[SOLVED] How to create 4 page brochure from 1 sheet of 8.5x11?

[wysocki]

New to Scribus and can't figure out how to make a small brochure. I want to print on both sides of one sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper, then fold it in half to create a 4 page brochure (5.5"w x 8.5"h). It will show the first page on the right, then pages 2-3 inside the fold, and page 4 on the back. This means on one side of the sheet I'll have pages 2 & 3, and on the other side I'll have pages 4 & 1.

I've tried all possibilities I can think of but can't figure this out. HELP!!!

[PatJr]

something like this?

[Nermander]

There are two options.

1. The manual option. Create a 2-page 8.5" x 11" landscape document and use guides to place the contents. This is the easy way.


2. Create a 4-page 5.5" x 8.5" document, export to PDF and use some kind of impositioning solution (I guess in this case booklet printing is easiest) to turn it into a sheet that can be folded.

Note that the second option may be more difficult if you want contents spanning over the fold. I am not sure all booklet printing options print to scale, maybe they scale down the pages to fit.

Also, in both cases, the biggest challenge may be to have the printer flip the back page in the right direction. This may require some trial and error.

[wysocki]

The "flyer" version from PatJr could work, which I guess is the same as option 1 from Nermander. Interestingly, even though the pages are defined as 11wx8.5h landscape, when you print them they come out on portrait paper! This can be fixed by going into the printer options at print time and specifying landscape there, but why should this be necessary?

So, I can live with that for my paper flyer. However, I like to also produce a pdf of the document to upload to website that can be viewed online with the 4 pages stacked in order vertically. When I used MS Publisher for this job, it was a simple task to change from single pages to side-by-side brochures at print time. Is there no equivalent to this in Scribus?

...use some kind of impositioning solution (I guess in this case booklet printing is easiest) to turn it into a sheet that can be folded...

[AdmFubar]

Create a 2 page document in landscape. up to you which page will be cover/back and inside.
place a guide or line in the middle of the sheet to indicate the fold (mainly as a guide for you, you can remove it when finished)

Are you printing this yourself? or sending it out to be printed?

[Nermander]

When I used MS Publisher for this job, it was a simple task to change from single pages to side-by-side brochures at print time. Is there no equivalent to this in Scribus?

I guess MS Publisher had some kind of impositioning solution, and Scribus does not have that.

So the best solution here is to use my second solution and then "post-process" the PDF.

The easiest solution is to use a PDF viewer that supports booklet printing, but there are also PDF manipulation tools that can create a booklet PDF. The Scribus wiki has a list of useful tools but I haven't used any of them for a while so I am not sure which ones still work.

Maybe have a look at jPDFtweak?

[AdmFubar]

Let me make sure I know what you are asking for.. You want 2 panels on each page, printed on a single sheet, double sided?

[wysocki]

Ok, here's the situation. I want to prepare a 4 page flyer that I can display in two ways.
1. Printed on 1 sheet of 8.5x11" paper, folded so that pages 2-3 are on the inside of the fold.
2. Printed to PDF so that each page appears in sequence beneath the prior one.

When I used to do this in Presentations, I'd create a 4 half-page document and I could print it as a single document (to pdf) or as a folded booklet. Since there's no way to do that in Scribus, I'll have to see if 3rd party apps can convert it for me. To create the paper version, the ideas above work ok by printing one sheet of paper landscape and just fudging the smaller "pages" onto it. Could be tricky unfudging them for the pdf! Here's the 4page flyer on 1 landscape 8.5x11 paper:



Even just creating a nice, small page version for the pdf seems impossible. If I create a doc with page size 5.5x8" and then fill 4 consecutive pages, that works fine for the pdf. EXCEPT that Scribus ignores that page specification and puts the image into the center of a full sheet of paper. For example, here's what I show in Scribus on 5.5x8 pages:



And here's what the pdf from it looks like. The page images are centered in a big 8.5x11 sheet of paper background!



Why can't Scribus pass the page size info to the printer???!!!

[AdmFubar]

Now we have the untold story! I did catch the need for two ways to present the material.

you can still do this. Create you 5.5x8.5 document layout.  4 pages, portrait

Do a direct export to pdf of your document. and use one of the pdf tools to reorganize the pages for the printed version in the 4-1-2-3.

check here for what can work for you
https://www.google.com/search?q=linux+pdf+tools+for+imposistion

[wysocki]

Ok. I created the doc with 4 pages as you said. That works ok.

Found pdfsnake.app and they created my booklet pdf quickly online from my original pdf! They have limited usage for free, but it works find for my booklet needs. Thanks for all your help, guys!!!

[Nermander]

As mentioned before, there are probably dozens of programs you can install locally that will fix this.

If if is just for your own printing, your PDF viewer may be able to print booklets without any additional tools.