Expert: Glen Demers - 11/4/2010

Question
the book is to trim 8.5 x 8.5 as quoted then your cover will need to be
17.125 x 8.5 (to accomodate for the front (8.5) - spine (0.125) - back (8.5))
+ you will need to add .25" bleed all around to avoid any white space where
the book trims to make it square so --- the actual size you will need to send
will be 17.625 x 9 to include all the bleed.  I will not need the facing pages of
the cover -
How do I create this proper setup?

Answer
Hi Jean,

I would set up the cover in a separate document than the text pages, you may combine them later using the book feature. There is an excellent article on setting up bleeds in InDesign here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/indesign.htm#bleed
Just substitute .25 for .125 and make sure you have Show Guides under View>Guides and Grids. Set up your document size as 17.125 x 8.5 and InDesign will put a red line around your document to indicate the bleed margin, make sure graphics that bleed extend out to this line.

You can drag vertical guides to 8.5 and 8.625 to indicate where the spine will be. If you are creating art for inside the cover, make sure there is no printing in the spine area - this may interfere with the glue during the binding.

If you plan to send a pdf to your printer make sure under marks and bleeds that "Use Document Bleeds" is checked or you have input .25 for the bleed setting.

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

For more InDesign tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/indesign.htm