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Booklet printing problems InDesign

Explorer ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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I've created a 28 page A5 booklet in InDesign which prints out fine using InDesign's 'Print Booklet' but so slowly (it takes more than 20 minutes) that it's impractical.

If I export the booklet as a PDF and print it using the Booklet option in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro each page and spread is resized: each page shrinks by a centimetre or so (I guess that the PDF is making sure every margin is included, even though all the margins are blank, and then also adding a margin of its own). There is no 'Print Actual Size' override in the booklet printing dialogue in Reader or Acrobat Pro.

If I use 'Print Booklet' to export to PostScript with the aim of creating a PDF from the PostScript file I find that I'm unable to open the PostScript file in Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat or InDesign.*

I'm sure that I'm missing something but there are so many settings in the various dialogues involved in exporting that I'm not sure where I'm going wrong.

*I'm now trying Adobe Distiller. This does open up PostScript files, so it looks as if that will be the most effective way to generate a PDF which can be printed actual size and correctly paginated.

Later: I've been able to create a paginated document in Adobe Distiller and the quality is great and it's printing actual size from a PDF (as I don't have to use the booklet setting in Adobe Reader) but, just like printing the booklet directly from InDesign, it's too slow for everyday printing.

My understanding is that this is a Mac problem and that InDesign prints speedily to a network printer when it is running on a PC.

Is there a way around this using InDesign on a Mac? I wonder if I could specify a smaller page size and work right up to the edge then export a normal PDF and let Adobe Reader add the margins in the booklet printer option? But I rather that I could print the exact document that I created in InDesign; an A5 booklet complete with margins.

Message was edited by: Richard Bell

Message was edited by: Richard Bell

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Explorer , Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

Problem Solved:

I've found a way around the slow printing from my iMac: instead of printing the PDF file of the paginated booklet using Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro, I've used Preview, the PDF reader that comes bundled with the iMac. In the Layout section of my printer (an HP Laserjet P2055dn) in the option for 'Two-sided' I selected 'Short-edge binding', otherwise the reverse side of each page is printed upside down.

The 28 page illustrated booklet, a 4.9 Mb PDF, takes about 3 minutes to pri

...

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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Nromally imosing is done from the Printer. Print booklet is a very bad functionality as it Needs PostScript shich is to avoid.

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Explorer ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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My ideal desktop publishing setup, as I work from home, would be to design then print from the same program. The workflow of InDesign/PostScript/Adobe Distiller/Adobe Reader then the printer gives me too many options to slip up on!

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Community Expert ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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Don't use that workflow, it's obsolete, use the Adobe PDF Presets that come with InDesign. For a desk-top printer you would normally select High Quality Print.

Didn't you ask the same question a day or so ago?

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Explorer ,
Nov 21, 2016 Nov 21, 2016

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Thank you for the suggestion Derek, that's a much simpler workflow: I used the High Quality Print PDF preset but as the final file came in at 14 Mb it took five minutes for just the first page (both sides of the sheet) to print, so that would have been half an hour for the whole publication, which isn't practical for my desktop publishing cottage industry.

This seems to be a Mac problem. I opened the same High Quality PDF file on my old Windows 7 PC and the whole booklet printed in just 3 minutes, again great quality but, as is the way with booklet printing from Adobe Reader, smaller than actual size and - most annoyingly! - the map across the centre spread has a 1.5 millimetre gap down the middle of it.

I think that my next attempt must be to try loading InDesign CC on my old PC to see if I can get the best of both worlds: the speedy PC print set-up, my illustrations the size that I intended and no white line running down the middle of my artwork!

Will InDesign CC run successfully on Windows 7?

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Explorer ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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Problem Solved:

I've found a way around the slow printing from my iMac: instead of printing the PDF file of the paginated booklet using Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro, I've used Preview, the PDF reader that comes bundled with the iMac. In the Layout section of my printer (an HP Laserjet P2055dn) in the option for 'Two-sided' I selected 'Short-edge binding', otherwise the reverse side of each page is printed upside down.

The 28 page illustrated booklet, a 4.9 Mb PDF, takes about 3 minutes to print using Preview but for some reason it was taking 30 minutes to print using Reader or Acrobat Pro.

I've used the 'Print Booklet' to PostScript file option from InDesign then created the paginated PDF in Adobe Distiller. This is because I have several of double-page spread maps throughout the publication and going through the simpler PDF Presets gives me a thin white border down the middle of each spread.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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Sorry, this is not a solution, it is another problem you are creating now.

Apple Preview is NOT a reliable PDF viewer as it supports only a subset of Adobe PDFs functionality. A lot of files will print wrong, terrible wrong. Don't use Appel Preview for opening PDFs. NEVER.

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Explorer ,
Nov 25, 2016 Nov 25, 2016

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Thank you Willi, I didn't really want to use Preview for something that it wasn't designed for but, for now, Reader and Acrobat are impossibly slow and it occurred to me to give it a try. I'll keep monitoring the Adobe PDF viewers and hope that the slow printing bug gets fixed. Adobe invented the PDF so if they can't get it to work smoothly nobody can.

My preference would be to print the booklet direct from InDesign but on an iMac running Sierra or El Capitan that's way too slow.

I'd be interested to hear from any Adobe engineers who might be monitoring this forum. Why am I having the problem? Surely there shouldn't be an issue in something as basic as printing direct from InDesign?

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