Impose Plus

Impose your artwork, artboards or a multi-page PDF onto print sheets: gang-ups, collate-cut stacks, saddle-stitched booklets, double-sided work, head to head, with crop marks, labels and numbering. A live preview shows the layout as you set it.

See it in the shop · Version 2.10.0 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Impose Plus from the Tools scripts. The script has three tabs: Imposition, Options and Sheet Sizes.

To put 8 business cards on an SRA3 sheet:

1. Under Sheet Size, choose your sheet from Standard Sizes (or type the width and height).
2. Under Source, choose Artboards (one card per artboard) and press Update Size from Source. Set the Bleed.
3. Under Layout, choose Gangup - Repeat and tick Fill Sheet.
4. Check the preview, then press Create Imposition.

• Standard Sizes: pick a sheet (edit the list on the Sheet Sizes tab), or type the Sheet Width and Sheet Height.
• Border: the edge of the sheet the printer can't print on. Fill Sheet keeps inside it.
• Landscape: turn the sheet sideways.

• Source: what to impose:
  • Selected Artwork: the selected artwork, as one page.
  • Artboards: each artboard is a page. All artboards should be the same size.
  • PDF File: pages of a PDF, from First page to Last page, cropped to the PDF Crop box. Choosing a PDF fills in its pages, size and bleed for you. No document needs to be open.
• Update Size from Source: read the page size from the source.
• Source Width, Source Height: the finished size of each page.
• Bleed: the bleed each page has. Tick Size above includes bleed if the width and height include it.

• Horz Gutter, Vert Gutter: the gap between pages (between their trim marks).

• Destination: impose into a New Document, or straight into the Current Document (faster). Remove old artboards clears the old artboards from the current document.
• Layout:
  • Gangup - Repeat: the sheet full of copies of the same page (one sheet per page).
  • Gangup - Unique: different pages across the sheet, in the Order you choose.
  • Gangup - Collate Cut: different pages placed so that after guillotining, each stack is in page order.
  • Booklet: a saddle-stitched booklet, pages in the right order and back to back. A page count that isn't a multiple of 4 gets blank pages at the end.
• Total Creep and Creep Out: for booklets, how much the inner pages creep in total (for example 1.5 mm for a thick book), shared out over the sheets.
• Method: Standard, Head to Head (every other row turned 180°) or Foot to Foot.
• Order: the order of unique pages: left to right then top to bottom, and so on.
• Duplex: double-sided work: None, Left / Right or Top / Bottom (how the sheet turns over).
• Duplex Back: the backs are the next pages (Unique Pages), or the same as the front (Duplicate Front Page).
• Fill Sheet: fit as many as will go. Untick to set Horz Copies and Vert Copies yourself. A warning shows if they don't fit.

• Add Crop marks, with Mark Length and Mark Offset.

• Add Label: a line of text on each sheet, at the Position you pick, Horizontal or Vertical, with your own Text, the Job Name and the Date and Time (or the PDF's name when imposing a PDF).

For numbered tickets, vouchers and so on. Put a placeholder ({#} by default) in a text in your artwork, and each copy gets its own number:

• Placeholder: the text to replace.
• Start Value and Step: the first number and how much it goes up.
• Min Digits: leading zeros, for example 3 gives 001.
• Sheets: with Gangup - Repeat, how many sheets to make, the numbers carrying on from sheet to sheet.

Numbers follow the layout order, so collate-cut stacks come out in sequence.

The live preview shows the first sheet (front and back) as you change the settings.

• Create Imposition: does it.

• Crop Stroke: the crop marks' line width.
• Convert duplicate shapes into symbols: copies of the same page become symbols, so the file stays small and fast.

The list of sheets for Standard Sizes: add your press sheets and media sizes.

1. Source: PDF File, choose the PDF (pages, size and bleed fill in).
2. Layout: Booklet, Duplex: Left / Right. Set Total Creep if the paper is thick.
3. Choose a sheet that fits two pages side by side, and press Create Imposition.

1. Put {#} in the ticket's number text.
2. Layout: Gangup - Repeat, Fill Sheet.
3. Numbering: Start Value 1, Min Digits 4, Sheets 25.
4. Press Create Imposition: 25 sheets, every ticket numbered.

• Impose from a PDF (or linked PDF pages) for the most reliable results: pages can't be changed by accident, copying is faster and files are smaller. To bring a PDF in as linked pages first, use PDF MultiPage Import.
• Save your common layouts as presets (see Using Presets), for example “SRA3 business cards 10 up”.
• For simple step and repeat with cut lines, see Step and Repeat.

• New documents use 300 ppi raster effects (for shadows, blurs and rasterizing), the right setting for print.
• Asking for a last page past the end of the PDF gives a clear message instead of imposing the wrong page.

• 2.10.0
  • Improved: new documents use 300 ppi raster effects (shadows, blurs, rasterizing), the print setting.
  • New: Destination: impose into a new document, or straight into the current one (faster), with Remove old artboards.
  • Fixed: numbering now works, in layout order, with a new Sheets option for numbered Gang-up Repeat sheets.
  • Improved: choosing a PDF fills in its pages, size and bleed straight away.
  • Fixed: booklets with Top / Bottom duplex, Head to Head or Foot to Foot now have every page in the right place.
  • Improved: a warning when the copies do not fit on the sheet, and general bug fixes and reliability. Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later.
• 2.9.0: Much more reliable PDF imposing, fast and correct PDF page counts, booklets that aren't a multiple of 4, Total Creep fixed, PDFs over 100 pages, and no document needed to impose a PDF.
• 2.8.4: Buy in PowerScripts now opens this script's page in the shop.
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes