Margin Guides For The Final Trim
We like to think the second part was a very clever hint. If we were the type to overdo the puns, we would make a comparison to those "Nightmare" movies, since we are discussing bleeding and sharp edges. However, we are not that sort, so let us move on to the Marie Antoinette portion of the program. The password is guillotine blades! Fortunately, unlike the French version, it is possible to recover from this error. Simply pull your content back into the body of the page, away from the final trim!
In the last article written, bleed was explained as being any object that you would use as a background and that it should extend to the very edge of the paper.
Anything that is not classified as a background effect is called 'critical content'. Examples of critical content are the text of the body and its headlines, photographs and caption, and a logo. Keep in mind that critical content and background effects are each other's opposites.
I mentioned earlier that guillotines and book cutters don't give a very exact positioning of every sheet they are cutting. This is the result of the physical reaction of the paper to the pressure that is applied when making the cut. If the sheet ends up somewhat bigger than it's supposed to, this will be compensated by the bleed.
However if your 'critical content' is too close to the final trim and the blade cuts closer than normal, it could cut into your text, logos, and other 'critical content'.
If the trim ends up being too close (1-2mm), then the "aesthetics" of your completed project could look as though it was cut too close after all.
The solution is to place critical content at least 5mm from the final trim. Place graphics and text by using margins as guidelines. This is important for any printed product including magazines, business cards, brochures, and stationary.
If you are publishing a large volume, you will have to make the space from the spine considerably more than 5mm, rather in the neighborhood of 15 to 20mm. You will also have to be certain that the settings for facing pages are set to "on" so that the pages with odd numbers will have the binding on their left while the pages with even numbers will have the binding on their right.
In order to keep your page looking tidy, margins roughly eight millimeters away from each of three edges should be your goal. The spine side is the exception.
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Published April 29th, 2008
Filed in Marketing
