Imposition of PDF files through Workflow (Planet PRess)

OL Connect Professional Workflow
1

Hi

Does anyone have a nice script for imposing an A5 PDF file 4up onto SRA3 using the Alambic API?

Ideally it would be good to have a nice plugin for this?

I dont really want to be adding a PDF into Designer to do the imposition…

Thanks

Liam

2

You’ll need to provide more info on how you want to impose the pages

1   2          5   6

3   4          7   8

or

1   8          3   6

7   2          5   4

Duplex?

Bleed?

Stack depth?

3

Front | Back
4 1 2 3

  •            +            -
    8 5 6 7
    |

Pages - 4pp
Size - A5
Orientation - Mixed (How do I rotate landscape pages only? - Designer - Upland OL User community)
Duplex - Yes
Bleed - Yes (3mm)
Trim Marks - Yes (2mm offset, 5mm length)
Stack depth - No limit (calculated from page length)
Horizontal Gutter - 4mm

This is just my current need, obviously it would be good to have a generic script to manipulate to the requirements.

4

Creating a specific script for these requirements should not be overly complex. But turning that script into a generic one becomes a paying project as we’d have to analyze every possible permutations of all parameters. If you want to try your hand at it, go ahead!

In the meantime, I will see what I can come up with for this specific project.

5

Not sure I understand your impositioning. You’re not looking for booklet printing, apparently. From what I can tell, you want 4 page duplex leaflets that will then be cut horizontally and all be bound together. So with 15 pages, you’d have:

Front    |     Back	|	Front    |     Back
4   1          2   3		12   9         10  11 

-------------CUTTING    LINE -------------------------

8   5    |     6   7	|     blank  13  |     14  15

Right?
6

They are 4pp Greetings cards and we are imposing 2up (unique) on an SRA3 sheet.

So this looks correct, but 9-16 is the next sheet and page 16 would not be blank.

We get a. PDF of each card, containing 4 pages with bleed but no trim marks I need to combine them, could be 1 PDF or 1000, then rotate the landscape ones and impose 2up onto an SRA3 sheet.

7

Not sure I am clear on how you want to impose your pages; however below is an example which takes an A5 pdf and creates a 4-up Front-to-Back.

You can build on that to get the desired output

dim MyPDF, NewPDF, NewPDF_PageCount, pdfRect, i, blankPage

Set MyPDF = Watch.GetPDFEditObject
MyPDF.Open Watch.GetJobFileName(), false

Set NewPDF = Watch.GetPDFEditObject
NewPDF.Create Watch.GetJobFileName()

Set blankPage = MyPDF.Pages.Item(0).Size

NewPDF_PageCount = round(MyPDF.Pages.Count/4)
if(NewPDF_PageCount < MyPDF.Pages.Count/4) Then
NewPDF_PageCount = NewPDF_PageCount + 1
End if

For i= MyPDF.Pages.Count To NewPDF_PageCount*4
myPDF.Pages.Insert i, blankPage
Next

Set pdfRect = CreateObject(“AlambicEdit.PdfRect”)
pdfRect.left = 0
pdfRect.top = 907
pdfRect.right = 1276
pdfRect.bottom = 0

For i = 0 to (NewPDF_PageCount-1)
NewPDF.Pages.Insert i, pdfRect

    NewPDF.Pages.Item(i).Merge2 MyPDF.Pages.Item(i), 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0
    NewPDF.Pages.Item(i).Merge2 MyPDF.Pages.Item(NewPDF_PageCount*2+i), 0.0, 453.5, 0.0, 1.0
    NewPDF.Pages.Item(i).Merge2 MyPDF.Pages.Item(NewPDF_PageCount+i), 638.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0
    NewPDF.Pages.Item(i).Merge2 MyPDF.Pages.Item(NewPDF_PageCount*3+i), 638.0, 453.5, 0.0, 1.0

Next

MyPDF.Close
NewPDF.Save False