In the gutter, marginalised, and bleeding to death...

Hi Guys,

Yes, it's me and my little PDF brochure job that turned out so well that the client wants more pages, and everything printed. But it wasn't designed for print and is driving me crazy.

I was trained in Quark, so have managed to wrassle the Pantone, which I neednt have done because as mwenz says, a lot of print shops would rather RGB and sort your colour out themselves. I repeat YOU KNOW I SUFFERED BRAIN DAMAGE AFTER A MEDICAL ACCIDENT. Guys, I am finding something so silly really difficult. The client wants an EU A4 brochure wire bound. I cannot for the life of me work out where the margins should go, to make myself left and right hand page templates. The page is 210 x 297 of course. The bleed is 3mm, of course. And something obscure from the printer says allow a safe text area of 4mm, and that the punched area is 10mm from the bound edge. So. It seems easy, doesn't it. But you don't have brain damage. It's the bleed and punched area that are confusing me. They have a pdf graphic which seems to show the opposite of what they are saying.

Guys, faced with this information, where would you put your guides for left and right, and is Xara doing the bleed, if checked? Nothing re. print in Xara is clear. Also, and I find this very strange. Unless I have missed something, there is no brochure template that I can follow. They all seemed to have identical pages, as if they would never be bound.

The printer requires each page separately, which is a blessing. But I am frozen in the headlights here, and some of the images already need altering because of the clients change of mind, and I am scared of finding myself having to start from scratch again.

Any help you can give very gratefully appreciated.

Ali

Set your Page Settings for A4 Double Page. Add guidelines for the settings the printer has provided to the left page and to the right page (and yes, they will be mirror opposites). Then add text areas for the left and right page. Set these up as master pages with all the objects that will repeat on all pages.

The printer can probably sketch out how you should set up your left and right pages as far as dimensions, bleed, and live area.

Thanks Gary. I did it, but what a pain. Also, I couldn't do double spread, because they don't take them here.

The double page is visual. When you export to PDF it exports as single pages.

I have done 4 books and working in double page is always helpful so I can see both pages at the same time.

As yes it is a PITA. We have begged for Master Pages for years to no avail. One day maybe.

I wish I had known that! I have had to imagine my whole document!

Never mind, even with the trials and tribulations, I have enjoyed this. Just wish I didn’t have the deadline at the same time as many family emergencies.

Thanks for all your help.

Ali

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

The double page is visual. When you export to PDF it exports as single pages.

I have done 4 books and working in double page is always helpful so I can see both pages at the same time.

As yes it is a PITA. We have begged for Master Pages for years to no avail. One day maybe.

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My pleasure as always Ali.

Meanwhile, just when she thought the brochure had been calmed, IT RAISED UP AGAIN, and tried to bite her on the butt, and everywhere else for that matter.

So today's trials and tribulations. Can't control bullets and numbered lists. It looks obvious, but it is operating like the tiller of a boat, and everything seems backwards.

BUT, and only for the advanced and very determined Xara user... What is the best way to align text ACROSS COLUMNS. In other DTP programs it is quite easy, but I am finding I have to do each paragraph by hand in Xara, using the space after. What do you all think?

Other than that, OMG. What is the matter with the table tool? It felt like designing whilst wearing those big non-slip, industrial gauntlets that have granite chips on the palms.

Night night all. Thanks for any help you can give.

Ali