Setting up an InDesign document for 4-up printing.

[noahm56748412]

Hey,

Recently I designed a card/promotional flyer that is 5.5 x 4.25. I've been asked to set it up for "4-up" printing on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Each card has a front and back. I'm relatively inexperienced with InDesign and even more inexperienced with setting up documents for printing such as this. Could someone be so kind as to instruct me how to do so? I think I'm on the right track but I don't want to mess it up.

Thanks!

[Derek Cross]

Commercial printers normally do the imposition – it might be worth looking for another printer.

[joet082964 · Accepted solution]

If you have the choice, choose another printer. If not, you are simply laying out 4 cards on a page.  If you have bleeds, that causes an issue.

Here is what you page might look like if you are not using bleeds. You can use the gray areas as your allowable artwork region, then when finished, copy and paste your artwork and place into the other three regions. The printer would then print the full sheet and cut along the dashed lines (which are only shown for reference.) You can see that I set up guides for size consistency.

[jakeqz]

I have the same problem.

I thought it would be simple to place the pages 4-up in a document exactly twice the size in both dimensions.  But when I place the PDFs from the original, InDesign decides, for no reason I can fathom, to remove a portion of whitespace from the bottom of the PDF, and also offset the placed second pages to the left.  This makes it impossible to get the 4-up version lined up.

The original is a two-page document with 'facing pages' unchecked.  There was a default non-zero gutter setting when I created it which I did not change, and cannot now find how to.  I don't know which document I need to change the gutter setting on, or even if that will help.

I've had the same issue placing a single page PDF created with InDesign back into InDesign for 4-up or any other purpose.  But I've not had this issue with a placed PDF from InDesign back into InDesign which has artwork right to the edges.

I think this is a bug in InDesign (2014+).  It fails to work out the actual extents of the placed PDF (even though they're defined in the PDF), in the course of trying and failing to do something clever.  Maybe if I place four small white squares in each corner of the original, it will work?

I am printing at home.  None of the (other) comments saying to choose another printer are helpful at all.

[jakeqz]

Finally solved my case.  The default PDF import option in InDesign is to 'crop to bounding box (visible layers only)', which is entirely unsuitable here.

[jakeqz]

Placing a full-extent white background as an extra layer in the original also solved the problem.  It may not be a bug in InDesign, but the default settings are costing us all time.

[rob day]

You can place an InDesign file on a page the same way you would with an image file. So you can design the postcard and place it 4 times in a separate InDesign file for the imposition repeat. The advantage is you can make corrections to the postcard file then update the imposition file and you won't have to make corrections 4 times. If you really are limited to the 8.5x11 page for the 4-up imposition, the postcard can't bleed.

[Derek Cross]

Don't forget it's two-sided printing, so it's sheet work – he has to work to a lay edge and ensure the registration for the reverse side is spot on.

[sibelu72997086]

Hi Derek,

what do you mean by this? This may be the answer to my question. I have a double sided DL voucher (210 w X 99 h) and I need to set it up as a 3-UP print file. But I am a bit stuck as it is double sided and am unsure of how to do this. It is to be set up on an A4 document.

Do I include bleed?

thanks!

[Derek Cross]

Normally you would provide your printers with a suitable PDF (usually PDF/X-4) and they would impose it.

Yes, include bleeds in your PDF – tick, in the Export Adobe PDF dialogue box, under the Marks and Bleed tab "Use Document Bleed Settings".

[sibelu72997086]

Hi Derek,

How do I set up a double sided DL voucher as a 3UP file? I understand I include bleed when exporting the document for imposition but then not sure of the correct way to lay it out in indesign afterwards. You mentioned above 'sheet work' for double sided printing, can you please elaborate.

Thanks!

[Derek Cross]

Are you printing this job on your own desk-top printer or putting it out to a commercial printer?

[sibelu72997086]

I need to set it up ready for print and they require the files 3UP. I was just wanting to know how to set up a file that is double sided.

[Danny Whitehead.]

Without knowing what gutters, marks etc that they need, what sheet size they're printing on, whether they're printing work & turn or sheetwork, and various other details, here's the only real answer:

Tell the printer you're going go elsewhere, and tell them it's because they're asking you to do their imposition tasks for them, which you're not equipped to do, and nor should you be.

[Derek Cross]

Danny's right – as mentioned, your printer decides and does the imposition – you "just" produce the artwork.

[sibelu72997086]

Hi Danny,

It will be printer on A4 sheets of paper. I need to imposition 3up of the front and back of the DL voucher I have created. At the moment the bleed is at 3mm.

I understand that the printer should be in charge of doing this, however I don't have the option to change printers and go elsewhere unfortunately.

Is there simple instructions I can kindly ask of to follow to set up my artwork?

Thank you.

[Derek Cross]

DL refers to an envelope size – assuming you mean one third A4 (99mm x 210mm) 3-up plus bleed will not fit on one side of an A4 sheet.

[Danny Whitehead.]

You really ought to speak to this printer, if not to complain, to straighten out any possible miscommunication.

No professional printer would run 210 x 99 double sided 3-up on dead A4. They'd use SRA4 at the very least. If they really are doing this, then you can't have any bleed, and you're going to have to make sure none of your artwork goes to (or even too near to) the edge of the sheet.

[Derek Cross]

Yes I agree, it sounds a very amateur set-up from start to finish. I wonder what the run is?

To: sibelu72997086 be very careful, you could end up with a cocked up printed job and you having to foot the bill.

[jakeqz]

You can place your original PDFs 4-up into a new InDesign document.

When you open the original with `File > Place`, before you select the file, make sure 'Show Import Options' is selected in the 'file open' dialog.  In the 'import options', you need `Crop to` set to `Media`, otherwise it will be misaligned.

Click away from the imported PDF to deselect it.  Rinse and repeat.  You should find that the green guidelines find their slot to line up.  (If the cropping import setting is not changed from the default, you'll end up with a mess, unless the imported file has content extending to all edges.)

Repeat for the back, this time selecting page 2 in the import options.

Took me hours to figure out how to do it, and just a couple of minutes once I had.

HTH someone, though obviously too late for the OP.