Design in Reader Spreads

Spreads: A spread is two booklet pages side by side.

Reader Spreads

When you are designing your booklet select “Facing Pages” in the New Document dialog box. This allows you to design each page beside the page it will appear by when the booklet is open. This is called a Reader Spread because it is in the order the reader will see it.

*This is how we want you to design and send your booklet file to us. It is easy and does not require any extra steps during file setup.

Printer Spreads

If you have ever taken apart a stitched booklet you probably noticed that the pages have to be in a very specific order on each sheet and do not appear in their actual order until all of the sheets have been folded back together. What you are seeing is called a Printer Spread.

*You don’t have to worry about designing your booklet this way, in fact, we ask that you don’t. When we receive your print ready PDF we have a program that will automatically reorder each of your pages into Printer Spreads. This makes things much easier on you and eliminates potential confusion on both ends.

Saving Your Booklet for Print

In addition to our basic requirements, you also need to make sure the PDF is exported as Pages rather than Spreads. In Reader Spread order.

  1. Save your Indesign Document
  2. Go to File > Export > and name your booklet file
  3. Select Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format dropdown menu > press Save
  4. In the “Export Adobe PDF” dialog box go to General 
  5. in the “Pages” section select “All” and “Pages
  6. Make sure all other Print Ready PDF requirements are checked before finishing the export.

Next Step: Margins

Learn what margins are and how to use them correctly for print.