Affinity Publisher Beta: Making a Booklet

[naujoks5]

I am helping my church office print a newsletter. They use Windows 10 and have the latest version of Publisher Beta. We need to bring in a booklet format (8.5x11 to an 11x17 page). There are a couple of short tutorials on the Web, but though it seems simple, we do not get acceptable results. The little page icon in the upper right of the Print menu shows a proper image, it does not come out that way. What we get is an enlarged bleeding image that is offset to the right by several inches. Has anyone had good results making a booklet (saddle-stitched style), and if so, are there secrets to making it come out right? Or are there some step-by-step instructions anywhere that would help me? Any help would be appreciated.

[v_kyr]

Well it's unready beta software and probably at this state not meant for production work at all. - However, did you tried instead of printing the exporting as PDF and then reviewing how that might look then?

[fde101]

First the obvious things to check:

The page size used to create the Publisher document should be US Letter (8.5 x 11) to reflect the "finished" page size, with Facing Pages most likely enabled.  This can be checked/changed from Spread Setup if needed.

In the Print dialog you should set the paper size to the size of the actual paper going through the printer (in this case Ledger / 11x17) as that is what the print driver needs to know.

You need to set the document model to Booklet, also in the Print dialog.

The appropriate duplexing option should be set depending on the printer.

[MannyG]

I am also trying to print a letter size 1 page booklet but for some reason, when printing, it does not print the actual 8.5 x11 inch, there are one blank part on top and bottom even though I have specified when creating the document to be that size, with booklet option and facing pages enabled.

Here is a screenshot of what I have:  

 

 

And here is the actual result from the print and as you can see, marked by the red arrow, it should be the edge of the paper, which is not.

Maybe someone can see what is happening here? I have tried every combination and nothing.

It's getting frustrating....

 

 

[Mark Oehlschlager]

@MannyG

If you are printing this booklet on a desktop printer, it may be that your printer is incapable of printing to the edge of the paper. Most desktop printers cannot print to the edge.

[MannyG]

I see.  Well,I was looking through the settings on the printer and it does print borderless, does this means it does print to the border?

 

[Trevor J Richens]

Hi MannyG.

Can you try creating a PDF export file? When you view this do the page contents extend to the edge of the page? If not change the page and export settings until you get a PDF that does.

Now print the PDF file. Does it print to the edge? If not then your printer or driver config is the cause of the problem. Could be that you need to have an option set in the printer driver to get print to edge enabled?

[fde101]

18 hours ago, MannyG said:

Here is a screenshot of what I have:  

You set up your document as letter sized and are printing two pages side-by-side on a single letter-sized page.  

Two 8.5" x 11" pages side by side would be 17" wide x 11" high.  Fitting this onto a page that is 11" wide without stretching it would require scaling down the image.  If you tried to match the 11" page height to the 8.5" of the paper, the resulting width would be 17 * 8.5 / 11 = 13.14", too wide for the 11" width of the paper, so it is being scaled instead to match the width of 17" to the 11" width of the paper, giving you a height of 11 * 11 / 17 = 7.12 inches, which is being centered within the 8.5 inch area, effectively adding 0.69 inch to the top and bottom margins of the printed page.

You can see that is happening visually if you look at the preview in screenshot #6 - it shows the page area (red) not stretching to the edges of the paper (outlined in black).

If you want to fill the page when folded, you need to adjust the page size for the document to match the aspect ratio of the folded pages, so on the "Dimensions" tab of "Spread Setup" (screenshot #3 as provided), set the dimensions to 5.5" width and 8.5" height, then reformat the content of your pages to match that size.

[MannyG]

11 hours ago, fde101 said:

You set up your document as letter sized and are printing two pages side-by-side on a single letter-sized page.  

Two 8.5" x 11" pages side by side would be 17" wide x 11" high.  Fitting this onto a page that is 11" wide without stretching it would require scaling down the image.  If you tried to match the 11" page height to the 8.5" of the paper, the resulting width would be 17 * 8.5 / 11 = 13.14", too wide for the 11" width of the paper, so it is being scaled instead to match the width of 17" to the 11" width of the paper, giving you a height of 11 * 11 / 17 = 7.12 inches, which is being centered within the 8.5 inch area, effectively adding 0.69 inch to the top and bottom margins of the printed page.

You can see that is happening visually if you look at the preview in screenshot #6 - it shows the page area (red) not stretching to the edges of the paper (outlined in black).

If you want to fill the page when folded, you need to adjust the page size for the document to match the aspect ratio of the folded pages, so on the "Dimensions" tab of "Spread Setup" (screenshot #3 as provided), set the dimensions to 5.5" width and 8.5" height, then reformat the content of your pages to match that size.

I have done it and it works! Thanks for the detailed explanation, that really helped understand the whole concept. 

 

[captain_slocum]

I frequently produce A5 booklets of 40 to 48 pages that are printed on A4 paper using InDesign and I find that even that mature programme is not capable of producing booklets properly. The only solution I have found is to use a programme called Create Booklet. This takes a PDF and paginates it correctly so it will print as a booklet. A brilliantly simple but powerful little gem (I am in no way connected to the company).

I tried it out yesterday with Affinity Publisher and it works very well. When exporting from AP, make sure in the export dialogue you select PDF - PDF/X-4 - All Pages. And of course, set up your page size as a custom size of 148.5mm x 210mm (A5 is NOT half of A4 remember). I hope that will help anyone trying to create A5 booklets printed on A4 paper.

[Fischstarr]

Just a second to "Captain_slocum" above. Can create an A5 booklet and print to A4 (in MacOS) if it's all set up right as A5 pages in Affinity Publisher  -  just need to export "all pages" to PDF and then drop that new file onto Create Booklet and you're away to the races - it creates and paginates the booklet the right way. Just remember to select "double sided" "short edge binding" on the printer.

[peacenjoy]

Some of these replies are excellent. If Affinity creators would create sets of templates: for booklets, cards, labels, etc. as Serif did for PagePlus, I'm sure that Affinity Publisher users would double... or more. Many of us learn as we go along adding knowledge to knowledge. We aren't professionals but use the software daily (I do but have to keep reverting to PagePlus till there are more templates!) InDesign is a competitor for Professionals but not for us ordinary people who love to do art work. Someone: create a whole list of templates and sell it to Affinity! Till there are actually more templates I still have to use PagePlus! Peacenjoy

[HANDJOJO]

There are tow way to create the book layout by: Right or Left Position, however these method different to sort the page number and also during create a PDF by Export as PDF or Print as PDF.

*With Left Position when create a Document*

With this method you must sort the page manually to print as facing page/duplex to create a book or magazine.

 

*With Right Position when create a document *

With this method you just put page according the page number then with Print As PDF, the PDF document will sorted the facing page sheet...so the number will be 1,2,3 in a book or magazine.

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, HANDJOJO said:

With this method you must sort the page manually to print as facing page/duplex to create a book or magazine.

 

Should be "4 1" not "1 4"

[wonderings]

This is an old thread but if they are printing on a photocopier I am guessing it has a saddle stitch finishing option. Unless of course they have a way of folding and stitching themselves after it is printed. So assuming their printed can fold and saddle stitch inline then this would be super easy. Just save your PDF as single 8.5 x 11 pages. No imposing yourself, just has to be increments of 4. The printer should have an setting for saddle stitch which will impose and put together the book for printing. Just make sure you did not monkey around with page order, keep it 1 to 4. 

[HANDJOJO]

9 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Should be "4 1" not "1 4"

You righ Bruce. Thanks for your correction.