Design a Custom, Print Ready Pocket Folder in Adobe InDesign

A pocket folder is a very powerful business device when created the right way. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up a dieline, create a multi-page spread with bleed to accommodate your dieline, and apply a full design to the exterior and interior of the pocket folder in Adobe InDesign. This pocket folder will highlight two popular folder styles in one: the hidden pocket and standard pocket. Finally, you’ll learn how to save your print ready file for delivery to your printer.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

1. Create Your Dieline

The first thing we need to do is create our dieline in Illustrator that our InDesign file will be created around. This will be a custom pocket folder with one interior ‘hidden pocket’ and one standard pocket on the other side. This folder will hold a 8.5 x 11in or A4 sheet of paper within it, so we need to make sure the height and width is greater than that. We’ll make this one 9 x 12in. It’s always helpful to make a paper dummy first of how your folder needs to fold. Once you have your measurements and your fold areas, it’s time to make your dieline.

It’s always good to print out your Illustrator dieline and fold it together to make sure you’re happy before creating your folder in InDesign. This will save many headaches later on if any measurements are off. The image below shows the dieline for this folder, along with the measurements used for each side. I’ve set the stroke to 2pt so you can see it, but 0.25pt is fine (make sure you’re only using a stroke and not a fill). Save this as an .AI or eps file.

2. Create Your Layout

Step 1

Next, open InDesign. Go to File > New > Document. Put in the measurements below, and make sure Facing Pages is checked. Our first page will be the size of our front cover, and we’ll include a 0.25in bleed on every side of our folder. If you don’t see bleed, click on More Options on the right side of the dialog box.

Step 2

Now we need to bring in our dieline so we can create the other pages of our folder. Go to File > Place and select your dieline .AI or .EPS file. Align the middle page on top of your current page. Go to your Layers panel (Window > Layers), name your layer “Dieline”. Lock your layer by clicking in the box to the right of the eyeball.

Step 3

Create New Layer by clicking the icon next to the trash can in the Layers panel. Name it “Artwork”. The new “Artwork” layer will automatically be placed above your dieline layer. Since we want to still see the dieline as we being putting artwork in, we’ll want our “Artwork” layer below our “dieline” layer. Do this by clicking on the “Artwork” layer, and dragging it below the “dieline” layer.

Step 4

Now we need to create the other pages that make up our folder and then size them according to our dieline. Go to your Pages panel (Window > Pages) and click on the new page icon
(located to the left of the trash can at the bottom of the window). Once you do this, you’ll notice the new page is positioned below our first page, but we need it to be next to our first page.

Step 5

Click on your options fly out menu (upper right corner of the Pages panel) and click on Allow Document Pages To Shuffle. By default, it should be checked, so you’ll be unchecking it when you click on it.

Step 6

Now, with your “page 2” selected (highlighted in blue) click-drag “page 2” to the left side of “page 1”. You’ll notice a closed bracket looking icon ( [ ) when you get close. Once you see it, release your button.

Step 7

Deselect “page 1” and “2” by clicking anywhere in the empty space of the Pages panel (so they are no longer blue). Now, click on only “page 2” (so it’s once again highlighted in blue). Next, click on the new page icon to the left of the trash can at the bottom of the window. “Page 3” will automatically be positioned below “pages 1” and “2”. With “page 3” selected, click-drag to the right side of “page 3”. Release when the closed bracket looking icon ( ] ) appears.

Step 8

Your pages should now look like this below your dieline. Now it’s time to resize the pages to fit the dieline!

Step 9

To resize the pages, we’re going to use the Page Tool (Shift + P) located in your toolbox on the left (see below). When you click on the Page Tool and then click on your first page, you’ll notice the page’s size in the bar above your document.

Step 10

We’ll have to refer back to our original dieline and measurements to see that if we add up the height of the left most page, including the standard pocket, we have a total height of 17in (page height of 12in, pocket height of 5in). Now we need to figure out our width.

Since we have a flap that will fold and adhere to the upper page to create our pocket, we need to account for its width in the total width of our page. So, 9in page width and 0.75in for flap width gives us 9.75in. With the left most page selected with our Page Tool, input a Height of 17in and a Width of 9.75in in the top bar.

Step 11

Once you put your new measurements in, you’ll notice that while the height aligns perfectly, the extra 0.75in was added to the right side of the page instead of the left where our flap is. To fix this, we’ll have to unlock our “dieline” layer, and using the Selection Tool (V), select the dieline and move it to the right (press and hold Shift while dragging to drag in a perfectly straight line) until the dieline highlighted in red below falls exactly on top of the black page line highlighted in green below. Once your dieline is aligned, lock the “dieline” layer once again, and click on your “Artwork” layer to continue working.

Step 12

Since our center page is perfect, it’s time to resize our right most page that will end up being our hidden pocket folder. Referring back to the original dieline, you’ll see that the total height is equal to 13.5in (12in page height and two flaps that are both 0.75in in height). Our total width is 8.5in. With our Page Tool, click on the right most page, and in the measurement area on the bar above the dieline, input a Height of 13.5in and a Width of 8.5in.

Step 13

You’ll notice now that while our width is perfect, InDesign automatically put the extra 1.5in in height we needed only at the bottom instead of splitting it so there was .75″ on top and .75″ on the bottom. Grab your Page Tool again, click on the the right most page, and in the top bar where we put in our measurements, you’ll notice a Y axis box. Input –0.75in to move the page up the amount that we’re missing.

Step 14

Here comes the tricky part. We have our InDesign file all ready for the design on the front, but when you open it up, it’ll be empty on the inside, since we don’t have an inside spread to design on yet. Designing for the inside will require the entire dieline to be opposite (reflected). This means we’ll have to take our entire layout that we have for the front and reflect it so when it’s printed, it’s printed two sided and we’ll have a design on the inside, too. If you create a paper dummy of this, it’ll be easy to see.

How do we take everything we’ve done so far, duplicate it, and then change the order? First we need to unlock our “dieline” layer since we’ll need a dieline for the inside, too. Then, in your Pages panel, select all of your pages (you can do this by clicking on one, then holding Control). All of your pages should now be highlighted in blue, like below.

Step 15

Next, right-click on top of your pages in your Pages panel, and select Duplicate Spread. You’ll now have an exact copy of your first spread right below it.

Step 16

Now we’re only going to be working with pages 4-6. First, we’re going to change the order of our pages. Don’t worry about where your dieline is for pages 4-6 for now. Since there will be no change to “page 5” since it’s in the middle, we need to move “page 6” so it’s where “page 4 is”, and we need to move “page 4” where “page 6” is. All of this can be done in the Pages panel. Simply click on “page 6” first, and move it ahead of “page 4” until you see the open bracket looking icon ( [ ). Release your mouse when you see it. Now we need to take “page 4”, which is now in the middle, and move it all the way right. Click on the middle page and drag it to the right until you see the closed bracket looking icon ( ] ). Release your mouse when you see it.

Step 17

Your spread should now look something like the image below.

Step 18

Now we need to take care of our dieline. First, we need to reflect it. Make sure you’re still working in the pages 4-6 spread, and click on your dieline to select it, then right-click and choose Transform > Flip Horizontal.

Step 19

You should now have something that looks similar to the first image below. Next, we’ll need to reposition it. Shift-drag your dieline until the right most blue line of the flap overlaps the right most page line.

Step 20

We won’t be moving the dieline again from this point forward, so lock the “dieline” layer in your Layers panel once again. You’ll notice that after you repositioned your dieline, the right page looks perfect, the middle is perfect, but the left page is a little off. We’ll need to move the page up once again -0.75in. Select the Page Tool, then click on the left page (“page 4”), and then input -0.75in in the Y axis box above the document (similar to what we did in step 14).