Creating and Editing Signature Profiles

You can use signature profiles to arrange the sheets in the job into groups of signatures. A signature is a printed sheet that is folded and cut to create a set of pages in proper order for reading.
The same signature profile can be used for multiple jobs regardless of the number of pages in the job. For each group of signatures defined in the profile, you must specify the number of sheets. When the job is imposed, the profile applies in a cycle until all the sheets in the job are included.

For example, if a profile contains only one group of 4 sheets and the job requires 10 sheets, the profile generates 3 groups of signatures: a first group for sheets 1 to 4, a second group for sheets 5 to 8, and a third group for sheets 9 to 10. The last group only contains 2 sheets. No blank sheets are added to complete the group.

The groups of signatures can have saddle-stitch or perfect-bind numbering.

Depending on the job, the resulting groups can have a different number of pages or the same number of pages. For example, for a job with 10 signatures, the first 2 groups can each contain 4 signatures and the last group can contain only 2 signatures. However, when you create saddle-stitched groups of 32 pages with a job of 320 pages, a total of 10 groups are created with saddle-stitch numbering for every 32 pages. In this case, all the groups have an equal number of pages.

To create or edit a signature profile:
  1. On the Advanced Imposition screen, click Configuration button, the Configuration button, and select Signature Editor.
  2. On the Signature Booklet Maker Profiles screen, either create a new profile or edit an existing profile:
    • To create a new profile, click New. Enter a name for the profile in the New Profile dialog box.
    • To edit an existing profile, select the profile in the Profiles list.
    Signature editor
  3. To add a group, click Add Group.
    Adding and configuring groups
  4. Configure the group:
    1. To impose the pages in the group for perfect binding, select the check box in the Perfect Bound column.
      By default, the pages in the group are imposed for saddle-stitching.
    2. Click the text box in the Sheets column and enter the number of sheets that you want to include in the group.
      The specified number of sheets remains the same regardless of the number of pages imposed on the sheet. For example, if you enter 4 in the Sheets column, a group is created for the first 4 sheets in the job whether the sheets have 2 pages per side or 8 pages per side.
      Note: The number of pages in the group depends on the layout that is used for the job.
  5. Add and configure the rest of the groups.
    You only have to add multiple groups if you want to process the sheets differently. If you only add one group, the group is repeated until there are no sheets left in the job. If you add multiple groups, the groups are repeated as a set.
  6. To print the sheets inside each group in reverse order from the last sheet to the first sheet, select the Reverse Sheet List in Each Group check box.
  7. To convert the output into a 1-up document, select the Convert Booklet to One Up check box.
    You can also click the Settings... button to open the One Up Pages Setting dialog box and specify bleed and barcode settings.
    Page Settings
    Follow these steps in the One Up Pages Setting dialog box:
    1. Select a measurement unit from the Unit list.
    2. Under Bleed size, enter the bleed amount for the left, right, top, and bottom edges.
    3. To add a barcode, select the Add Barcode check box and select a barcode profile from the Barcode list.
      For more information on barcode profiles, see Creating and Editing Barcode Profiles.
    4. Click OK.
These examples show different group settings and the resulting output:
Group Settings Result
Group example

These settings create a saddle-stitched group for every 4 sheets.

If the last group has fewer sheets, no blank sheets are added.

If the job contains more than 4 sheets but they all need to be saddled in the same way, you do not have to create multiple groups. The same group is repeated for all the sheets in the job.
Group example

These settings create alternate groups. The first 8 sheets form a booklet, then the next 4 sheets form another booklet, and so on.

The cycle is repeated until there are no sheets left in the job.
Group example

These settings create a saddle-stitched group for the first 4 sheets, a perfect-bound group for the next sheet, and then a saddle-stitched group for the next 4 sheets.

The cycle is repeated until there are no sheets left in the job.
Group example

These settings create a saddle-stitched group for every 4 sheets.

The sheets inside each group are output in reverse order from the last sheet to the first sheet.

When you create barcode profiles, there are specific fields that you can use for jobs with booklet groups:

  • Booklet Number: The group number.

    For example, for a job with 3 groups of 4 sheets, this value is 1 for the first group, 2 for the second group, and 3 for the third group.

  • Booklet Number of Sigs: The total number of signatures in the group.

  • Booklet Sheet Number: The number of the current sheet in the group.

  • Booklet Signature Number: The position of the current signature in the group.

  • Total Booklet Number: The total number of groups.

  • Sheets per Booklet Number: The number of sheets in the current group.

For more information on barcode profiles, see Creating and Editing Barcode Profiles.

You can also use specific text mark variables for jobs with booklet groups. For more information on text marks, see Using Variables in Text Marks.

You can apply signature profiles from the Binding panel on the Advanced Imposition screen.

Parent topic: Specifying Advanced Imposition Settings