Adobe InDesign CS5 - Manual (Page 638)

632 USING INDESIGN
Printing
Last updated 11/16/2011
Understanding creep
Creep specifies the distance pages move from the spine to accommodate paper thickness and folding in Saddle Stitch
and Perfect Bound documents. InDesign considers the “cover” of the final piece to be the outermost printer spread,
while the “centerfold” is considered to be the innermost printer spread. The term sheet represents two printer spreads:
the front of the sheet and the back of the sheet. The creep increment is calculated by dividing the specified creep value
by the total number of sheets minus one.
When you provide a positive creep value, the centerfold is not adjusted, but the pages on the outer sheets move away
from the spine. When you provide a negative creep, the cover is not adjusted, but the pages on the inner sheets move
towards the spine.
For example, a 16-page InDesign document could yield eight printer spreads, or four sheets. The front of the first sheet
will consist of the first printer spread (pages 16 and
1) while the back of the first sheet will consist of the second printer
spread (pages 2 and 15).
If the creep value in this example is 24 points (an exaggerated amount for the sake of clarity), the creep increment is 8
points per sheet (24 divided by 3). The amount of creep applied to the innermost sheet is 24 points, the amount of creep
applied to the third sheet is 16 points, and the amount of creep applied to the second sheet is 8 points. No creep will
be applied to the first outermost sheet.
The amount of creep for each successive sheet is decreased by the creep increment. In summary, each page on the
innermost sheet is moved 12 points (half of the 24-point creep value for this sheet) away from the spine, each page on
the third sheet is moved 8 points (half of the 16-point creep value for this sheet) away from the spine, and each page
on the second sheet is moved 4 points (half of the 8-point creep value for this sheet) away from the spine.
Preview or view a summary of booklet printing
The Preview area of the Print Booklet dialog box lets you review color thumbnails of the printer spreads created by
your selected imposition style. You can also see the printer’s marks you’ve specified in the Print dialog box.
1 Choose File > Print Booklet.
2 Do any of the following:
• Click Preview on the left side of the dialog box. To flip through the printer spreads, click the scroll arrows. Click the
left scroll arrow to go backwards from spread to spread. You can also drag the scroll box to change printer spreads.
• Click Summary on the left side of the Print Booklet dialog box to view a summary of current booklet settings. Check
the bottom of the Summary area for any conflicting settings.
If you click Print Settings and change the settings in the Print dialog box, you can observe the effect of the modified
settings in the Preview area.
Troubleshooting booklet printing
Note these issues to address when printing booklets.
Can’t create new document Unfortunately, you can’t create a new InDesign document with the imposed pages. You
can print the imposed document or create a PDF.
Blank pages not included You may add blank pages in the middle of a document to make sure there are enough pages
for each printer spread. However, if these pages contain no text or objects, they may not be recognized, and additional