Printing with Bleeds

"Bleed" is the term for printing that goes right to the edge of the printed paper. Printed pieces that have a white border or white around the edges, DO NOT bleed. If you have images or backgrounds that you want to print (bleed) off the edge of the paper, then you must design your job larger than the final CUT SIZE. We create bleeds by actually cutting through the enlarged image/background. Using bleeds create a great effect and is a great way of designing a nice printed piece.

What I do to design is create the art in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator the size of the printed piece INCLUDING Bleeds. I usually leave 1/8th of an inch around (this is standard in the printing industry) and bring it into my page layout program such as Adobe InDesign or Quark Xpress. Then I place the image at -.125 x -.125, and viola that's it. Then when you go to print (in the print settings) there is a place where you can configure the print settings to add .125 inch bleed (it's different in Adobe InDesign and Quark), but it will be quite obvious. Then print your high res .pdf (see above) and add crop marks, now your ready to send it off to the printer.

For more info on printing go to Coastal Impressions.

Printing Tips and Techniques November

This is the first in a series in articles from me, Brett McIntyre in tips and techniques you can use to help you in your printing business or getting things printed correctly at the printers. Brett McIntyre has over 12 years of printing experience, from traditional print to variable print programming. Brett has seen it all in tenure in the printing industry.

This section will go over the correct way to set up a .pdf for your printer. I once talked to a gentleman from Adobe and this is the way he told me to create a .pdf to create the best color quality and sharpness that clients will appreciate.

For this one needs a .pdf writing program. We use Adobe Acrobat, but there are some free .pdf writers that work fine (click here). These programs enable you to print from any program to create a .pdf capable for print. These programs will install a driver that you can print just like any printer at your home or office.

After you have installed one of these programs and of course after creating your print piece, here are the steps for creating a hi-res print.

1. Select print from the program you are using. Then click the properties tab.

2. Then click the Adobe .pdf settings tab. I am using Acrobat, but other programs perform the same. Click the edit conversion tab.

3. Next select (it should default to this screen) and make sure the setting match below.

4. Select the compression tab at the top, then match the settings below.

5. Almost done. Select the Fonts tab at the top and make sure the setting match. This embed fonts so you wont have any problems printing.

6. Your done. Just save the .pdf to a folder that you'll remember. Viola, that's it!

You will also want to make sure that all color correction is OFF. Go to the Color Tab and make sure that it is OFF.

Brett is currently employed with Coastal Impressions on the Outer Banks, NC.