[Apple Numbers] Imposition Calculator — Print signatures for in-folio books and booklets

[Oufti]

Following an idea of @Robert Leblanc, I made this imposition calculator for those who realise home-made in-folio books or booklets (4 pages per sheet).

It divides the book in signatures (a number of sheets folded in two and inserted into each other) and calculates the corresponding sequence of pages to be pasted into the ‘Pages to print’ field for printing or exporting.

N.B. This file was created with Apple Numbers and is only intended for macOS users.
Windows users can use Robert Leblanc's similar tool, available here as an .xlsx file.

 

Basically, you just have to:

1º Provide the first and last page numbers + how many pages/signature are wanted

2º Copy and paste the result

 

However, it can be much more versatile:

• It calculates the number of empty pages to add to your file if the number of pages is inferior to a multiple of the chosen signatures size
• If the total number of pages exceeds only slightly the last signatures size (≤ 1/2 # of pages per signature), there is an option to distribute these ‘extra’ pages among the last signatures, rather than adding a whole new signature. Fixed size signatures are nonetheless also possible

 

Also:

• Option for duplex printer or one side at a time and manually flipping stack of paper
• Choice between French or English interface
• Extensive explanation of the results
• Gallery of tips showing what’s possible and how to do it
• Additional options and informations available (maximum size allowed for signatures, reverse order printing,…)
• Flexible and highly configurable interface
• Pages distribution between signatures can be reviewed in different ways. Graphically:

(Note that in this view “double trucks” are easy to spot: these signatures central pages are always at the bottom. So you know that the best places to put a double page picture are pages 8-9 or 26-27.)

 

• in words:

 

• or as plain numbers:

 

Bonus:

• A comparator of various signature sizes, highlighting the options that tend to minimise both number of signatures and of added pages. – It's particularly useful if you want the same size for all signatures but doubt at which would be the best

 

• Two different tools for creep estimation

 

Hope this can be useful to some.

Booklet Imposition Calculator, v2g.numbers

It’s entirely free: Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 allows you to use, share or modify it as you want, as long as you credit the authors and don’t resell it.

 

[73pctGeek]

This is great! Thank you so much for sharing this

[FergusPearson]

This looks so good! I've always just counted out my pdf signatures on a scrap of paper, printed one signature duplex at a time, and made adjustments to alter the final few signatures to deal with the blank extra pages. But it's been a bit hit and miss, and takes a long time. I'm impressed you've managed to conceive how to calculate all this so well - especially the creep. Impressive!

[Oufti]

 Thank you @FergusPearson!

Actually, it has been made piece by piece.
At the origin it was very simple, then when @Robert Leblanc posted its spreadsheet I've been able to calculate multiple signatures.
I struggled a bit to find the way to add empty pages when needed, and a bit more to distribute sheets between existing signatures in case there are only a few pages exceeding the (multiple) desired signature size. 
Finally, I added an English translation prior to share it here.
(These steps are visible through the  v.0 and v.1 of the spreadsheet that I left included in the file above for those wanting to understand how it was developed.)

What regards creep, I only introduced two formulas found on the sites mentioned under the tables. Please, be aware that both give only an estimation of the expected creep.
The method using the weight of the paper is very simple but certainly not always accurate.
The other table, based on an actual thickness measure made with callipers, should be more precise but there is also what I called a "puffy factor" aka "Creep Correction Factor" (only visible when Details is checked) that permits a bit of tailoring… 

Quote

NOTE: the Creep Correction Factor is for paper tolerances/roughness of paper and for how tight or loose a folder is.
https://printplanet.com/threads/widget-for-calculating-spine-and-creep.1579/#post-48393

[lolajl]

I'll try it out ... thank you so much!

[Randy Dees]

I have download the spreadsheet multiple times, but the cell that needs to be copied has no text in it (it's empty).

Is there something i am missing to get a result? (when i initially open the file it looks the same.) could it be the missing fonts? i did go iin and told it to replace all of the missing fonts, but that didn't help. 

I am on a Mac Mini 2024 M4 Pro, 48G RAM, and Sequoia 15.5.

also why isn't a 36 page signature supported (one you the examples above actually shows 36 pages)?

[Oufti]

  @Randy Dees I'm sorry you encounter troubles using this spreadsheet. 😔

I can't figure how this cell can be empty in a freshly downloaded version.  — Deleting by error a formula in a cell is easy to do but from what you say, it's not your case: "I have download the spreadsheet multiple times, but the cell that needs to be copied has no text in it (it's empty). […] (when i initially open the file it looks the same.)"

I don't believe missing fonts can be a problem for this.
(BTW Gill Sans bold could be a good replacement, for those who want to keep a similar look.)

I just downloaded and opened the forum version, changed the "Base size for signatures" to 32 to imitate your screenshot and it behaves as expected… 

If you click in the cell 'Copier le résultat – Copy the result:E3' and look in the status bar below, do you see a formula in it?
If not, try to re-download once again. Otherwise, could you post here your modified spreadsheet? I'll have a look at it tomorrow. 

— The formula should be:
IFERROR(TEXTBEFORE(TEXTJOIN('Page(s)' Separator;TRUE;Salle de – Concaténation – Room::$H); 'Page(s)' Separator & 'Page(s)' Separator;  occurrence);  TEXTJOIN('Page(s)' Separator;FALSE;Salle de – Concaténation – Room::$H))

 

Anyway, in case it helps, here are the results for Double sided printer, 32 pages in a single 32 pages signature:
32, 1, 2, 31, 30, 3, 4, 29, 28, 5, 6, 27, 26, 7, 8, 25, 24, 9, 10, 23, 22, 11, 12, 21, 20, 13, 14, 19, 18, 15, 16, 17

And for 36 pages:
36, 1, 2, 35, 34, 3, 4, 33, 32, 5, 6, 31, 30, 7, 8, 29, 28, 9, 10, 27, 26, 11, 12, 25, 24, 13, 14, 23, 22, 15, 16, 21, 20, 17, 18, 19

++++++++++

Aside this, thank you very much for the 36 pages signature remark. 🤗
It was a mere omission from my part in the 'Base size for signatures/Desired signatures size' cell…
You can simply add it (or any other multiple of 4)  by clicking on the + button in Format > Cell > Data Format: Popup menu. 

[Randy Dees]

thanks for the output.

I was able to add 36 option, as shown. It seems to mostly work (generates the proper table down below the input paramters), but shows errors and also doesn't who the output properly.

The formula is showing, could it be something about translations or maybe the variables or something? i took a picture of the formula, but I don't see any real differences, except, the spreadsheet shows commas (,) instead of semi-colon (;). I tried editing it and replacing the , with ; and it then said there were errors in the equation.

I added the modified spreadsheet also to see if someone can see the issues.

I also added a snapshot of what it looks like right after downloading a new copy of the spreadsheet.

Booklet Imposition Calculator, v2g_error.numbers

[Oufti]

Thank you for your feedback. 
Glad you were at least able to add the desired signature size.

For the rest, I suspect it could be related to the OS language (which one do you use?) but I don't understand what happens. In the formula, when I choose English (Australia) instead of English (UK) or French in macOS Settings, commas are replaced with semi-colons — but I never see the output cell empty as you show in your screenshot. 
I opened your uploaded version in many languages (even Russian or Arabic) and the expected result always appears, 

If you change the language for the app to English UK in the OS settings, would it be better?
I'm a little bit lost with that problem… 

3 hours ago, Randy Dees said:

It seems to mostly work (generates the proper table down below the input param[e]ters), but shows errors and also doesn't who the output properly.

I'm afraid I don't understand this last part (beside the evidence that no result is shown in your screenshot). 

Also, could you describe further what are the errors you see? 
— In case you're referring to the alert: ⚠️   The desired base size for the signatures is larger than the maximum size allowed  !  ⛔️   (Check Additional options to modify it.)
Then you should tick the checkbox "Show additional information and options ?" and increase the "Max. size allowed for signatures".