Impose 5.5x8.5 saddle stitch booklet 2 up for 11 x 17 for digital

[jpfulton248]

I have a workflow in place for imposing for saddle stitched 5.5 x 8.5 to be printed on letter size on digital. I also have a workflow in place for imposing saddle stitched 5.5 x 8.5 to be printed on 11x17 offset. What I don't have is a workflow for imposing for 11 x 17 on digital. All imposition is performed using the Quite Imposing plugin. I know that whatever we do for offset would work just fine for digital but I know that on digital number of runs does not matter whereas with offset, there is an advantage to minimizing runs. Can anyone point me to a primer on this or tell me how you guys handle this?

Thanks!

 

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Not sure exactly what your issue is. Are you referencing that because of the larger page size you need to figure out the difference for using smaller page counts when creating signatures,(which complicate bindery) verses creating larger page signatures? What part is the stumbling point?

 

[jpfulton248]

I'm attaching a pdf of how we currently impose inside pages for 5.5x8.5 saddlestitch booklets to be run 4UP on offset. I've done it this way for 10+ years. Should we use this for digital as well. (is this even industry standard for running on offset). I have no formal training (honestly just no training at all) and since we are such a small shop I just kind of looked at previous stuff when I started here and kind of figured it out myself. Does this imposition make sense? Should we use this same setup digital? Does it matter?

 

[DCurry]

So you're running 2 different 4-pagers per sheet. If your bindery likes it like this for an offset job, it will be fine for a digital one as well.

One scenario where it might make a difference would be if some sigs are K only and others are 4C. If you have 2 different sigs per form, there's a possibility that you might get one color sig ganged with one K sig and you'd still be charged 4 clicks, whereas if you imposed it so you have 2-up of the same sig you'd minimize your click charges because the K-only forms would be just 1 click.

Other than that, I don't see any advantage to doing it differently than you are now.

 

[jpfulton248]

Right, and actually we do all bindery in house so we are in control of that. We only have one guy that does the offset and finishing work so I have pretty strong influence on how impose etc if a change would be advantageous. Also, good point re: K vs 4C. Fortunately almost all of our work is all black insides with color on covers only so that keeps it simple.

What is "normal" for imposing this sort of thing?

 

[DCurry]

I think "normal" is whatever works best for your shop with your equipment and workflow. The shop I now work at cuts everything down to 4-pagers anyway, so it wouldn't matter other than controlling the clicks so we do 2up of one sig per sheet.

Other shops I've worked at had better folding equipment, so it would have run as a traditional 8-pager with .125" head trim.

Since there are no plates being made, you don't have the same material and makeready savings by putting different sigs on each form.