Adding Bleed to a Document
SN wrote:
How do you put in bleeds after you have created and saved an InDesign file?
I have three things to say about this.
First, for anyone who doesn’t know, a bleed is a way to get something to print to the edge of the page. You extend an object off the page (past the page boundaries), then print it with trim marks (also called crop marks), then the output provider (bindery or printer or whatever) cuts the edges of the page at those trim marks. The result is some wasted paper, but the colors/images “bleed off” the page.
Second, InDesign offers bleed guides on the pasteboard. To add a bleed guide in the New Document dialog box, click More Options to see the Bleed and Slug guide options. About 1p (or .125 in, or 3 mm) is a reasonable amount to type in. If you have already created your document, you can get the same bleed guides by choosing File > Document Setup, then clicking the More Options button. Once you have bleed guides, you can easily “snap” objects to them so you’re sure they’re bleeding far enough off the page.
Finally, you do not need bleed guides to make objects bleed. You can just eyeball it, extending objects on to the pasteboard. Guides are just guides!
Ultimately, the most important thing to keep in mind when making bleeds is not whether there are guides there, but what you choose in the Marks and Bleed pane of the Print or Export PDF dialog box. If you do have bleed guides set up, you can skip filling in the Bleed fields by simply clicking the Use Document Bleed Settings checkbox. But if you didn’t make bleed guides, it’s no problem — just leave the checkbox off and type in some bleed values yourself. If you leave them set to zero, InDesign will trim the page at the page edge, so you’ll get no bleed at all, even if the objects are bleeding to the pasteboard:
As we French like to say, “It goes without saying, but it goes better when you say it.” Nice recap, David.
For people who don’t know what bleed is for, Sandee Cohen did a great job explaining the reasons it is needed in her podcast “From Design into Print”, episode 4 (I believe).
Q.
Most printers I have worked with use 1/4″ (0.25″) or 1/8″ (0.125″) for documents. Cover specs vary depending on the press and it is always best to get template specs for those before you start building the file. This is especially true with hard cover books that have a wrap, spines, boards and joints.
1/8″ is roughly 3mm, Jerome.
1/4″ seems a bit extreme.
I think for bleed they were talking explicity about the body and normal covers, however, on harback covers it’s common to put 20mm bleed for the wrap around, at least for all the hard back covers I’ve done that’s been the norm.
Always wise to talk with the printers before commencing any project where you’re not sure and get their specs and requirements.
The question about bleed and margins etc. always come up. Perhaps they can be covered in a podcast or videocast?
As a prepress guy, I must stress that designers need to learn what bleeds are and when to use them! InDesign makes it so simple to set values for bleeds and to turn them on and off.
My shop likes .125″ bleeds, but things that die-cut usually need .25″ bleeds.
Yes, some paper is wasted, but it will be wasted regardless. Very rarely do we not have to trim something after it is printed. Adding bleeds means that a paper cutter has some wiggle room.
If you don’t add bleeds, someone will have to in prepress, by dragging out your solid shapes or doing surgery on your photos. Save us this headache and add bleeds.
Eugene,
1/4″ is extreme but I have had a number of printers request it. I have also had printers request different bleed for top, bottom, and left/right bleeds when working on covers. If I don’t have the specs up front in the design process I like to use 1/4″ bleed for interior pages and 1/2″ for covers just to be sure, you don’t have to use all of it. It’s better to have the the extra there than to have fake it or clone it in after everything is designed.
And as for the metric, I used it when I was working for NATO in Italy, but that was quite a while ago and I have not used metric measures since. When designing I typically use points and picas.
and choose a good printer – I don’t have much joy discussing belled with kinkos. LOL
I always ask for 4 to 5mm of bleed and crop marks as I usually have to place the PDFs in InDesign to tile them prior to printing — we do small runs on a simple Canon copy-printer comparable to Xerox’ 240 for those interested. Once placed I can then remove some of the bleed when necessary by simply changing the placed PDF’s frame size.
The big bugger though is that a lot of folks who actually use Adobe software and believe they know what they’re doing — as opposed to the larger group who think Word, Excel, PowerPoint and *shoot me please* Publisher are perfect for making posters, business cards and the like — still refuse to set up bleeds entirely, or they make bleeds the size they want, resulting in me having to call them for new files every single time.
We use a 5mm bleed on everything. This may seem a bit excessive but we never know if a job might be shrunk down and re-printed at a reduced size at a later date, at which time a standard 3mm bleed may well have shrivelled away to nothingness.
We use a 5mm bleed on everything. This may seem a bit excessive but we never know if a job might be shrunk down and re-printed at a reduced size at a later date, at which time a standard 3mm bleed may well have shrivelled away to nothingness.
I’ve always used 3mm in general, though some places I’ve known use 4mm.
I always use 5mm bleed in Photoshop, to allow plenty of room for the edge of the document affecting layer styles (for example, angled drop shadows will visibly stop at the edge of the document, unless the image extends beyond the edge of the document). This is only for full-page images that bleed off the edge, obviously.
Thanks a lot for then information
Please help me , how do I add bleed around an object in Indesign on a page, like having a shape with a cutcout and bleed around that? can you help?