On Friday 03 Dec 2004 18:06, main-request@lists.alug.org.uk wrote:

Have any ALUG members had any experience of printing books like this, and if so what DTP package did you use?

Disclaimer, I was a compositor/Graphic Designer in the days when we used to set lead type by hand, the printers were that long established we had five cases of swastika border, which for some reason didn't seem to be as popular as it was in 1920's when they bought it.

As I understand it you want to print an 80 page (A5) book using 40 sheets of (A4) the formula for working out which sheets go together is each pair must add up to 1 more than the number of pages, 1-40 2-39 and so on and always an odd with an even alternating, middle pages will be 20-21. Also bear in mind that 1and 40 will need more space in the gutter, (the margin between the pages) = twice the margin at the outside edges plus an allowance for the fact that there will be 38 other sheets of paper between them, in my day that would have been about one > one and half leads. (Don't take this as gospel, I joined the Fire Service in 1974 and my memory is not what it was). I've still got my type scale some where if you need it, but, a lead was 3 points and a point was approximately one seventy-second of an inch, but not exactly one seventy-second. but I would have thought if you add half a mm to the gutter for every eight or so pages working out from the middle it will end up looking right.

Of course Scribus or something similar may do that automatically for you.