The whole JDF fold catalog
F4-1 to F64-2, plus your own templates: fold a grid by clicking, or number the pages by hand.
Learn more: The whole JDF fold catalogImpose, mark & cut
Books imposed the way your bindery folds them
Drop in a book's PDF and get press forms for saddle stitching, perfect binding, PUR, sewn and case-bound books. Every JDF folding scheme is built in, creep and the lip are worked out for you, and the forms redraw as you change a trim.
From Shop
Today, and with AutomatePrint
Today
With AutomatePrint
Today: A booklet template is rebuilt for every page count, and a 40-page job needs a new one.
With AutomatePrint: The page count is split into signatures for you, with the reasons, and re-planned when it changes.
Today: Creep is a number someone remembers, and nobody sees which pages moved.
With AutomatePrint: Creep comes from your paper, sheet by sheet, and every page shows how far it moved.
Today: A folding dummy is the only way to check a new fold.
With AutomatePrint: Every signature folds on screen, fold by fold, with your page numbers on it.
In numbers
- JDF folding schemes
- 89
- 86 of them paginated exactly as the JDF 1.8 specification draws them
- bindings
- 7
- saddle stitch, perfect, PUR, section sewn, case bound, side stitch, Wire-O
- from PDF to press forms
- 1 call
- over the API, or a few clicks in the wizard
How it works
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Drop in the PDF
One PDF of the book in reading order, at its trimmed size with bleed.
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Pick or fine-tune
Let the wizard rank the ways it could run on your presses, or set every trim, fold and mark in the Advanced editor.
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Print and bind
Download the press forms, front and back, with the marks the bindery needs.
Everything a book needs
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Watch it fold
Each signature folds in 3D with your page numbers on every panel, then turns the way the reader holds it.
Learn more: Watch it fold -
Trims you can see
Head, foot and face trims, grind-off and the lip are drawn on every page with their sizes, and change as you type.
Learn more: Trims you can see -
Nested, gathered or both
Saddle-stitched nests, gathered sections and nested sections gathered, with the book's cross-section and its spine on screen.
Learn more: Nested, gathered or both -
Marks for the bindery
Crop and fold marks, collating marks that step down the spine, registration, a colour bar and a slug, in their own layer.
Learn more: Marks for the bindery -
Your own page order
Drag pages into any order, add blank pages where you want them, and see every signature's pages edged in its colour.
Learn more: Your own page order -
Imports Signa and Preps templates
Bring your JDF imposition templates across: the folds are worked out from the page layout, and the marks file comes with them.
Learn more: Imports Signa and Preps templates -
Covers on their own stock
A separate cover gets its own press form, n-up on its own sheet and press, or ganged with other covers and flats in Imposition.
Learn more: Covers on their own stock -
Straight from Files
Choose Make a booklet on any PDF in Files and the wizard opens with its pages.
Learn more: Straight from Files -
A wizard that knows your shop
Pick the binding, paper and presses; it plans the book every way that fits and ranks the plans: fewest plate sets, then press sheets, then blank pages.
Learn more: A wizard that knows your shop -
Creep, sheet by sheet
Each page moves back toward the spine by the paper's thickness, inside multi-fold signatures too, and shows how far on hover.
Learn more: Creep, sheet by sheet -
Booklets by API
Send a PDF and settings, get the press forms back, or keep jobs to change and plan later.
Learn more: Booklets by API
Fold the real pages, not a dummy
Turn on Artwork and each signature folds in 3D with your book's own pages on its panels, the right way up. When it's folded, Reader view turns it the way a reader picks it up, so anyone can check the order before a sheet is printed.
Marks you can drag
Every booklet gets its bindery marks on its own. Anything else comes from your mark sets, the same ones Imposition uses: drop a mark on any press form, or attach it to every signature, spine, page, fold or cut line so it follows the layout. Presets add numbered collating marks, a signature ID code for the gatherer's camera and a slug on every spine in one click.
- Collating, signature ID, spine slug, folio, lay, cut and fold presets
- Colour bars with the job's own spot inks
- Applied automatically by press or by binding
Web offset, not just sheetfed
Plan a book for a web press: the roll width and cut-off instead of a sheet, the folder after the former, pages head to head or foot to foot, ribbons and the plate gap. Signatures follow what the web delivers per cut-off, and the checks know a web has no gripper.
- Chopper, jaw, double parallel and combination folders
- Roll width, cut-off and ribbons from the press
- The same marks, creep and checks as sheetfed
JDF in, JDF out
Bring your Signa or Preps templates in, and send RIP-ready output out, named the way your shop names jobs.
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Import a template
Each signature of the JDF becomes a folding template, its folds worked out from the page layout; the marks PDF it refers to prints in your inks.
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Output for the RIP
One PDF, a PDF per form or per side, or a JDF package your RIP imposes from, named from the trim, binding, guide, cut-off, caliper, pages, press and signatures.
The details, on screen
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Every margin, measured
Turn on Measurements: the sheet, gripper, tail and sides, and one page's trims, grind-off and bleed, labelled in mm or inches.
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Pagination your way
Drag pages into any order and add blanks where you want them; the plan fills around them.
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Covers on their own form
A separate cover prints n-up on its own stock and press, or goes to Imposition to gang with other covers and flats.
What's in it
- Saddle stitch, perfect bound, PUR, section sewn, case bound, side stitch, Wire-O
- Self cover or a separate cover spread with its spine
- Left, right (right-to-left) and top (calendar) binding
- Low or high folio lip, on the face or the foot
- Web offset presses: roll width, cut-off, folder
- Cut and stack for digital presses
- Severity-ranked checks before you print
- Booklets API with a one-call impose
Specs
- Bindings
- Saddle stitch, perfect bound, PUR, section sewn, case bound, side stitch, Wire-O / spiral
- Folding
- JDF fold catalog F2-1 to F64-2, custom fold sequences and hand-numbered templates
- Import
- JDF 1.2–1.8 and XJDF imposition templates (Signa, Preps and others), with their marks PDF
- Pagination
- PDF order or custom order by drag and drop, with blanks where you put them
- Assembly
- Nest, gather, nest then gather; small signatures first, middle or last
- Bindery
- Head, foot and face trims, grind-off, lip (low or high folio), bleed, creep
- Work styles
- Sheetwise, perfecting, work and turn, work and tumble; ups and cut and stack
- Covers
- Separate cover forms: n-up on their own sheet and press, 4/4, work and turn or 4/0
- Presses
- Sheetfed offset, perfecting, digital and web offset (roll width, cut-off, folder, ribbons)
- Marks
- Bindery marks plus your mark sets: drag and drop, per job or per set, applied by press
- Output
- One PDF, a PDF per form or per side, or a JDF package; file names from your convention
Works with
- Imposition & nesting True-shape nesting, N-up, strips and booklets on sheets, rolls and beds, with offset plans.
- Marks & registration Cutter registration, sheet codes, barcodes and job data on every sheet.
- Equipment 325 printer, cutter and press profiles, finishing machines and dies — never billed.
Read the docs: BookletsSignature schemes and paginationBindings, trims and creepBooklets API
On which plan
Compare every plan| Capability | Free | Shop | Production | Production+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imposition and true-shape nesting runs, fair use | Not included | 500 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Booklets is part of imposition, from Shop.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Anything else? Email hello@automateprint.com and a person who knows print will answer.
Which folding schemes are there?
Every scheme of the JDF fold catalog that has equal panels, from a single leaf (F2-1) to 64 pages (F64-2), and any fold you build yourself.
What if the page count doesn't fill whole signatures?
The rest goes into smaller signatures or blank pages, whichever costs less, and you can set the split yourself. Blanks go before the back cover by default, or where you drag them.
Can I use my Signa or Preps templates?
Yes. Import the JDF they export: each signature becomes a folding template with its folds, and the marks PDF it refers to prints on your forms, with its colours mapped to your inks.
Can my RIP impose from it?
Yes. Download a JDF package: the JDF with every page's place on every form, the book's pages and the marks, for a RIP that imposes itself. Or download flattened PDFs, one file or one per form or side.
Does it work on a web press?
Yes. Set the roll width, the cut-off and the folder (or pick your web press) and the plan lays the pages along the web, foot to foot or head to head, with ribbons and the plate gap.
Does it work for digital presses?
Yes. Digital booklets use single folds, two pages a side, cut and stacked when several fit a sheet, with no lip by default.
Put every job on one platform
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