Discussion point 4 - Micaela Alcaino

BLEEDS AND CROP MARKS

Bleeds used to be one area that I used to not understand very well, but with constant design for print I have come to know and understand the importance of bleeds and setting up crop marks. 

Bleed is a term for the edges that go beyond the image or design for printing. It is important to set these so that when things like brochures, business cards or catalogs are printed there is a buffer area "printer bounce" for the printer to be able to cut the design to size without those accidental unnecessary white borders. 

Any area that touches the border of the document requires a bleed, in the image that I provided of our groups title page, the image extends past the document borders into the bleed area (as seen on the left). 

Usual bleed size goes between 3mm - 5mm (from my experience) but it usually varies depending on who you print with. Bleeds accounts for each of the 4 sides of the page, so when expanding the canvas in Photoshoot a 6mm width and height should be inserted. 

With InDesign when setting up a document bleed options are available. But if forgotten they can be made by going to file > document setup.

Setting up crop marks are also important when exporting the document so that two little lines indicate to the print where to begin cutting the document, also showing where the document ends and where the bleeds begin. The normal size for a crop mark is 0.25pt in thickness, just thick enough to see for the printer, but not bold enough to over take the corners of the document. This can be set up when exporting the document as a PDF, when the PDF window shows up , on the left hand side under "Marks and Bleeds" > tick "Crop Marks" and "Use Document Bleeds" so that the file is exported with the marks (as seen in the comparison in my picture). I must admit that from time to time i have forgotten these when sending things to print, but I have now learnt the habit of always setting them up when starting a new print design.