So you've finished that perfect layout and all that text now sits nicely on the page on screen. You generate your PDF that you will be sending to the printer and dutifully review it in Acrobat to make sure all your t's are crossed and all those photos are right. Happy and content with your work you push your file towards the printer. Your printer emails back a confirming PDF, that as before you check diligently for any font problems or missing elements. Perfect; you see no problems as you give the printer the approval to print. Later when the box arrives from the printer you tear into it eager to see the masterpiece you've created.... you're shoulders slump as you see how small the text is and how that big logo you placed looks so tiny.

You've just experienced the "Magnifying Screen" effect. Many people have fallen into this trap over the years and the trap is only getting bigger with the advent of larger and larger displays. Because of how hard small text is to read on a computer screen most of us use larger displays and work on our documents with some level of zoom applied. This makes the documents, layouts, etc easier to see and manipulate [and there is certainly nothing wrong with that]. The hidden danger is that the zoom skews our perception of size, particularly when working on smaller artwork like business cards, stickers, or small product packaging. Because people frequently view these small layouts in a "fit-to-screen" type zoom there is an illusion that you have more space in your layout than you really do. Because of this things like margins tend to be very tiny on the final printed piece simply because they look so large on screen. For example, if you have a 1/8" margin (a typical 'narrow' margin for a business card) but are viewing the page at 500% zoom; that margin will appear on screen to be over 1/2" wide which you might have the urge to narrow as it appears 'to wide' on screen.

Fonts have a similar problem when working zoomed in. Taking the example above of a business card being viewed at 500% zoom consider the size of fonts that might be applied. 12 point type appears huge at this zoom level taking up about a 1/2" of vertical space as it's displayed on screen. Even 8 point type appears fairly large. It's not uncommon to see people use 6 point or smaller fonts on these smaller layouts simply due to their on screen perception that 8 point or 10 point text is too big. Keep in mind here folks, a standard font size used in books for comfortable reading is in the 10 to 14 point range. 6 point type is frequently used for 'legalese' text like in a warranty or disclaimer and 4 point type is small enough many people need a magnifying glass to read it. The point here (no pun intended) is that while all that text looks great on your business card on screen.. in final print it may not be what your expecting.

What can you do about it?

There are some very simple steps you can take to help avoid this problem;

Zoom out once and a while (be aware "actual size" on your zoom menu isn't always actual size). Doing this will let you get a look at the layout from a closer to real size and will help keep your perception of available space in check.

Print your document. If you print your document at actual size (100%) you can get a really good idea about the available space, how big your text is, or if that logo you spent so much time on is going to appear large enough.

Don't use font sizes less than 7 point unless you have a real reason to do so [like for legalese mentioned above]. It's also good to remember that here in the U.S. a large segment of our population is getting up there in age (i.e. the 'baby boomers') and for many with age comes poor eyesight. Keeping fonts closer to that 10-14 point range will make things much easier on those old eyes.

When a printer asks you to bleed it has nothing to do with blood. In this article I want to explain what bleeding is (relative to printing), how to use it, and when to use it. 

The Problem

Printing presses have an inherent problem printing right to the edge of a sheet of paper. There are really two different issues that prevent "zero-margin" printing. The first of these problems is called "gripper space" which is the leading edge of the sheet [as it passes through the press] where the printing press must mechanically hold on to the paper as it moves through the press. The mechanism that grabs the paper is appropriately called the "grippers". The problem is that the grippers take up physical space that the press blanket and impression cylinder (the parts in a printing press responsible for transferring the image to the paper) cannot use. This gripper area forces a non-printable area on the lead edge of every sheet. The amount of space required for this gripper is dependent on the make & model of the printing press being used.

The second problem holds for the other three edges of the press sheet (non-gripper edges). While in most cases the printing press can print right to the edge of the sheet, the ink that 'misses' the edge of the paper will start to build up on the press blanket and in only a matter of dozen sheets or so through the printing press start to transfer to the edge of the paper as it passes through the press. This in turn causes smearing on previously printed sheets in the printing press' delivery (where printed sheets are stacked for drying). This buildup also causes a host of other technical problems for the press operator that result in extra spoilage (ruined sheets), set-off (ink/image transferring from one sheet to another), inconsistent color (as the press has to be constantly stopped and cleaned), longer run times, and very irritable press operators.

A Bleeding Edge Solution

The solution to the problem of "zero-margin" printing involves printing on an oversized sheet of paper and cutting away the excess paper to allow the printed image to extend to the edge of the final (aka "cut") sheet. While this solves the technical problems mentioned above it creates a new one. If the image stops right at the point where the cut will take place its possible to leave a thin line of white (unprinted paper) on the edge of the final cut sheet. The solution for this is bleed. In printing the term bleed refers to the 'extra' image that extends beyond the edge of the final printed peice. This bleed allows for minor cutting discrepancies to be absorbed by the layout so the final product stays clean and neat while also ensuring the image extends to the very edge of the paper.

Making Your Artwork Bleed

It is very easy to add bleed to your layout while you're initially creating it. Be warned however that it can be very problematic if your trying to add bleed after the fact, especially when images are involved, so make sure you plan ahead. In simple terms bleed is simply an additional 1/8th inch of image that will be cut off later. Here at BHPC we require a 1/8th inch (.125") bleed. Other printers may have other preferred bleed sizes usually between 1/16th inch (.0625") and 1/2 inch (.5") depending on application. Most professional-level applications [Like Adobe InDesign and Quark xPress] have bleed options built into the software already. In these applications setting the bleed size of your document to .125" and then extend all images, backgrounds, etc that touch the edge of the page another .125" past the edge of the page. That's it.. no real trick to it.

In other applications, particularly those not really designed for layout work [like MS Word] things are a little more tricky. [As a side note I would lump Adobe Illustrator into this category as well due to its unwieldily implementation of bleed, trim, and page areas but I'll save that for another article] In these applications you will need to account for the bleed by increasing the page size by .25" in each dimension and then increasing your page margins by the same amount to inset your text/body copy so it will be in the right place after trimming.

Bleeding at the Right Time

When should I bleed? The answer: anytime your artwork touches the edge of your page. If even one element (image, line, background, etc) touches the edge of the page the entire document should have bleed applied to all sides so the artwork stays centered on the page.

While bleed is a deceptively simple concept it is by far one of the most common reasons for customer supplied files to be rejected from the printing process and/or require additional graphics charges to repair. Adding bleed to an artwork file after it has been created, as I mentioned before, can be technically challenging and time consuming feat [thus potentially expensive] to do correctly. So, if you will be creating your own artwork for print remember to bleed correctly.

Remember: if you're having graphics related problems BHPC offers a full range of graphics services.