Designers have many elements to take into consideration when they prepare their documents for printing. While you might be spending most of your time doing the graphic design and layout, you should also consider the following aspects before sending the documents to the printing company:
- Trim Marks: One element to keep in mind during the layout of a document is trim marks. Trim marks, also known as crop marks, show the printer where to cut the paper. In a standard business card or poster layout, crop marks are small lines that are located in each corner of a document. These lines, one horizontal and the other vertical, should be incorporated in the document you send for printing. Make sure that the crop marks are placed outside the design; otherwise pieces of your design will be cut off by the printer.
- Final size of your pages: When you cut along the trim marks, the final page size, called the trimmed page size, can be calculated. This final page size should be supplied to the printer, because this will determine the specifications the printing machine will use to complete the job successfully.
- Bleed: To guarantee clean edges of your design when printed, one should make use of bleeds. Bleeds are images that extend beyond the design or ‘live area’ of a page. This means that the images stretch beyond the trim marks. Background colours are an example of a common use of a bleed but bleeds can also include images or other design elements that extend all the way to the edge of your printed document or page. If you don’t make use of bleeds you would risk a tiny bit of space showing up on the edge of your printed page, if it was not cut exactly on the trim marks.
Printing companies will be able to advise you if you are unsure of any aspect of preparing your documents for printing. Partner with Minuteman Press in Witbank for all your printing needs.