[Scribus] What is the best way to create a booklet?: SOLVED

[Carol Kankelborg]

Back when I posted the "solution" below, I thought the problem was 
solved, but while it sounded
good in theory and worked for my simplistic test case, it was not 
sufficient for the finished
product.  Sorry this is so long.

The biggest problem I had was with the psbook/psnup/ps2pdf sequence. 
At times, when
I looked at the PDF that generated with Adobe Reader 5.0 for Mac OS 
X, some pages were
landscape and others were portrait.  Printing that out in a proper 
booklet was impossible.

Peter Linnell pointed out that ps2pdf does not embed fonts and 
down-samples images to
72dpi by default.  He strongly recommended using Scribus to export 
the final PDF.

His suggestion for generating a correctly imposed file for 
double-sided booklet printing is as
follows.  I added a few comments based on my experiences.

At 12:53 -0400 9/22/03, Peter Linnell wrote:
>The issue here is how to get suitable imposition without spending a ton
>of time.
>
>If you are printing on a say a kinko's or local printer, you should
>create the pages as 5.5x8.5 and export them as PDF. Then from acrobat
>and a good color laser you should be able to print these duplexed 2up on
>letter landscape without too much trouble.
>
>If you are printing on your own ink jet or laser, here is how I would
>approach it:
>
>Lay out pages 1-36 on 5.5x8.5 layout.
>
>Then create a new doc with 18 pages, letter landscape with two layers:
>
>Import the pages one by one so they are in the correct imposition order:
>
>The page import function will import the *contents* of the selected
>page, not create a new one. So it is no trouble to import pages from a
>different sized doc. I have used this a lot and it works very well.
>
>The reason I suggest layers is the importer will place the content in
>the same area as the original, Thus on original import everything will
>land on the left side of a landscape layout. Layers keep the content
>separate and make it easy to drag the right side content to the correct
>position. With Snap-to guides enable in the right place, this should be
>very easy.

I did not find the layering necessary when I imported the page to go
on the right first, moved it in place, then imported the one on the left.
It would, of course, be safer to have layers, especially if you make a
change and need to re-import a page that goes on the left.

I found that when I imported a page, the guides imported with it and
overwrote the guides I had on the page.  I had to put guides back in to
properly align the imported page contents.  There may be a way to
avoid this, but I couldn't find one at the moment.

>Then layout as follows:
>
>pg 1 left side is back cover/right hand is the front cover
>pg 2 left side inside cover / right hand is inside back cover
>pg 3 left side right side is title page
>so on..
>
>Rule of thumb:
>The page numbers that are imposed side-by-side always add up to 1 more
>than the total number of pages in the booklet.
>
>For example, in an 8-page booklet all pairs of pages add up to 9
>(8+1,6+3,7+2 etc.,). Thus 4-5 will be the center spread.

I also noted the ODD pages were always on the same side of the physical page.
So, for an 8-page document, physical page 1 had booklet page 8 on the left
and page 1 on the right.  Physical page 2 had booklet page 2 on the left and
page (N+1-2 = 7) on the right.

>
>You might find handy to create a mock up dummy to visualize everything.
>It sound like a lot of work, but short of a python script to automate
>everything, this will ensure good quality PDF's.

As I needed to print out the booklet a few times in the middle of 
development and
didn't want to go through all the above importing, I used the following script
to generate a quick-and-dirty PDF for that purpose.  (my scripting 
skills are a bit
rusty from disuse.)  After pages got more fully populated,
I had fewer problems with some PDF pages being in portrait orientation.

>>#! /sw/bin/bash
>>
>>file="$1"
>>numpages="$2"
>>filepath="$HOME/MyDocs/BMHC/Show2003/Program"
>>
>>quiet="-q"
>>
>>psfile="$filepath/$1.ps"
>>psfile_reorder="$filepath/$1.reorder.ps"
>>psfile_nup="$filepath/$1.nup.ps"
>>pdffile="$filepath/$1.mb.pdf"
>>
>>path="/sw/bin"
>>psbook="$path/psbook -s$numpages $quiet"
>>psnup="$path/psnup -h11in -w8.5in -H8.5in -W5.5in -2 $quiet"
>>
>>ps2pdf="$path/ps2pdf13 -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dEmbedAllfonts=true"
>>
>>$psbook $psfile $psfile_reorder
>>$psnup $psfile_reorder $psfile_nup
>>$ps2pdf $psfile_nup $pdffile
>>
>>rm $psfile_reorder
>>rm $psfile_nup
>>
>>exit



At 11:51 -0600 9/17/03, Carol Kankelborg wrote:
>Thank you for everyones' replies to my booklet question.  Here is a 
>summary of the
>responses.  I think I have my process down.
>
>Robbie Pickering pointed out the distinction between "Copy shop" and 
>"proper printer."
>I was not clear in my question, but the program I am making is quite 
>simple -- black & white --
>and I guess I should properly say I'm taking it to a copy shop, not a printer.
>
>Patrick's advice to do as much of the work yourself to make it 
>easier on your printer (and less
>likely for them to mess it up) is wise.
>
>I think the best advice of all is call your copy shop/printer and 
>see what their preference is.  So simple,
>yet I hadn't thought of that.  I called and they said they preferred 
>a file that had 2 booklet pages
>per file page that would print properly double sided.
>
>Everyone agreed that creating the document with pages in order was 
>the easiest, then, depending
>on your printer/copy shop's requirements, rearrange things so it 
>prints out properly.
>
>Michael Below suggested exporting to ps, use psbook to put it in 
>booklet order,
>then ps2pdf to generate  PDF.
>
>I gave this a trial run.
...

I deleted the rest of that post because it didn't work for final 
production.  See above.
-- 
======================================================================
Carol Kankelborg                        
cckborg1 at alumni.lehigh.edu