formatting "flip cover" book 1

[aaronhobart]

Hello all. After playing and playing with it, I finally decided there's gotta be something I either don't know (very likely) or just haven't thought of (as likely).

I edit and design a literary journal and am laying out our next issue, a double issue with another journal. The way I want the book is to have the two issues upside down from each other and meeting in the middle, so each has its own cover, etc. I haven't been able to quite figure out how to do this, once I have the two issues laid out as different documents. Is there a way to do it in Quark? Do I make two different pdfs and combine those? Any ideas. I see in Quark how to flip vertical and horizontal; it would create my desired effect if I did that to one of the issues, then printed it to pdf as "print back to front." If I did that, is there a way to butt the two pdfs together.

Any ideas/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
-aaron

 

[jimoblak]

I would ignore flip vertical and horizontal and simply rotate the art 180 degrees after you designed one of the covers. Turning the monitor upside down may be awkward.

I would also do all of this layout directly in a single Quark document and not place PDFs (unless the PDFs were already made). Working directly in Quark is much easier than trying to handle PDF or EPS layouts that have been placed as single objects.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[aaronhobart]

Sorry for the vague explanation to begin with. Designing the cover, and just rotating 180 degrees will be (actually, was) easy. The trickiness has been in the inside of the book itself. Ah, I just thought of how to describe it: like a Spiegel catalog. So when you get to the halfway mark, the pages are upside down with page numbers counting in reverse back down to one.

 

[jimoblak]

This is why printers use imposition software. You should be able to create two different documents and your printer will have imposition software to create the book. This is a simple exercise for a printer.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[aaronhobart]

cool. I've been meaning to ask the printer, but just hadn't. Every other issue I have done was either more straightforward or I had it printed by someone I knew, so the means of communication was a little more open. Thank you, that's what I needed to be told to calm my worries. I appreciate it.

 

[signal49]

Just need to chime in that not ALL printers have imposition software! I would definitely check with them first.... they may end up positioning by hand (like me) and would charge you extra for their time, where you could do it yourself and save some money. If they don't have the software, then make a dummy book and number all your pages with a description of the page content so you can identify it on screen, then in Quark match your spreads to the dummy when you open it up and separate the pages (to create printer's spreads). Your printer should help you with that, too, if you need to do it.

 

[jimoblak]

That's a valid warning signal49, but why don't you have imposition software? Imposition software can cost as little as $100-$200 and it can save you hours of labor. I would discourage using a printer that manually imposes as it allows for more user errors.

Besides full standalone imposition applications, you may want to check out cheaper third-party XTs for Quark or plugins for Acrobat. You can export Quark to PDF and impose in Acrobat.






- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[aaronhobart]

Thanks for the help and warning guys. I did call the printer, and it turns out it is something they do all the time. It is actually a printer in Canada and turns out they do tons of English/French books like that.

 

[saraneau]

Jim,
I'm constantly learning here, so bear with me. But what exactly is "imposition" software? I'm curious because I'm constantly working on the design end, approving proofs, preparing pre-press files for our labeling and packaging department.

 

[jimoblak]

Imposition software...

When you design something in Quark, you are looking at reader's spreads, or how you as the reader will see the final publication. A 4-page document progresses as page 1,2,3,4.

Folks in the print shop are concerned about their own spreads, called appropriately, printer's spreads. A 4-page document progresses as page 4,1,2,3.

Imposition software reorders the pages that you see in Quark so that a printer can print booklets. The software imposes pages. You, as a designer, do not have to worry about imposition.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[signal49]

jimoblak,

I guess we don't have it because we don't really do enough booklets, and they're usually only a few sigs. It's easy enough for me to just rearrange them manually in Quark. (I've got a system down now!) Good to know it's that inexpensive though. Thanks for the advice!

 

[rrsafety]

I have used the 180 degree angle flip to flip some pages, but now it seems not to work for a page that has a table in it. Is this a Quark design defect that you can't flip a page 180 degrees if it has a table?? If this is true, anybody know a work-around? Thanks.

 

[MarcusStringer]

Signal49...I am suprised that you would say that.

they're usually only a few sigs. It's easy enough for me to just rearrange them manually in Quark.

I would have thought that it would be a selling point to your clients that you have an imposition software to negate any human error and therefore reduce cost, as you said in an earlier post.
Precision is also a big player in the printing industry, which is what imposition software will give you.

Personally, having worked in Pre-Press for 9 years, both traditionally imposing and digitally imposing, I know where I would send my jobs.

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au