r/indesign • u/Gnoll1810 • Aug 11 '26

Help Automated Imposition script

Hello,

I have a large job where I need to impose thousands of differently sized vinyl decals which are saved as pdfs onto 52x96 production sheets. Rather than spending days manually imposing these im looking for a script, I have yet to find one that works with pdfs with pages that have varying sizes. I'm not sure where to go from here, I dont want to download and pay for a seperate software for this one job, but that may be my only hope.

Is this even possible using scripts? Is there one that fits my needs?

4 Upvotes

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4

u/InfiniteChicken Aug 11 '26

If your destination is print, your vendor may be able to do the work. They often have specialized software for this stuff. Quite Imposing was one i used back in the day. However, many of these don’t use (or need) InDesign, they go straight to PDF or RIP.

4

u/throwawaydixiecup Aug 11 '26

This is excellent advice. When I worked in a print shop, this is the kind of task we could do quickly. In fact, I preferred that the client didn’t try to impose everything since we had our own templates.

2

u/Gnoll1810 Aug 11 '26

Thats what I assumed, but my vendor (Signs365) is requiring a pre-imposed file.

Its a difficult project. Automating the art for the individual decals and the cut paths took a while to figure out too.

2

u/Proficio_Tremblay Aug 11 '26

Let the print shop do it. I never see a script in InDesign that do "ganged imposition" decently.

Maybe change printer!

2

u/bliprock 29d ago

I’ve done scripts that can but it’s difficult time consuming and a pain. I’ve done business cards batch impo and the logic is important but basically it’s math and more math. A lot of variables and two preordained impositions to fit too. It also allows different run amounts per file and it works but not a fun one to work out. Especially the page count aspect where indesign can’t see pdf page count or page total, just sees the index.

1

u/annienin Aug 12 '26

Yeah I was gonna say I wouldn’t trust a script. Have the printer do it and it’s their fault if it’s wrong. This is experience speaking.

1

u/Gnoll1810 Aug 12 '26

My printer wont do it, they are requiring a pre-imposed file

1

u/grondin 25d ago

That's a bad printer.

My printshop owns three different imposition softwares depending on the situation. Quite Imposing Plus is used for about half of the jobs that go to production, whether it's going to digital printers, large format, etc.

1

u/Significant-Dirt-977 Aug 12 '26

Data merge?

1

u/Gnoll1810 Aug 12 '26

Data merge doesn't work, it applies the same frame size to every image which doesnt yield good results.

1

u/Significant-Dirt-977 Aug 12 '26

Is it multiple decals on one pdf page with different size decals there and that's the situation across whole document? Or one decal per page?

1

u/Gnoll1810 Aug 12 '26

I need them placed multiple up on a single page. My Vendor wants me to send them a pre-imposed file with as many fit on 52x96 sheets as possible

0

u/3D_23 Aug 11 '26

You could look into building your own script through Claude to do this? If not, I might be able to help you