Printing "middle" pages from a bookfold

[Max Moor]

Hi All,
I have a document formatted as a bookfold on legal paper, landscaped.
Once printed, I can chop the sheets in half, and have a manual that is
8.5" tall by 7" wide. Somewhere in the middle of printing my fourth one,
the printer stopped.

I set the printer up the way I would to print the whole thing, then,
in the print box, said to print pages 49-120. It didn't print in bookfold
style anymore, instead, it printed just a single sheet on one side.

What I'm wondering is if there is a set of rules somewhere for how to
specify, in the print box, that I want some set of pages from the middle of
the bookfold to be printed, just like the whole thing would be.

Also, I'd like to know if there is a way to tell it to print just one
of the sheets. For eexample, the one in the middle of the bookfold that
has pages 49, 50, 119, and 120 on it.

Knowing how to do this would sure save a pile of paper when there is
an error on a single sheet out of the whole thing.

Thanks, Max

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My experience is that printing selected booklet pages doesn't work very
well. But I'm curious as to why you're "chopping" the pages when the whole
idea of "Book fold" is to allow you to fold the pages into a booklet. If
you're going to cut them anyway, then you really don't need to be printing
in booklet order.

 

[Max Moor]

My experience is that printing selected booklet pages doesn't work
very well. But I'm curious as to why you're "chopping" the pages when
the whole idea of "Book fold" is to allow you to fold the pages into a
booklet. If you're going to cut them anyway, then you really don't
need to be printing in booklet order.

The doc is 168 pages (42 leagal sheets doubled up, double sided), so
folding really isn't an option. I'm doing it because I like the 7x8.5 form
factor for the finished manual. Doing a bookfold with 8.5x14 paper allows
me to have the finished size I like, and still print on standard, readily
available paper. It works really well, except for when I need a sheet from
the middle.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you're going to cut the pages anyway, you might try using the "2 pages
per sheet" option instead of "Book fold." This will give you pretty much the
same results, except that the pages will be sequential (which should
actually make collation easier), and you can use all the same formatting and
page options on the pages as you use on full-sized ones. Better still, since
you already have the pages the right size, the conversion should be
seamless. The main benefit will be that it is much easier to print specific
pages.

The downside to this will be that you won't be able to duplex, but if you're
creating more than one copy, it's easier to do this in the printing/copying
process anyway.

 

[Max Moor]

If you're going to cut the pages anyway, you might try using the "2
pages per sheet" option instead of "Book fold." This will give you
pretty much the same results, except that the pages will be sequential
(which should actually make collation easier), and you can use all the
same formatting and page options on the pages as you use on full-sized
ones. Better still, since you already have the pages the right size,
the conversion should be seamless. The main benefit will be that it is
much easier to print specific pages.

The downside to this will be that you won't be able to duplex, but if
you're creating more than one copy, it's easier to do this in the
printing/copying process anyway.

Actually, I've found the bookfold to be much easier for collation. I tend
to print the whole thing at once. After it's printed, it gets cut in half,
the left stack is flipped over on to the right, and it's ready for binding.
With the '2 pages...' method, the page wrapping is messed up. I'd need
pages 2 and 3 on one side, and 1 and 4 on the other. Bookfold makes all
that really simple.

One thing I hadn't thought of, however, is to use the '2 pages...' setting
to print those middle pages when needed. I can specify it to print pages
48, 121, 122, 47, in that order, duplexed on the legal paper, and I get the
same result as if I'd printed my middle bookfold sheet. Thanks for putting
me in mind of that.

- Max

 

[jay m]

This may be REALLY simple minded, but-
will the printer handle the paper after it is chopped?
would it still duplex on that smaller format?
if so, chop then print...

if not, then resume previous program!
Jay