Wednesday, May 3, 2017

print design - InDesign Spread Pagination


I have created an 8 page brochure with InDesign and exported a PDF for my print guy. At the moment the pages are exported as:


1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8


But for print he'd like them formatted like this:


8-1, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5


How can I achieve that in InDesign (while keeping automated page numbering) or during the export process?


Edit: Or is that how PDFs should be laid out, and is there something he should be doing to my PDF before sending the print job?




Answer



Honestly, this is the print provider's job. There's no reason a designer should be doing pagination for press. That being said, I realize that some print providers are lazy or at times, honestly don't know how to paginate native files, or aren't using a PDF workflow yet (unbelievably) and don't know how to paginate a PDF. There are software packages specifically for prepress to paginate/trap/etc various file formats. In my experience, no quality print provider will ever ask for a file paginated in a specific manner.


Most commonly PDFs should be exported as single page PDFs (not spreads) so the printer can paginate however they need to.


The easiest way to repaginate, without altering your original INDD file, or purchasing imposition plugins/software, is to export as single page PDF. Create a new Indesign document, and import the single PDF pages and paginate to the printer spreads. Then export as PDF in spreads.


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