Adobe InDesign/Bleeding and Exporting

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Expert: - 8/28/2008


Question

Bleeding Problems
My printer requires the PDFs submitted to them be .25" longer in each dimension if you wish to do full bleed pages. So for a 8.5"x8.5" book, the pdf needs to be 8.75"x8.75". Sounds fine to me, I'll make a 8.5" square document with a bleed of .125" on each side. When I export the document, I'll include the bleeded areas. This all works fine, except in the spine area.

For example, if I have a page on the left full of text (call this page 2) and a full bleed photo on the right (pg 3), you'd expect page 2 to be some nice text and blank elsewhere and page 3 to be nothing but a photo edge to edge. Then .125" will be trimmed off on each side at print time, and voila full bleed pages with no risk of unsightly white edges due to trimming!

Instead what you see is the right side of page 2 has the left .125" of the photo on page 3 and the left side of page 3 has .125" of white space.

What am I doing wrong?

Sure I could set my document size to 8.75" square and be done with it, but I really like to use the "preview" view to see only the trimmed part of the page so I can adjust where the photos will bleed off the page. It's easier to visualize that way than just seeing the guide marking.

Answer
Hi Brad,

This is caused by using facing pages and should not be a problem when printed unless you are having the book perfect-bound (like a paperback book). Commercial imposition software will automatically start the pages on 0" and the portion of the photo on page 2 won't show up on the press sheet.

You can avoid this issue altogether by unchecking facing pages and creating single pages instead of spreads - however, this will make it more difficult to align elements that crossover from left to right pages.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more InDesign tips please visit our help pages <a href="http://www.bestprintingonline.com/indesign.htm">here</a>

Glen Demers

Expertise

I am a Prepress Technician for Best Printing Online and can answer any question about preparing your InDesign document for print.

Experience

20 years working in prepress
Prepress technician for Best Printing Online
Education/Credentials
Some college training in printing and have attended numerous seminars

Education/Credentials
Some college training in printing and have attended numerous seminars

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