InDesign Schmendesign

edited June 2014 in The Toolbox
I have several graphic novels to layout for CreateSpace. The sizes ranges from 56 pages to 168 to 250 pages. 
I can't adjust the margins one page at a time like in the past. 

I'm not even sure where to start. Create a document? how do the trim & bleed sizes work? It's different from the template I'm used to. How do I import a bunch of TIFF files?

Really. I don't even know where to begin. Totally fsckd at this point.


Comments

  • edited June 2014
    I'm trying to remember the formatting for Create Space (if you'll remember, you held my hand while I was uploading there a while back)
    1. If you already have image files then all you have to do is create a document (in InDesign) and set up guidelines for your trim and bleed areas.
    2. Tiff files should be able to be imported using the place command.
    The final thing is exporting the file to pdf with the correct specifications making sure that you've downloaded their guidelines: https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/InteriorPDF.jsp

    My biggest pet peeve about CreateSpace is that they are soooo traditional book oriented that they only have templates for word documents. When I asked them about formatting they proceeded to tell me to put everything into word and export it to pdf that way. 

    ~X(

    I can talk you through more of it if you need help.
  • OK… first thing to do is master the New Document dialogue, per your printer's specs:

    image
    Once you've got your document with the correct number of correctly sized pages, you need to grapple with your master pages…

    image

    This will take you to your Master Pages — anything applied here will apply to all your document pages. You can add automatic page numbers and the like here…

    image
    When you go back to your main document, the elements you've added via the Master Page will all be locked. If you think about it, this how you want it because you don't want page numbers and other 'furniture' to be getting in the way when you're trying to design a page. However, you do want to select the boxes you've just created so you can put your TIFFs in them… you can select Master Page elements on the document page by CMD-SHIFT-clicking them. Once you've done this once, the element will behave like a normal one and can be selected normally hereafter.

    Select your first page to insert a TIFF, select the frame, hit CMD-D to import. Navigate to the TIFF and select. If your TIFF isn't the full size of the page and you need it to float in the space, CMD-SHIFT-E will center it in the frame.

    If you're feeling really bold, you can select multiple TIFFs when you use CMD-D. Just shift-click the files you want in the 'Import' dialogue and instead of importing, you'll get a cursor with a thumbnail of the first TIFF. Click on a frame to insert that TIFF into the frame and the thumbnail will change to the next TIFF; click on the next frame and the TIFF will insert and the thumbnail will change… repeat until done…!
  • Wow! Thanks! I can't wait to get home and try it. 

    I think I can figure out the CreateSpace numbers to plug in now that I know where they go.

    So no way around having to Place the graphic one page at a time? Small price to pay for the rest supposedly being easy, I guess. ;) 
  • So no way around having to Place the graphic one page at a time? Small price to pay for the rest supposedly being easy, I guess. ;) 
    Yes — if the images are all in the same folder, just shift-click to select multiple images in the 'Import' dialogue as described in my last paragraph. It sounds a bit complicated but it should make sense once you try it. You still have to place them all individually, but it is literally as simple as just clicking on the picture box on each page and the image zaps straight in.
  • Ah, gotcha. Select them all at once, drop them one at a time. That's not so bad. Thanks!

    I will report back later with how it goes on the first one. 
  • edited June 2014
    Okay, confused already.
    Yes?

    image

    I don't have these problems with Ka-Blam, I give them TIFFs all formatted the same (to their template). 
    That's why margins inside and outside margins are throwing me off. 
    But they also cost 3x as much. 
  • Okay, confused already.
    Yes?

    OK… I'm ignoring that second link since it seems to be specific to Word, but here's how I read that first spec:

    image
  • edited June 2014
    The one for Word had the same stuff but phrased differently. 
    I thought for the bleed it said to increase the page width by .125 and the height by .5, but I couldn't figure out for sure what they were trying to say. 

    Your version looks like it should be right. I'll make a test file and upload it so I can run it through their reviewer app. It shows you every page in spreads with all their marks on it. Usually I have to upload and then go through and adjust each page. But having all the pages in InDesign would make that a lot easier that opening each one in Photoshop. 

    When I tried to import it stopped about 10 pages short and the last page was blown up. I'll have to check the original. Maybe it's at 600 dpi instead of 300 and that threw it off. 
  • (That inside margin number should read 0.375 in not 3.75, obviously…!)
  • edited June 2014
    Margins look okay, but it's still stopping 10 pages from the end and that last page it shows is blown up huge. Still not sure what's up with that. May finish the 56-pager by hand, and then use InDesign for the big ones. Running out of time before Dragon Con. I'll probably have to order from Ka-Blam just to be safe (since I used their templates). Which one artist didn't follow, but whatever. I may have to drop one series to concentrate on the ones that make money.

    Haven't even started Striker Force Magica and people are already asking for us to hurry up based on some designs and one page. 
    Solar Harvest is getting interest with just two chapters of novel posted.
    Love is in the Blood is always popular. Both the GN and now interest in the novel is ramping up. Already getting people asking me if I'll have it at Dragon Con. (Alas, no. Not this year.)

    It's a cool feeling, but I'm already getting performance anxiety. (Someone else can run with that joke. I gotta finish chapters for two titles to post tonight and tomorrow.)


  • Did you get the problem resolved to suit you?
  • No, I never did get it to work for me. I ended up dropping the full Adobe subscription and went to the Photoshop only sub. 
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