Made an imposition plugin for Illustrator/Corel

Printing and Prepress
1

Hi all,

I run a small print shop in Izmir, Turkey. Got tired of doing imposition by hand so I wrote a plugin for it. Works in Illustrator and CorelDRAW.

Basically it fits max items on the sheet, puts the die line on its own layer, adds marks. Also does box dielines and catalogs.

Montaj-Helper-Catalog-EN.pdf (6.3 MB)

Yes I’m the developer, not trying to sell anything here. Just want to hear from people who actually do this:

  • how do you do imposition now?
  • what would you need from a tool like this?

Free trial if anyone wants to try: montajhelper.com

Thanks

2

When I worked in prepress, we used Preps for imposition.

There are plenty of dedicated imposition applications on the market, ranging from fairly straightforward step-and-repeat work to extremely complex impositions. A lot of this can also be handled through automated prepress workflows and RIP software.

Personally, if I were setting up an imposition workflow, I’d generally favour dedicated software rather than handling it inside Illustrator or CorelDRAW.

That said, kudos to you for developing your own!

I’ve looked through your catalogue, and you’ve certainly gone beyond basic imposition. The gang printing, box nesting, duplex printing, variable data and separate finishing plates are interesting features.

As for what I’d want from an imposition tool, reliability would be my biggest concern.

Getting the maximum number of items onto a sheet is obviously important, but it also needs to account for the practicalities of printing and finishing.

Things like gripper margins, bleed, grain direction, cutting sequences, work-and-turn, work-and-tumble, and creep for booklet imposition.

I’d also be particularly interested in how it handles the technical aspects of the supplied artwork. Does it preserve spot colours, overprint and knockout settings, transparency, and dielines correctly? What happens when problematic artwork is supplied? Does it flag potential issues or simply impose whatever it’s given?

One thing I noticed in your catalogue is the generation of separate foil, varnish and white ink files. Can these also be retained as named spot colour separations within a composite PDF? Different print providers have different requirements, so that flexibility would be useful.

I’d also want to see a reliable preview, proper preflight capabilities and the ability to save and repeat imposition settings for recurring jobs.

For me, it’s not just about how quickly software can generate an imposition, but how confidently I can send that imposition to production without introducing errors.

Having said all that, I can certainly see the appeal for smaller print shops that work primarily in Illustrator or CorelDRAW and want everything integrated into one workflow.

It’s clearly a substantial amount of development work, so well done on getting it this far.

3

Thank you very much for your valuable feedback!

To be honest, we originally developed this tool solely for our own internal use. Our main goal was to make the imposition process so simple that even someone with no prior experience could use it easily, while naturally speeding up our production workflow.

However, to achieve error-free results, you still need to understand the process and use the correct settings when preparing your impositions.

As you mentioned, we also considered developing it as a standalone application. However, since most of our work is done in Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW, being able to make quick adjustments directly within these programs was very important to us. That’s why we decided to integrate the tool into them.

And believe me, it can also handle more demanding tasks, such as catalog imposition and packaging layouts, using external files.

I would really love for you to give it a try yourself!

We offer a 7-day free trial. Simply fill out the form, and the trial details will be sent directly to your email.

I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback and valuable suggestions!

4

Thanks for the offer, but I can’t really imagine having much use for it in my current workflow.

Illustrator and CorelDRAW are not really the tools I’d choose for that type of work. I’d use dedicated page-layout software such as InDesign. Can’t imagine porting to illustrator to impose it?

Here’s one you’ll appreciate. Many years ago, I actually imposed an entire dictionary in QuarkXPress! It worked, but that doesn’t mean it was the best way to do it!

I appreciate why you’ve developed the plugin around your own workflow. You’ve identified a problem, developed a solution and refined it to suit your needs. I’m sure others with similar requirements will find it useful.

My own philosophy has always been that imposition should be handled by whoever is responsible for the final output.

One thing that drives me mad and prepress is getting files for print where someone tried to impose it. Then you have decompile it and redo it. A PITA.

A lot of designers simply don’t understand the printing and finishing processes well enough to make those decisions. Things like gripper margins, folding schemes, creep, grain direction, work-and-turn and work-and-tumble aren’t necessarily things a designer needs to concern themselves with.

Even though I understand imposition and have done plenty of it over the years, I wouldn’t impose a job and send it to an external printer. That’s their responsibility. They know their presses, equipment, sheet sizes and finishing requirements better than I do.

I’d rather supply correctly prepared, print-ready artwork and let the printer determine the most suitable imposition for their production workflow.

Obviously, if you’re running your own print shop, preparing the artwork and controlling the output yourself, that’s an entirely different situation. I can certainly see the benefit of having everything integrated into the applications you’re already using.

So I think it’s quite a niche product, but that’s not a criticism. You’ve developed something to solve a particular problem, and I’m sure the people who need it will appreciate it.

It’s just not something I personally have a need for.

Best of luck with it, though. It’s clearly taken a considerable amount of work to develop!

1 Like
5

I’m sharing a short video to give you a glimpse of what it can do, but believe me, there’s so much more to it!

I’m really curious to hear everyone’s thoughts and feedback!

6

Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback!

I’m sure there are also graphic designers and prepress professionals in this forum who work in digital printing centers or commercial print shops. My main goal is to hear their experiences and feedback so I can continue improving this tool and make it as useful and efficient as possible.

As you mentioned, if your work focuses purely on graphic design, then this imposition tool probably isn’t something you would need.

I completely agree with you that a designer’s responsibility is to create the design, while imposition should be handled by those responsible for print production.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and perspective. Thank you again for your valuable comments!