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Crop Marks&
Color Bleedyou need them
design help series
CROPS & BLEED?If you have designed and printed a project, you may be familiar with the terms but you may not know how they work. This guide will help you understand the concepts as well as help you to set up your documents with bleed area and save them with crops and bleed.
DO THEY MATTER?What’s the point?
Well, in the strictest design sense, color bleed and crop marks mean nothing.They are not needed for you to makea pretty design.They are, however, vital if you want thatpretty design to be accurate when it is printed!
DO I CARE?You should.
Design is a deliberate thing. Your design has an end use, and if that end use includes print, you need to account for that in your layout. Not only does it result in a final product that is exactly what you intended, it also shows your clients that you know your stuff!
What ARE THEY?Crop marks are printed guides used in the final cutting stage of your print project.Color bleed is an extra 1/8” of color or image that extends past the edge of the design.
One of the main design programs available, Illustrator has easy-to-use tools for setting up your bleed area and saving with crop marks.
Adobe ILLUSTRATOR
» go to File; then New Document» look for the fields marked Bleed» enter .125 for all four sides» click OK- you have bleed area!
» go to File; then Save As» select .PDF from file type then click Save» select Marks and Bleeds in the left column» select Trim Marks in the Marks box» select Use Document Bleed Settings in the Bleeds box» click Save PDF
Adobe InDesignInDesign is an excellent page layout
program, and works well for booklet and magazine work.
» go to File; then New Document» look for fields marked Bleed and Slug (you may have to select More Options on the right side to see the fields.)» in Bleed, enter .125 for all four sides» click OK- you have bleed area!
» go to file; then Export» select save location and click Save» select Marks and Bleeds in the left column» select Crop Marks in the Marks box» select Use Document Bleed Settings in the Bleed and Slug box» click Export
Adobe PHOTOSHOPPhotoshop is intended as an image
editing tool more than a layout tool, so crops & bleeds are not built into it. You
should, however, still include the extra 1/8” color area, even if you can’t add crop marks.
Make sure to keep important elements of the design at least 1/2” from the edge.
MICROSOFT OFFICEMicrosoft products do not include options
for bleed information or crop marks.You’ll need to “fake” it!
» set custom margins to .625 for all sides
» extend your color or image to the edge of the page, put don’t place any words outside of the purple margin guides.
Adobe InDesignsaving Spreads
When you are designing a book or magazine layout, you may work in
“Spreads” or “Facing Pages”. It’s VERYimportant that you export your spreads
as individual pages for print.
» go to General settings in the left column of your export PDF window.» make sure Spreads is NOT checked under Pages.
Other helps and tips are available!cropmarksprinting.com/faq-and-help
If we can assist in any other way, let us know!616.356.5555
VISUAL AIDS» Red Line: Document Bleed» Black line- Document Edge» Purple Line: Document Margin
Make sure your image or color background goes to the red line- that’s the bleed line.
When viewing a PDF:
» This .pdf has NO crop marks and NO color bleed.
» This .pdf HAS crop marks but NO color bleed.
» This .pdf has BOTHcrop marks and colorbleed!
