which feels and looks great to me).
Thanks anyway! I spend days following this article and responses from people. Which finally brought me to a stage of understanding some of know-hows.
Cheers!
Hello,
I need help figuring out a problem.
I have 3.5 x 5 pages, I can build my booklet in Print Booklet to 7 x 5. That is all fine and gives me a 2up version.
But I need to print 4 up, work and turn (booklet verison twice).
Are there any quick commands to do this or do I have to continue to copy and paste my individual pages (after coping the master page numbers to each page first) into my own 4 up document manually?
how to save the booklet without print it?
I noticed that when I want to print many copies of something – books for example, from InDesign the file is processed to the printer for each copy and not once for the same job. This is all despite the copies being from the same file. Is there a way around this?
Hmmm. Snow Leopard breaks the Adobe PDF printer function. Adobe’s suggested fix is to use the “Save As PDF” feature, but this doesn’t work with Create Booklet.
Are there any workarounds? I need to turn a 4-page InD document into a ledger-sized PDF to take to Office Depot. Our in-house printer is broken.
Is there a way of saving ur Cs3 ‘Print Booklet’ file? Without printing it.
Does not work for me. I have a document with 20 pages, which qualifies for booklet printing without adding pages. But the “Print booklet” dialogue tells me there are pages missing. I have three blank sheets, but the option “Print blank sheet” is checked. The pages that Indesign will add are in the wrong place, so the preview shows me a totally mixed up booklet.
Then it comes to the paper size. The document’s paper size is A4 portrait. So the booklet will result in A3 landscape. If I set the paper size in the printer dialogue (PDF printer), I can only choose A3, but not landscape. If I set the page direction, then the preview fits fine to the page, but it’s upright. And the page order is still wrong, of course.
@Max:
Only as PDF. You need to have a PDF printer.
I have a book of math. The equacion has made in program math type. How can I transformed the black with 4 colors in a black 1 color.
Thanks a lot Elzaba
I found out about the blank pages: the “Print booklet” dialogue has its own print settings, apart from the normal “Print” dialogue. There you also need to check the “Print blank pages” option. Then the booklet will be fine.
Hi Steve I know this is an old post, but I need to do exactly that: send a printed pdf format of the print booklet to my printer. I’m using Acrobat 9 professional and it’s not working. Please explain how I can do this.
Thank you
Hi everybody
I’m an italian indesign beginner and i’m trying to settle my own layout for a catalogue.
I found almost everything i needed to align text boxes and images but i need a script who can reflect objects understanding if (the object) is on left or right page, anybody can help me?
Thank you very much
@ELZANA: You may need to correct these in Acrobat Pro after exporting the PDF from InDesign. Acrobat can convert color to gray. Or use Enfocus Pitstop.
@Mix: That is a question better suited for the forums (indesignsecrets.com/forum, or click Forums in navbar above). (But you might look at the plug-ins from in-tools.com)
In fact, I will close the comments on this post now, as this list has grown far too long.