Expert: Roy Wilhelm - 1/14/2009

Question
Hi Roy,
Hi,
I am currently working to produce a magazine, and my question is regarding the front cover -- A professional magazine front cover in general does not have any white borders; rather the front cover design covers the entire letter size page. How can I achieve this? (The last magazine I made, the cover page had about 0.5cm of white space all around and it looked aweful. The printing company didn't know how to get rid of it. And cutting the corners would make the size of the paper much smaller, which usually is never the case when I look at regular magazine. What is the secret behind that? Is this the job of the printer and other inside techniques or does it require an initial setting to me made in inDesign?  Please educate me, I really need to fix that problem this time. Thank you so much.  

Answer
Hi,

Glad to help. You need to set your bleeds. Bleeds are the margins OUTSIDE the document. They contain all elements that will "bleed" off of the page and be trimmed out in production. You can set them initially or add them later. While you're working just make sure that full page images and text that you want to "bleed" are extending outside the document boundary and into the bleed area. Consult with your printer on the proper bleed measurement. Typically, 1/8th to 1/4th inch will suffice.

When you go to export your PDF, select the desired bleed and crop mark settings...

Good luck!