What imposition is
Presses print on sheets larger than most finished pieces. Imposition is arranging your pages on that sheet so that, after printing, folding and cutting, everything ends up the right way round and in order. It saves paper, press time and money. You design your pages one at a time; our prepress team does the imposing.
N-up and step-and-repeat
N-up means printing several copies (or different items) on one sheet. Step-and-repeat places the same item again and again in a grid. Each item keeps its own bleed, and crop marks show where to cut.
| Finished piece | Example sheet | Typical count |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5 x 2 business card | 12 x 18 | 21–24 up |
| 4 x 6 postcard | 12 x 18 | 6–8 up |
| 4.25 x 5.5 card | 11 x 17 | 8 up |
| 5.5 x 8.5 flyer | 11 x 17 | 4 up |
| 8.5 x 11 flyer | 11 x 17 | 2 up |
Exact counts depend on bleed, gripper margin and whether items share cut lines.
Signatures (booklets)
A signature is a sheet printed with several pages that is folded into a section of a booklet. Folding one sheet in half gives 4 pages, twice gives 8, three times gives 16. That is why saddle-stitched booklets must have a page count divisible by 4 (8, 12, 16, 20...). Pages on a signature are not in reading order; for an 8-page booklet, pages 8 and 1 sit side by side on the outside, then 2 and 7, and so on. This is called printer spreads, as opposed to the reader spreads you see in your design software.
Creep: in thicker saddle-stitched booklets the inner pages push outward, so after trimming they are slightly narrower. Imposition shifts inner pages to compensate, so keep a comfortable margin near the outer edge.
Work-and-turn and work-and-tumble
For double-sided jobs, work-and-turn puts the front and back on the same side of the plate. The sheet is printed, turned over left to right (same gripper edge), and printed again, producing two finished two-sided copies per sheet from one set-up. Work-and-tumble flips the sheet head to foot instead. Sheetwise uses separate front and back set-ups. Your printer chooses the method based on the press and quantity.
What you should send
- Single pages in reading order, not spreads, with bleed.
- One multi-page PDF for booklets, with the page count a multiple of 4 for saddle stitching.
- Tell us the finished size, quantity and binding.
Frequently asked questions
- Should I send my booklet as spreads?
- No. Send single pages in order. We impose them into printer spreads.
- Why must my booklet be a multiple of 4 pages?
- Each folded sheet makes 4 pages in a saddle-stitched booklet, so the total has to be divisible by 4. Blank pages can be added if needed.
Related services
Helpful customer tools
- Imposition Tool (available to customers with a free account)
- Bleed Tool (step and repeat) (available to customers with a free account)
Already a customer? Log in to use them.