Is there a methodical way to set up a document for printing such that the margins on paper are equal and that duplex documents are aligned properly from front to back? For example, when printing a tri-fold brochure on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, you want the folds to be precisely at the center of the 3 panels and you want the 3 panels on the front to align perfectly with the 3 on the back if the document is duplex. Same issue if you are making a duplex flyer or brochure that is 1/3 of a letter sized sheet and want to print 3 to a sheet and cut.

I haven't done a lot of print work where I needed to be overly concerned with precision but when I needed to, it was mostly just trial and error to get close to the correct alignment. My experience is with desktop or network printers (not professional print services) and the printable area seems to vary widely from printer to printer.

Most recently I setup a print test file which is mostly just an equally space grid and some squares to test the print boundaries and alignment. The printer "edge to edge" options shifts things slightly, but doesn't really help such that the resulting printout is not accurately centered and hence alignment is off (on the color laserjet tested on).

So my question for those who've traveled down this path, is it purely trial an error or is there a more systematic method?

Using XDPro6.