Booklets, contact sheets and story exports in Layout by Zaweba
Impose booklets with saddle stitch or perfect binding and creep in Layout by Zaweba, make contact sheets, and export stories as plain text or RTF.
A sixteen page booklet isn't printed as sixteen pages in order. It is printed on sheets that are folded and stapled, so page one shares a sheet with page sixteen, page two with page fifteen, and so on. Working that out by hand is fiddly. Booklet imposition in Layout by Zaweba does it for you, along with a few other practical exports: contact sheets and stories as plain text or RTF.
Reader's spreads and printer's spreads
In the document you work in reader's spreads, the pages as a reader sees them, two and three side by side, four and five, and so on. The press needs printer's spreads, where the pages are arranged on each sheet so that once folded and bound they fall in the right order. Imposition turns the first into the second.
Saddle stitch and perfect bound
Two styles of binding are covered. 2-up saddle stitch is the familiar stapled booklet: sheets folded in half, nested inside each other and stapled through the fold. It suits programmes, newsletters, small magazines, menus and zines. The page count needs to be a multiple of four.
Perfect bound is for thicker publications, where folded sections are stacked and glued into a spine. Paperback books, thick catalogues and journals are made this way.
Creep, and why it matters
When sheets are nested in a saddle stitched booklet, the inner sheets stick out a little further than the outer ones at the open edge, because of the thickness of the paper wrapped round them. After trimming, the inner pages are slightly narrower, and anything close to the outside edge can get trimmed off or end up closer to the edge than on other pages.
Creep compensates by shifting the content of inner pages towards the spine a little. The thicker the paper and the more pages there are, the more it matters. Ask the printer what creep value suits the paper, and keep important content away from the outer margin regardless.
Printing a booklet at home or in the office
Imposition isn't only for the print shop. Imposing a small booklet lets you print it double sided on an ordinary printer, fold the stack and staple it. For a club newsletter, a wedding order of service or a school programme, that is the quickest route to a finished booklet. Print a test first to check that the double sided pages line up the right way round.
Contact sheets and story exports
A contact sheet lays out many items small on one page, the way photographers used to print a whole roll of film on one sheet. It is useful for reviewing a set of pictures, giving a client an overview, or keeping a visual record of what's in a job.
Stories can be exported as plain text or as RTF. Plain text gives the words alone, for proofreaders, web teams or archives. RTF keeps basic formatting, so a writer receiving their edited story back can open it in almost any word processor and see emphasis and paragraphs as they were.
Mistakes people make with booklets
Getting the page count wrong is the classic. A saddle stitched booklet needs a page count that is a multiple of four. Plan blank pages or extra content to make it up rather than finding out at imposition.
Ignoring creep on a thick booklet leaves inner page numbers or margins visibly off. Ask the printer.
Putting key content right at the outside edge means creep and trimming can catch it. Keep generous margins.
Sending imposed files to a printer who imposes themselves is a common mix up. Many print shops prefer single pages and do imposition in their own workflow. Ask before you impose.
