In the prepress printing process, Imposition serves to ensure layout and sheet arrangement are correct prior to printing. It’s helpful when you want to combine multiple pages into one page or in booklet format.

Apply imposition to a PDF

You can apply imposition to a PDF document and ensure that it prints according to the settings in the Imposition dialog box. The imposition settings of the last session are retained so that you can adjust them based on the resulting document, without having to go through configuration again.

  1. Open a PDF file with Right PDF Editor and choose Document > Assemble > Imposition .

  2. In the Imposition dialog box, click the tabs to make necessary changes to the Layout, Media, and Options settings. See Imposition settings.

  3. (Optional) To save the settings, click Save Settings…. To import settings, click Load Settings…. See Import or export imposition settings.

  4. Click The imposed file opens in a new window.

Imposition settings

The Imposition dialog box contains three tabs, Layout, Media and Options. You can export and save the current imposition settings (*.ini) for re-use.

 

Imposition Layout settings

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Document > Assemble > Imposition .

  2. In the Imposition dialog box, click the Layout tab, in which you can determine the page layout on the resulting PDF document, the binding method and the printing order.

 

To determine page layout

In the Layout section, from the Type drop-down menu, select one of the following:

  • 2-Up Booklet. Place two pages side­-by-side on a sheet.

  • 4-Up Booklet. Place two pages side-by-side and below them two more side-by-side pages per sheet. On average, there are four pages per sheet.

  • 8-Up Booklet. Place four pages side-by-side and below them two more side-by-side pages per sheet. On average, there are eight pages per sheet.

  • Cut Stacks. You can determine how many columns and rows to appear in the resulting document. Specify a custom number of pages per sheet and their arrangement by defining columns and rows. It stacks the printed sheets on top of each other and cuts them to different stacks. Then the stacks are piled from left to right and each pile is bound as a booklet.

  • Sequential. Select to arrange the original PDF document by page numbers.

  • Step and Repeat. Select to print each page of the document on a separate sheet. You can specify the number of copies by setting the Columns and Rows values.

 

To determine imposition Gutters

In the Gutters section, select a unit (pt, in, mm or cm) and do the following:

  • Vertical. Define the space between two pages placed side-by-side.

  • Horizontal. Define the space between rows of pages. This option is not available when 2-Up Booklet is selected as the type of page layout.

  • Spread. Define the space between the second and the third pages. This option is available only when 8-Up Booklet is selected.

  • Creep. Adjust the page layout of inner spreads to maintain a constant outer margin when a saddle stitched booklet is trimmed to counteract creep. There are 3 factors that determine the creep value: the size of the margins, number of pages, and the thickness of the media.

 

To determine a booklet binding

In the Binding section, select a binding method from the Type drop-down menu:

  • Saddle-Stitching. This staples the printed media in the spine during folding.

  • Perfect Binding. It binds each stack with Saddle-Stitching and glues them all together to generate a booklet. You need to specify the number of stacks per fold field.

 

To determine the printing order

  1. In the Printing Order section, select a printing order from the Style drop-down menu. The Style option is available only when you choose 4-Up Booklet or 8-Up Booklet layout:

    • Sheet-Wise. This prints one side with one plate, and then turns the media over and prints the other side with another plate using the same gripper and opposite side guide. This option is available only when 4-Up Booklet or 8-Up Booklet is selected.

    • Work and Tumble. This prints one side of a sheet and then turns it over from gripper to back with the same side guide and plate to print the other side. This option is available only when 4-Up Booklet or 8-Up Booklet is selected.

    • Work and Turn. This prints one side and then turns it over from left to right to print the other side using the same edge of the media as gripper or lead edge and using the same plate set for both sides. This option is available only when 8-Up Booklets is selected.

  2. Select Double-Side to print both sides of the medium. This option is available only when a non-booklet layout is selected.

 

Imposition Media settings

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Document > Assemble > Imposition .

  2. In the Imposition dialog box, click the Media tab, in which you can specify a medium that best fits the page size, and set margins and scaling for the page content.

 

Determine the media size

In the Media group, do the following as needed:

  • Autosize Media. This prints the imposition file to the medium that best fits the page size.

  • Fit to media size. This prints the imposition file to the medium you specify. You can select a standardized medium (A0 through A4, B4, B5, Executive, Ledger, Legal, Letter, Screen, or Tabloid) or a custom media. To add a custom media, click Add… and in the Custom Media dialog box, name the medium and define its width and height. Then, click OK to add the custom medium to the list. It can be edited or removed.

  • Auto Rotate. This allows the imposition file to be rotated to better fit the selected size.

In the Scaling group, set Horizontal and Vertical scaling for the page content. Note that this group is disable when the option Fit to media size is selected.

In the Margin group, set margin (left, right, top and bottom) for the medium when printed.

 

To place the page content onto a medium

Within the Media section in Media tab, check Fit to media size and then select a medium from the media list. Then, do the following:

  • In the Margin section, define margin values, which include Left, Right, Top and Bottom. You may also choose another unit.

 

Imposition Options settings

In Options, add crop marks to show where pages should be cut, or registration marks to help printers to align pages correctly. You can also adjust double-sided printing settings and more options as needed.

  1. Open a PDF file and choose Document > Assemble > Imposition .

  2. In the Imposition dialog box, click the Options tab.

 

Add Printer’s Marks

In the Printer’s Marks section, do the following:

  • In the Crop Marks section, select Crop Marks to add crop marks to the resulting imposition file and do the following:

    • Inner Marks. This adds crop marks to the blank space next to the spine.

    • Crop Marks Style. Choose to make crop marks single-lined or double-lined.

  • In the Registration Marks section, check Registration Marks to add these to the file and then select a style.

  • Check to add notes (e.g. Fold: 1, Sheet: 1) to the medium margin when printed.

 

Specify the sequence for double-sized printing

In the Double sided printing section, select an option and then decide whether to flip backs of sheet before printing:

  • Interleave document (front, back, front, back). This prints the front sides and then the back side of a medium before moving on to the next medium.

  • Fronts first, then backs. This prints the front sides of all media and prints their back sides in the same order.

  • Fronts first, then backs reversed. This prints the front sides of all media and then prints their back sides in the reverse order.

  • Flip backs of sheets. Check to rotate the media 180 degrees before printing the back.

Sample layouts

 

Booklet layouts

You can generate an imposition file in 2-Up, 4-Up, or 8-Up booklet layout with different binding, printing order, and double-sided printing methods. See the sample layouts below:


2-Up Booklet, Saddle-Stitching, Fronts first, then backs, Flip backs of sheets

 


4-Up Booklet, Perfect Binding, Sheet-Wise, Interleave, Flip backs of sheets

 


8-Up booklet, Saddle-Stitching, Sheet-Wise, Interleave, Flip backs of sheets

 


8-Up Booklet, Perfect Binding, Work and Tumble, Fronts first, then backs, do not Flip backs of sheets

 

Non-booklet layouts

 

Cut Stacks with 4 columns and 2 rows


Cut Stacks, Double-sided, Interleave, Flip backs of sheets
 


Cut Stacks, not double-sided, Interleave, Flip backs of sheets

 

Sequential with 4 columns and 2 rows


Sequential, Double-sided, Fronts first then backs, do not flip backs of sheets
 


Sequential, not double-sided, Fronts first then back reversed, Flip backs of sheets

 

Step and Repeat

Import or export imposition settings

 

To export imposition settings

You can save the current imposition settings for re-use.

  1. In the Imposition dialog box, click the Save Settings button.

  2. In the Save Settings… dialog box, specify the file name and path and click Save.

Note: in an Imposition file created from a PDF document, comments are ignored.

 

To import imposition settings for the active PDF document

  1. Choose Document > Assemble > Imposition .

  2. In the Imposition dialog box, click the Load Settings… button and the Load Settings… dialog box appears.

  3. In the dialog box, choose an Imposition Data (*.ini) file and click Open.

  4. Use the imported imposition settings or make any changes if needed.

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