Most Catholic churches: “Everything that could ever need to be printed is the sole responsibility of Sally, the secretary since 1987, with her high-school diploma and Microsoft Word 1998. What would we need a program for, again?”

I am one who enjoys making beautiful publications, and while there are benefits to having the director of music make service booklets (above average understanding of the liturgy, doesn't need to be sent the music list), I have always regarded it as a separate task, and am paid as such.

Our copy machine now staples. But Adobe killed the function that allows for saddle-stitched booklets to be printed at the correct scale which is (was) a bug on macOS overcome somehow by Adobe. I guess Adobe Acrobat includes it but not the Reader app. It won’t fold and staple from the machine if you print from your phone (the bug doesn’t affect iOS AirPrint at the cost of not having printer options available: you have to add the printer by IP address, available on desktops only).

So I fold the ordinary (just the chant with some instructions and the markings like the seasonal usage, what is alternatim, when to come in for the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, etc., no translations). And then I staple by hand. I’m probably gonna ask for an electric saddle stitch machine. We have a manual long stapler, but it is slow. I use my personal laptop, and both the pastor and DM also have Macs, but I don’t think that this problem is going away (I haven’t yet checked Adobe on the slow Windows machine, but it needs to be replaced and it’s a pain to turn it on, log in, log into Google Drive, download things, print from Adobe, and log out successfully).

I am one who enjoys making beautiful publications, and while there are benefits to having the director of music make service booklets (above average understanding of the liturgy, doesn't need to be sent the music list), I have always regarded it as a separate task, and am paid as such.

IDK. I’d be fine in a very large program if a more junior member does this. But there is sometimes a gap between the creator and the rest of us. I’ve seen this play out strangely. And the DM should be able to do it if it was that or you don’t have a booklet.

To the earlier poster discussing issues with printing booklets, at first glance it sounds like you're having an issue with imposition features in Acrobat? If that is the case, I'd recommend this program:

https://www.notationcentral.com/product/pdf-batchbooklet/

Driver issues can be frustrating in setting up such jobs. Describing how my workflow is setup—I make a variety of booklets, most often on legal paper. The PDFs I create from InDesign are the size of the individual pages (7x8.5 for legal, 5.5x8.5 for letter, etc...). You give that individual page file to the program linked above, and it outputs a perfectly imposed PDF to print (I used to use pro imposition software from EFI, and this is both free—if you want—and much easier to use). Then you print with Acrobat (select "Size" under Page Sizing & Handling, not Booklet; and Actual size for scale), select Flip on Short Edge for duplexing, and then—typically—Saddle for the staple option in the copier print options. In my experience on a Mac, it also has been beneficial to click on Page Setup in the print dialog of Acrobat and select the paper size and orientation. I presume that letting it choose automatically works for many, but with the jank machines I work with, manually specifying these details helps.

If I've completely misunderstood your issue, sorry for that and I hope you figure it out. As not all will be familiar with the linked program, I thought it was worth mentioning for those who suffer with difficult imposition processes with their various computers and copiers. For those without booklet makers on their copier, the above steps can still be followed and then the paper folded manually or with a paper folder.

Edit: And to the initial question, I've wondered myself... at the Cathedral in Memphis we ran a massive print shop that ended up as a bit of its own business unit in the parish—printing for many organizations across the diocese.

Imposition isn't the problem, from what I can tell. It's a machine folding or stapling for you (and in my case, the drivers communicating correctly with the OS). I can make all the booklets I want, and they print correctly since you no longer need to do a spread where things are in a different order than the printing order. But on the old machine, and if I want the printed material on the booklet to be the right size, then I have to fold and staple by hand.

So much for the paperless revolution..

We do a lot of work for DHUD (The Department of Housing & Urban Development). I remember when the "Paperwork Reduction Act" was passed. It didn't reduce our paperwork. It just required each document from government agencies to have a paragraph stating why this document was required to be filled out. We saw an increase in the amount of paper needed to print the forms.

Except for the deficiencies and limitations of hymnals (as the threads on hymnal choice tend to illustrate). Programs allow music directors to choose without those based on the needs and abilities of their particular communities, but that does create a production burden.

And there’s no good (yet) collection of the Ordinary. One of these days, I’d like to put out my version of a Kyriale, but that project is on hold. Then something needs to be used to explain what’s going on. We have Latin motets. I think that translations for meditation are nice. Etc.

Preparing the worship aid for a Sunday can take the better part of the day; I also have to produce a worship aid for our school masses. Then if we have a funeral (or two) or any other special midweek event, next thing you know I’m spending quite a lot of time making worship aids…

I just wonder how much information parishioners need that can't be found in, say, a missal or a hymnal (or from memories of basic liturgical training). On this one point I agree with critics who complain that we treat worshippers like concert-goers.

I had to sigh; when I took over my current job, I made the worship aids such that they only contain the music. We use a single 11x17 trifold and there’s simply no way to fit everything you need if you include readings and other things. At least… There’s not if you wanted it a size that people can actually read it. The biggest complaint that I received (multiple times!) was that the worship made no longer contained the text of the creed…

You know… That prayer that we recite at every single mass that you should know by heart? The one that any ordinary mass goer has said at least 500 times since the translation changed more than a decade ago? That one? Yeah… That one.

Enough people made remarks to the pastor that we had to end up producing laminated pew cards with the order of the mass on it. I still shake my head to this day.

℟. May the Lord accept the sacrifice

TIL that the congregation at my parish has been making the wrong response for years.

That's fine if the people in the pews are not going to be singing anything ever or if they will only sing the exact same thing all the time. Otherwise, additional pew resource may be prudent.

Lutheran church I attended as a kid printed a bulletin each week, listed the hymn and service music numbers, scripture reading references, and the rest of the leaflet was the announcements. Helped new folks find the right page in the hymnbook, but wasn’t wasting resources. The hardbound Lutheran Book of Worship provided what else was needed. Sort of like what a GIA hymnal pretends to be.

This thing of printing music and readings each week in a leaflet, or each year in a missalette is hugely wasteful of the donated dollars of parishioners. Throw-a-way liturgy in a throw-a-way culture.
The problem is that there aren’t many decent, permanent resources. The St Michael Hymnal finally gives us a comprehensive,, orthodox hymnal, but the only hardbound pew missals right now are from ILP. It’s just amazing that so few are willing to invest in quality lasting products.Coupled with the market share of the less-than-orthodox hymnal publishers (you know who), it’s a tough spot.

Offset printing and decent (at worst) bindings are expensive that I wouldn’t want to invest in more changes to anything that includes readings, psalms, etc., whether I’m a publisher or customer.