Newsletter Template / Page set up for print

Question

Hi,
I'm in the process of creating a template for a newsletter, and am not sure how best to start with formating this template so it will be suitable for sending to a printers for a run of about 500 copies each time.
The newsletter will be A4 in size, and will consist of about 12 pages each issue.
Does that mean that I would create an A3 Pages document, and apply 2 pages of the newsletter to this, so it can be folded to create an A4 'book'?  Can Pages deal with auto page numbers like this?  Or am I pushing it too far?
Or, perhaps, should I just be creating each page on a single A4 page, and the printers will be able to produce the printed newsletter from this?
I know Pages isn't an ellaborate DTP application, but we're using it so it can be easily used by someone in our organisation.
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks,
c

Answer 1

Number one rule of commercial printing:
Speak to your printer BEFORE you do anything.
Your printer will tell you what their requirements are.
That almost certainly is not a Pages document and usually is not imposed.
Normally these days it is a pdf file in a format acceptable to the Printer, which is not easy with Pages/OSX.
1. Pages/OSX does not produce pdfs conforming with the PDF/X standard required for commercial offset or digital printing
2. Pages does not have bleeds or crop marks. You will have to construct those in oversize sheets (add an extra 10mm all round to do this)
3. Pages does not have slugs to aid the printer in accurately positioning and controlling the printed sheets, you can add your own or find prebuilt pdfs or leave it to the Printer's imposition software to add.
4. Pages/OSX does not use spot colors if you need those, but will let you add pdf elements that contain spot colors. This will produce more than the standard 4 cmyk plates, but not less.
5. Pages/OSX reduce all transparency (other than vector) to an unacceptably low 72dpi when converting to pdf. This affects 3D graphs, shadows, reflections, Alpha Masks and bitmaps marked with less than 100% opacity or overlapping objects which have less than 100% opacity.
6. Pages does not manage either resolution or cmyk well. Although this can be overcome with a great deal of manual work, it is very easy to miss exceptions and make mistakes because Pages does not flag problems nor allow systematic use of named accurate color samples/profiles.
A great many of the problems are due to the way has Pages been written but many others are due to what Apple has done/not done with OSX. There is other low cost software such as Swift Publisher which overcomes most (but not all) of the problems either internally or countering those in OSX.
The usual tools of the trade that do deliver accurate Print ready PDFs are Adobe Indesign and Quark Xpress. Both are expensive and require knowledge and skill to achieve accurate results.
It is normal to vet a pdf file through a program like Acrobat Pro to check for errors so that you can correct them before go to the very expensive press run.
There is only one low cost easy to use software that I currently know of that truly delivers on accurate commercial printing, that is Serif PagePlus X7 and unfortunately that is not available for OSX, but you can use it on a Mac running Windows in emulation.
Peter
There is a website of a Pages user who has also written a book on how to use Pages for commercial print. Unfortunately I have had a good look at what he has written and, whilst he means well, he is that most dangerous, but popular, of advisors, one who knows a little bit more than those who know nothing. He tells the innocent user what they would like to hear, not what they need to know.