Expert: Roy Wilhelm - 6/12/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hie,

I am very new to Adobe Indesign. I am working on a 200 page full colored book project. The book should be in full A4 size (210 × 297 mm) with no borders. The output that I expect when I print is that I expect my designs to cover every inch of the paper without any blank spaces or borders.
What are the measurements that I should use to set up the document ( gutter, margin, bleed, slug, etc)?

Thank You.


ANSWER: Hi,

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

The answer to your question depends on how you plan to get your book printed. Your best bet is to talk to the printer or publisher about it if the project is being printed on a press. If you're doing it at a small print shop or at home on an inkjet, just make sure you set your bleed to 1p6 (1 pica, 6 points) This is equivalent to 1/4 inch. In the U.S. this is a standard bleed setting and should give you plenty of room to to trim off the excess paper and leave you with your A4 sized document.

When you set a bleed in InDesign, it is represented by a red guide surrounding the document. make sure that all of the art and text that you want to have running of the edge of the page extends to this red bleed guide.

Hope this helps!

Roy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I have asked my printer regarding the details of bleeds and other measurements. They told me to follow standard mesaurements for a4 size and I can also check any book with 200 pages and measure the size of the spine and that should be  the bleed settings. Is that true? I dont understand their explanation at all. He also wants me to do the book project in Adobe Illustrator. Is that a better choice for the project?

Just to make myself clear again, this is a travel guide book about 200 pages, pictures and text with ads. a4 size full page full color.  

Answer
I recommend finding a new printer because frankly it scares me that they're pushing you towards using Illustrator. Illustrator is NOT for multi-page documents. You'd have to create the book one file at a time. A printer should be asking you to submit Adobe PDF files, EPS files OR, native InDesign files. All of which can be generated from InDesign.  

That being said, I don't work with the A-sized paper system. So I don't know what standard bleed settings are. Measuring the spine? He must be on some next-level thing. Or more likely some really OLD thing.

When in doubt, use 1 pica, 6 points (1P6) = 6.35mm = 0.25 inch.