How to setup a duplex document printed both sides with page numbers in InDesign

Question

I'm about to create an A4 business brochure magazine style of 8 pages and i was wondering how to setup my document.

I have two options. 1 would be creating an A4 document, facing pages with proper margins and bleeds with page numbers on the left page and right page on my A master.

The problem with this option is that in my page panel, the pages are hierarchically organized as followed:

page 1 alone
facing 2-3
facing 4-5
facing 6-7
last page 8 alone

On the other hand, options 2 would make more sense i think and would be hierarchically organized as followed:

facing 8-1
facing 2-7
facing 3-6
facing 4-5

This way i'd have a real duplex document printed on both sides, i feel that would be the right way to go but is it? If so, how can i achieve that? And if not, how professionals usually do this montage?

Thanks a lot in advance for your enlightenment.

Answer 1

As you figured out, the useful representation for laying out a document is different than the requirements for printing the document. In your example, version 1 is called a reader's spread and version two generally called a printer's spread.

In typical parlance, the process of rearranging pages for press is called imposition and a limited imposition feature for booklets is available in indesign called "print booklet" under the file menu. AFAIK, it is version specific. I am fairly sure cs5 and above it is available.

For a simple booklet, the pages must be rearranged and adjusted slightly and incrementally based on the thickness of the paper: as one gets closer to the center of the document, more and more of the gutter margin is eaten up by the paper thickness.

More voluminous books are typically printed on larger sheets and then folded in an origami-like process.

There are also simple programs which can take a reader's spread PDF and create an imposed booklet PDF as well, so it is possible to do what you want without using indesign.

(see: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-704ba.html )

Note that in all my time doing books/booklets on the order of 40-150 pages, I have NEVER imposed my own documents: I leave that the the pre-press people at my printing supplier. I have only ever done it myself for dummies and hobby/home use.

Answer 2

For an eight-page document, which doesn't have the issue of thickness towards the center margin:

Make each page a Section Start. (So each page number will be 1*, 2*, etc.)

Drag your pages into printer's spreads:

8-1
2-7
6-3
4-5

Please note the page order. It's not 1-8; it's 8-1.

Answer 3

Thanks to correct me Lauren, i've missed that! However I've finally opted for the easy way meaning reader's spreads. The reason is because InDesign doesn't provide a full printer's spreads option which is astounding regarding the fact that it's a software whose main goal is to help creating files for multiple supports. I suppose that, thanks to Horatio, creating a magazine or a book with a large amount of pages is quite tricky. So InDesign doesn't get into it for that reason. That's when professional printers come in. The best thing to do i think is to communicate with the printers before starting a project if possible. This way you know how he'll want to receive the file and you can build a proper file making the printer's work easier. A good graphic designer should consider that i guess. Anyway, in my case an 8 page A4 business brochure is quite simple compared to a magazine or even a book. So thank you all for these interesting techniques that i didn't know and i guess it might help others who also seek to work properly ;)