Cropping And Bleed

Cropping and Bleed

Cropping and Bleed

When creating your page layouts it is very important to understand trim as a standard part of printing, and how to account for that trim. Properly placed pages will let your beautiful work shine!

Different Sizes

Books are considered either Standard or Mini. Standard books are sizes above 6x9, while Mini books are anything below that.

Cover Crops

While hard and softcovers are both awesome, each has their own crop and bleed requirements. Keep this in mind when designing!

Let It Show

All vital content (i.e. marriage proposals) should be kept within the crop guides with all non-vital content fully extended to the edge of the page.

Safety Margins

Our crop guides make sure your vital content is safe by showing you where the trim will fall. When you ignore them, it makes your content sad (and disappear).

Bulk orders

For bulk orders or important projects, we highly recommend ordering a proof so you can review the full book before continuing with the remaining order.

Reassurance

It's always better to be safe than sorry! If you're unsure about something or just want a second set of eyes, email us or hop on live chat. We're happy to help!

Standard Books

Covers

• The red crop guide indicates a .25" for softcovers. Softcovers have approximately 1/8” trimmed but cropping and bleed is recommended at .25" to account for shifting that can occur. Below is an example of a very happy softcover:



• The red and pink crop guides combined indicate the trim and fold guides for hardcovers. Hardcovers require a wider, roughly ½” bleed in addition to the .25", as the cover image is wrapped around a board (very similar to wrapping a present). We do recommend adding an additional .25" as a saftey measure, as content exactly .75” from the edge will be directly against the edge of the cover. This will make a total 1" margin for hardcovers. Take a look at this example:

Interiors

Heed this warning from Hamlet: while your book has only 1/8” guaranteed to be trimmed, the additional 1/8” is included for trim that may occur due to shifting during production (1/8”+1/8” = .25”). Because of this, we can’t guarantee any content falling within the Red Crop Guide (.25”) TO BE or NOT TO BE trimmed. Imagine Hamlet's skull friend - you want him all the way in the red and pink lines or he’ll start angrily waxing poetic. And believe us, no one wants waxy poetry.

Mini Books

Mini books are, of course, quite small and their creation should be treated much like a child should: very gently, lovingly, and with kid gloves. Ok, maybe that last bit only applies to the books. Because of their small size, these books have a more aggressive crop guide (for both the covers and interior as they are only available in softcover) so you’ll need to take note of both the red and pink guides. This is to help you make sure your content is fully within the safe zone! The pretty kitty below gives a great example of trim that occurs on the cover and interior of mini books:

Two-Page Spreads

Sometimes your photos need a little more showcasing! If you want a continuous image to cross two pages, you don't need to make your image larger. Simply overlap 1/4" in the page gutter of each image for a pleasing, seamless result. Also, make sure that your spreads begin on an even numbered page (IE a spread going across page 2 & 3). Because our pages begin on the right hand side, if the spreads begin on an odd numbered page, then they be split up incorrectly! Usually it's as easy as adding a blank page to start, but check out this screenshot for a visual explanation. With the help of a fabulous wedding photographer and member, Edna Licia Henriquez, you can see a quick overview below for making two-page spreads. We also have examples of two-page spreads here, thanks to the members that kindly passed on their knowledge!

One more VIPI (very important piece of information): Be sure that spreads are separated and not uploaded as one continuous spread since this will skew the size of the book and we would not be able to print your book. This means that you need to have individual pages, not spreads, being uploaded. During export just make sure that it will be saved out with all of the pages separated. You can certainly have 2 page spreads, just make sure that they are indeed two separate pages!

Please note: if an order is placed with the interior uploaded as two page spreads we will have to cancel the order. But don't lose hope! You can edit the file, upload it to the site, and place a new order. When a book is created with spreads instead of separate pages, the new file would roughly double your page count and also increase the price of the book, which is why a new order would be needed. If you're ever unsure about something, send us a quick note and we can double check before you place the order!

Print Design 101

The look of elements placed on your page is ultimately your aesthetic preference. Design for print encourages elements not to fall directly against the edge of the page - the eye tends to like a little room around the edges for the most part. Because of this, when designing it is beneficial to visualize where the trim will occur. An additional buffer will also help to keep all vital elements from butting up against or under that trim. In the design world the technical term for this is "trying to dig out of prison". Now that we've covered the basics, below is a quick 1-2 (no punches, please) on setting up your document to preserve your vital content.

• Book Designer: It's a piece of cake to check on your vital content when using the Book Designer to create! Simply review the pages to make sure that your vital elements are not pushed directly up against or under the crop guides. You can see this both in the design process and when checking out by clicking "Layout Preview".

• PDF: When designing a PDF you can set up a double guide on the pages. Size the document with an additional .25" above what size you want (IE: 9x7 would be sized at 9.25x7.25) to allow amount for the trim area. Set a .25" guide in from each edge and add another guide of .25", or whatever amount you choose, in from the first guide. Extend all non-vital content to the edge of the page to ensure there won't be an unwanted border if the trim is closer to 1/8". Then, make sure the vital content is fully within the guides to ensure they won't be trimmed if the trim ends up closer to .25".

Just the FAQs