Program Modes

The program works in three modes: Automatic, Standard and Expert. In Expert mode all functions are available at the cost of using a large amount of controls and it is intended primarily for complicated tasks in offset printing. Standard mode displays features that are usually used in digital printing. Automatic mode is suitable for simple, quick and clear impositions. You can change the mode in menu Imposition.

Features like splitting into signatures – Groups of sheets, Correction of paper thickness, Printing Plate, More impositions and Automatic page assignment are not available in Standard mode. It is also possible to work with only one Pages for Imposition Palette and some types of Marks are not available.

In Automatic mode many control features are set to automatic calculations and hidden. The same behavior of Montax Imposer can be achieved by manually selecting these features to automatic calculations; however, hiding them makes the interface more user-friendly and simple to operate. Of course, the options of impositions are limited in this mode compared to standard mode, but it can be used for many typical impositions.

There features are automatic and hidden in the Auto mode:

Tabular Layout

In most impositions, the Tabular layout of positions is used, this is also the only layout option in Automatic mode. The positions are arranged in a table whose rows can have different heights and columns can have different widths, but in one row (or column) all positions have the same height (or width). If different sized pages are placed on positions, part of the position is unused. The position of all positions is automatically calculated based on their size, spacing, alignment on the sheet, etc.

Free Layout (Gang Run)

This layout is available in Standard and Expert mode. It allows (unlike tabular) to place the positions completely arbitrarily, and moreover the positions can be of any size, so that pages of different sizes or different orientations can be combined on one sheet. This allows better use of the paper format in some cases. However, this comes at the cost of more laborious imposition, as the positions are not arranged automatically as in the tabular layout, but the location of each position must be set manually – after selecting a page (or several pages) it can be moved with the mouse or the coordinates of the upper left corner of the position can be set. You can also use the tools of the Align Palette, guidelines and snapping to other positions can also help. The most efficient procedure is to start from a tabular layout – here set the number of rows and columns similar to the intended appearance, and then switch to Free layout and make the necessary changes, e.g. rotate the position by 90 degrees. We recommend this procedure especially for the booklet imposition, if it is necessary to use the free layout here as well. Of course, care must be taken when placing positions so that they do not overlap and that there is room, for example, for the bleed (it is automatically reduced if the position close to each other to less than twice the bleed of the position). Of course, free layout can also be used in cases where the positions are intentionally inserted into each other for better use of the sheet, with a different than rectangular shape of the result.

If Auto size of positions is active, when the size of the position is changed (e.g. when importing pages), the position of positions located to the right and below of the changed position is also changed so that the distance between positions is preserved (depends on "Shift positions" option on the Info palette). This prevents the positions from overlapping or having empty space between them when using a different page size. If the automatic sheet size is set, the sheet will also adjust, but if it is manual, the positions may also go outside the sheet (similar to the tabular layout, but there, unlike the free layout, the automatic number of rows and columns can be turned on).