[scribus] Booklets

[Phil Mendelsohn]

Using Acrobat Reader 8.0+ on Linux (and I think all other platforms), 
imposition for booklets is a null issue.

I do a 20-24 page newsletter monthly, but also release it in .pdf via 
the web.  It is 8.5" x 11" booklet, but I impose it on 11" x 17" paper 
and saddle stitch (staple on the fold) w/ a long-throat stapler.

I needed to make this easy, so I didn't have to produce 2 different 
versions.  (My first issues were *VERY* time-consuming, as I copied page 
by page from the "master" to "tabloid" .sla file).

What I do is:

- Export a normal, single-page view .pdf.
- Open it in Acrobat
- Under Linux I have to tell the printer driver to use the Tabloid page 
region (not necessary under Win or Mac [I think])

- Open the "Print" menu in Acrobat
- Under "Page Handling", set the "Page Scaling" drop box to "Booklet 
Printing"
- If you're using a non-duplex printer (like me), set Booklet Subset to 
"Front side only" or "Back side only" as appropriate.
- You can choose a sheet, i.e., sheet 1 front is pages 20,1 and sheet 1 
back is 2,19, etc...

If I set my printer (LJ4 MV) to print 100 copies or so, and say print 
Front Side of all 5 or 6 sheets, then I do all the front sides w/o 
[much] manual handling, and then go and print the backs using Back Side, 
sheet "1 to 1", "2 to 2", etc.

I haven't used Acrobat 9 on Linux, but I know they didn't remove the 
feature.

The other way to impose sheets like this is to enter a string of page 
numbers in either the Scribus "Pages to output" or in Acrobat, i.e., 
20,1,19,2,...

[The pattern, if you have n pages, is pairs of (n-k,k+1) for k from 0 to 
(n-1)].  Or, interleave sequences counting down by one from n with 
counting up from 1, and stop when you meet in the middle.]

There are other types of imposition that can be done - Acrobat does n up 
printing, but I have found some scaling issues.  I'm not an expert on 
imposition for other uses, but for booklets, I've gotten it to work for 
me, and it's already implemented in a standard tool.

I'm sorry - I'm pretty sure there are people on this list that knew this 
or told me in the first place, but I hope it might help someone out.

Cheers,
Phil

-- 
"Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt."
--Sir William Cornelius Van Horne