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How does printing work for a magazine/booklet?


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When I think of a magazine the front and back are printed on the same material, then page 1 is same as the last page and so on until it gets to the middle spread. How would you achieve this on Affinity Publisher? I've not used InDesign before either so I don't know how it works over there. Because at the moment in my head it would just print off each page separately and wouldn't work at all how it should.

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3 hours ago, craiigman said:

When I think of a magazine the front and back are printed on the same material, then page 1 is same as the last page and so on until it gets to the middle spread. How would you achieve this on Affinity Publisher? I've not used InDesign before either so I don't know how it works over there. Because at the moment in my head it would just print off each page separately and wouldn't work at all how it should.

It is certainly good to read what Craiigman and Fixx have offered.  However if you are just beginning it can be a little overwhelming reading all this for the first time.  To start you off in affinity publisher I have presented an example that I hope helps.

I have an A5  booklet of 40 pages here.  Set up as  Landscape.  Page 1 you can see.

Capture.JPG.227991ac56b7628649cc08e1dab96a57.JPG

Here is the end page 40.

Capture01.JPG.9aa349969d58ca25aba4a227cca08656.JPG

 

Set up the document thus, important point set start on dialogue to RIGHT.  And you want Facing pages.

Capture03.JPG.0e0cf66ae90da8d74bada5478c297280.JPG

A5 Portrait, despite being a landscape document is because it is in reality an A5 booklet.

Capture04.JPG.83d265159d582b6299c54a241168d4ef.JPG

 

No need for any mental agility if you are printing at home. Hoever for PDF export and Outside Printers you may have to adjust, for example I had to once make front and back covers a seperate document and PDF and wasgiven detailed instructions on how I should export the PDF, a good printer will give you this information before you begin with document setup.  Otherwise for home printing this is straight forward as shown.  If I have missed something don't hesistate to ask. 

Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed.

Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener.  Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door.

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21 hours ago, Chris26 said:

It is certainly good to read what Craiigman and Fixx have offered.  However if you are just beginning it can be a little overwhelming reading all this for the first time.  To start you off in affinity publisher I have presented an example that I hope helps.

I have an A5  booklet of 40 pages here.  Set up as  Landscape.  Page 1 you can see.

Capture.JPG.227991ac56b7628649cc08e1dab96a57.JPG

Here is the end page 40.

Capture01.JPG.9aa349969d58ca25aba4a227cca08656.JPG

 

Set up the document thus, important point set start on dialogue to RIGHT.  And you want Facing pages.

Capture03.JPG.0e0cf66ae90da8d74bada5478c297280.JPG

A5 Portrait, despite being a landscape document is because it is in reality an A5 booklet.

Capture04.JPG.83d265159d582b6299c54a241168d4ef.JPG

 

No need for any mental agility if you are printing at home. Hoever for PDF export and Outside Printers you may have to adjust, for example I had to once make front and back covers a seperate document and PDF and wasgiven detailed instructions on how I should export the PDF, a good printer will give you this information before you begin with document setup.  Otherwise for home printing this is straight forward as shown.  If I have missed something don't hesistate to ask. 

Thank you, you say home printing is straight forward, so would page 1 and page 40 print on the same bit of paper? And then how would you print on the inside cover of the booklet?

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Hallo Craiigman, if your publisher file is setup like I suggested, you simply then work in WYSIWYG context, IE, what you are seeing on the screen is exactly how it will appear in print.  Page 1 and Page 40 are the outside front cover and outside back cover, page 2 listed here is the inside left when you open the booklet.  One other thing, your printer needs to have duplex facility.  Does it print on both sides automatically?

Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed.

Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener.  Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door.

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14 minutes ago, Chris26 said:

Hallo Craiigman, if your publisher file is setup like I suggested, you simply then work in WYSIWYG context, IE, what you are seeing on the screen is exactly how it will appear in print.  Page 1 and Page 40 are the outside front cover and outside back cover, page 2 listed here is the inside left when you open the booklet.  One other thing, your printer needs to have duplex facility.  Does it print on both sides automatically?

So would be like this? My home printer doesn't no, but I have access to one that does, but would have to export it as another file to print.

I would assume that if you wanted a different material for the cover, you would create a 4 page layout and that would be just a cover?

Sorry for the (most likely) stupid questions.

Screenshot 2019-07-18 at 15.57.50.png

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11 minutes ago, craiigman said:

I would assume that if you wanted a different material for the cover, you would create a 4 page layout and that would be just a cover?

Got it in one.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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1 hour ago, craiigman said:

Sorry for the (most likely) stupid questions

Firstly, even Einstein was a beginner.  All the developers were beginners once and every single person on this forum was a silly person once, ignorant and asked silly questions, idiots and whatever other  insults I can throw at them......:)........started with a smile and then...:D

Secondly, yes, just as you have shown, this is correct.  And if the cover was a differnt thicker material or something then this would be a seperate file, 4 page, (One piece of paper or card). Also make sure that your document is a multiple of FOUR.  So it needs to be 4,8,12,16,20,24 and so on in size.

Take note, your page one is actually a cover, page two is actually page one.  Remember that the cover will have page one on its inside left. So you see here 10 pages, bt actually there are only 8 pages on 4 pieces of paper.  

Microsoft - Like entering your home and opening the stainless steel kitchen door, with a Popup: 'Do you really want to open this door'? Then looking for the dishwasher and finding it stored in the living room where you have to download a water supply from the app store, then you have to buy microsoft compliant soap, remove the carpet only to be told that it is glued to the floor.. Don't forget to make multiple copies of your front door key and post them to all who demand access to all the doors inside your home including the windows and outside shed.

Apple - Like entering your home and opening the oak framed Kitchen door and finding the dishwasher right in front you ready to be switched on, soap supplied, and water that comes through a water softener.  Ah the front door key is yours and it only needs to open the front door.

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1 hour ago, craiigman said:

So would be like this? My home printer doesn't no, but I have access to one that does, but would have to export it as another file to print.

I would assume that if you wanted a different material for the cover, you would create a 4 page layout and that would be just a cover?

Sorry for the (most likely) stupid questions.

Screenshot 2019-07-18 at 15.57.50.png

You actually can print booklets from within Affinity as it imposes the pages correctly. The example shown on the screenshot has an A5 booklet (12 pages) printed on A4 paper. Of course your printer should be able to handle double-sided printing.

By the way: Red overlays on the preview indicate that there is something wrong with the settings but these show in various cases when everything is okay -- apparently it's a bug that already has been logged. 

Booklet print 1.png

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4 hours ago, Chris26 said:

Firstly, even Einstein was a beginner.  All the developers were beginners once and every single person on this forum was a silly person once, ignorant and asked silly questions, idiots and whatever other  insults I can throw at them......:)........started with a smile and then...:D

Secondly, yes, just as you have shown, this is correct.  And if the cover was a differnt thicker material or something then this would be a seperate file, 4 page, (One piece of paper or card). Also make sure that your document is a multiple of FOUR.  So it needs to be 4,8,12,16,20,24 and so on in size.

Take note, your page one is actually a cover, page two is actually page one.  Remember that the cover will have page one on its inside left. So you see here 10 pages, bt actually there are only 8 pages on 4 pieces of paper.  

 

3 hours ago, Hilltop said:

You actually can print booklets from within Affinity as it imposes the pages correctly. The example shown on the screenshot has an A5 booklet (12 pages) printed on A4 paper. Of course your printer should be able to handle double-sided printing.

By the way: Red overlays on the preview indicate that there is something wrong with the settings but these show in various cases when everything is okay -- apparently it's a bug that already has been logged. 

Booklet print 1.png

Thank you both. So the printer I have access to isn't connected to my computer. I'll need to export it as a PDF to print. What settings should I be using for this?

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The approach I mentioned requires the printer to be connected to the computer.

If you export your booklet to a PDF file, select in the Export Settings All Pages (not: All Spreads). However, it will only work if the printer has imposition software to be able to print your file in booklet format.

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2 hours ago, craiigman said:

So the printer I have access to isn't connected to my computer. I'll need to export it as a PDF to print. What settings should I be using for this?

Two options:

a. The computer has a PDF reading app installed which can do imposition on printing. Like Adobe Acrobat.

b. You use the imposition by AfPub printing but don't print on a hardware but to a PDF-Printer driver.
That way your PDF has the imposed page order and therefore can be printed as brochure/booklet without additional printing software for the imposition.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have a problem with exporting booklet to PDF. It is formatted as facing pages, starting on right. But when I export it and view PDF in 2 page view, page one is on the left, with page 2 beside it. I chose "all pages" in export and attached is what I get. I don't think the book publisher can use this file. Help please!

AfterwordsBRIDGES.pdf

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10 hours ago, Julia R said:

It is formatted as facing pages, starting on right. But when I export it and view PDF in 2 page view, page one is on the left, with page 2 beside it. I chose "all pages" in export and attached is what I get. I don't think the book publisher can use this file.

HI Julia,

Welcome to the Affinity Forum,

The page order in your PDF will be fine for a professional publisher print service.

The view on screen of the 1st page position in a PDF is variable and depends on your viewer app. For instance it can allow you to show the 1st page in spread view on the left or on the right side. You can toggle its position. The publisher of this product will impose the pages in their necessary order when printing as spreads AND double sided.

Actually you did not 'print to PDF as a booklet with according page order as shown and discussed in this thread above your post. You rather exported as single pages and set the spreads as view options only in your viewer app. For professional print process this is the correct way.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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Publisher can already output imposed pages to an outside program via printing, it can create flat pdfs ie single pages within the program, will Publisher be updated to output imposed pages to pdf in any update coming soon?  I can create imposed files in Pageplus x9, without any troubles, (usually), with all pages in the right place. I know the option wasn't in the original version of pageplus but took a little time to appear. The printing company hasn't had any problems taking the imposed files and running them straight out without any additional work, I can output the cover pages in one pdf and then the inside pages on another, if the cover was on a different material.

I'm curious to know why this option was left out at this time.

Trevor

 

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13 minutes ago, trevordl said:

I'm curious to know why this option was left out at this time.

One reason could be that such an imposed page order is necessary and useful for print only. No one would/could read an imposed PDF. So imposition is part of the application which starts the print process, therefore it also is able to respect the paper size and according margins – which would not be included in same flexibility if saved in a PDF.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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