Creating the Source Document

Transcription

1 By Steve Kirkby, an occasional InDesign user This tutorial is for those who do not have access to a commercial printer to take care of imposition and printing, and who therefore need to make a booklet from start to finish. It features my Canon ip4600 inkjet printer. It is based on InDesign CS5.5 but can be used with earlier versions. It assumes that you know something about the creation of a normal InDesign document. It takes you through making a saddle stitched 2-Up 8 page A5 (297mm high, 210 mm wide) booklet, printed on A4 paper. Any number of pages (as multiples of 4) could be used, and any paper size provided that it does not exceed the capability of you printer. (For US paper sizes, read US Letter instead of A4 and half- US letter for A5.) Making a booklet involves three stages: First, the creation of the source document including master pages, text, illustrations, page numbering etc.; Second, the imposition of the pages to suit the assembly of the booklet; and Third, the printing of the booklet on to paper of the size specified. This third stage requires the setting of many parameters and may require a lot of experimentation. Creating the Source Document This is done by creating a straightforward InDesign document as though you were planning a brochure or catalog. 1. Launch InDesign and choose File > New > Document (not File > New > Book as you might expect). The New Document dialog box will appear. Make the settings as shown, (but choose your own number of pages), especially those outlined in red. There is no harm in checking Master Text Frame because you might need it. Choose values for the other settings such as margins (not shown in the image here. All these can be changed later). Press OK. 2. You will now be presented with a blank InDesign document, with settings as you have just specified. As usual, create any Master Pages that you need, including page numbering (and for details of that, see the end of this tutorial). Next, apply the master pages (if more than one) to their pages. (Pages Panel

2 > Top Right Corner > Apply Master to Pages). Populate your pages with text (appropriately threaded) and graphics and save the document. Imposition 3. With your document still open, from the InDesign main menu, Choose Print > Print Booklet. The Print Booklet dialog box will open. Set this up as shown although you will not normally need to change the defaults. Press Print Settings. 4. This reveals the (First) Print Dialog Box. Of course, this and the following images apply to my Canon device and your printer will display different boxes. Due to the variety of printers available, you will need to amend these instructions as best you can. 5. In the boxes, the arrows point to essential settings. (You won t believe how long it took me to get these and others right! There are probably 30 possible combinations of print settings and if the wrong one is chosen, failure is the result.) Press Page Setup (ignore the warning). 6. The Page Setup box will appear. Check that it is correct. Press OK.

3 7. The (First) Print box will reappear (not shown here). This time, Press its Printer Button to get this (Second) Print box. Change Layout to Paper Handling and make the other changes as shown by the red arrows. 8. For the Canon printer, while still in this box, change Paper Handling to Duplex Printing and Margin and make the other changes. Press Print. (Alternatively, if your printer does not offer Duplex Printing, set your printer to print only odd pages. Later, you will need to reset your printer to print even pages. See paragraph 12.) 9. Having pressed Print in the last box, the (First) Print dialog box will re-appear. Choose Setup and make the other changes. Press OK.

4 The Print Booklet box will reappear. 10. Choose Preview. Hopefully, the two pages in the spread will appear side-byside, arranged as shown, filling the paper page, and showing the numbers of the first and last pages. 11. If incorrect, work out the logic of what might have caused the problem, go back to the dialog boxes for the orientation of the pages, and for Duplex Printing, and change their settings, and experiment there. However, make only one change at a time, and keep a cool head!. 12. Assuming Duplex Printing, Press Print in the Print Booklet dialog box and printing will begin. This is the time to waste a lot of paper! Both sides will be printed in one continuous operation. The other side will possibly be printed with the pages rotated. If so, the suspect could be the settings for Duplex Printing. Look for and consider changing any settings that affect orientation. 13. If Duplex Printing is not enabled, having selected Odd Pages in paragraph 8, Press Print and those pages will be printed. Flip the printed pages in the appropriate way, go back and select Even pages. Press Print again and the other sides will be printed. If the other sides are printed rotated, change the way in which you manually flipped the first set of one-sided prints. PAGE NUMBERING Basic page numbering can be learned by searching Add Basic Page Numbering at Adobe s help from the InDesign Main Menu. But what if you want the numbering to start on other than the first page to allow for a front cover, and perhaps a copyright statement on the second page, (and, if you want, contents on the third page)? Search for Add Section. Assuming that you have page numbering already inserted into A-Master, specify a new section to start at the first page to hold numbering (eg., the third in this example ). To do that, select that page in the Pages Panel; choose Layout > Numbering and Section Options; specify 1 as the

5 start number; Enter 2 in Section Prefix (to avoid confusion it won t appear in the booklet); OK. Next, in the Pages Panel, choose New Master and accept B; enter 2 in Number of Pages; leave the master blank; OK. In the Pages Panel, select the first two pages; choose Apply Master Pages and change it to B-Master (ignore To Pages). As a result, you have a blank B-Master applied to the first two pages, leaving you free to insert graphics and/or text into those first two pages of the document. SEPARATE COVER You might like to make a cover (pages 1, 2, 7 and 8 in this tutorial), either of a better quality paper, or with an image on the front and outside back pages. To do that, simply split your project into two booklets: Cover and Main. The Cover will have 4 pages. Put an image on the first, copyright on the second, and an image or summary on the last (4th). If you want to include the text of the last page of your Main document on the last but one page of the Cover, copy it manually from the Main and paste it, and enter a page number (5 in this example) manually in a new text frame. CREEP Creep describes the fact that, due to the thickness of the paper at the folded spine, pages physically move out from the spine from the first to the middle pages and back in after that. This of course makes the text etc. on the pages move also. To cure this, Creep is set, (negative) by trial and error, in the Print Booklet dialog box. It can be ignored for small booklets, but for ones with many pages and/or thick paper, Creep should be adjusted and the long edge of the book will have to be trimmed (because the inner pages will stick out). BINDING Small booklets will often be bound by stapling. The temptation is to grip the right hand pages and firmly fold the left pages over at the spine. But this will cause all the right-side pages to remain uncrept (because they are gripped by your hand) and all the creeping will be appear in the left hand pages. This can be avoided by putting inconspicuous marks accurately on the spine, (perhaps by putting, in InDesign, a small line on the spine edge of the last page). It could then be stapled with the booklet flat and only then folded, at the line of the staples. For the small booklet producer (for whom this tutorial is made) who must do with an opened desk stapler, placing the booklet on a piece of firm tufted carpet will allow the points of the staples to pass cleanly through the spine.