How do i make the cover of my book bleed?
Question by Kay12: How do i make the cover of my book bleed?
The cover has to be a certain size document with a certain amount of “bleed” – which I’m guessing is an extra margin they are going to crop ? am I right ?
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2 Responses to How do i make the cover of my book bleed?
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There’s a way to set up your bleed amount in the printing options in Photoshop, I believe. Bleed is when if you have a background color, you extend it out farther than it needs to be so that if they cut it a little wrong, there isn’t a thin white line left over. It’s just a minute detail so everything looks spot on!
Brianna
October 29, 2011 at 10:21 am
You are, basically correct. You would make the “colors” of your image slightly larger than the document’s final, cut size. Different printers and printing techniques have different standards, but a bleed margin could be as little as a sixteenth of an inch to as much as a quarter of on inch.
The designer (or the digital aplication) will add “crop marks” at the edges, beyond the bleed allowance, indicating where the page should be cut. Certain apps, like InDesign, Illustrator and QuarkXPress will automate much of the process for you. (same for registration marks on color separations)
With a book cover, there is another issue, however.
A “full bleed” is when all four sides of the document have color going all the way to the edge. But a book cover is printed on a single sheet, including the book spine and the back cover. If the spine and back cover is NOT to be the same color as the front cover, then it will only bleed on three sides. This is called a “3/4 bleed.” The fourth edge will be folded to form the spine. In this case, that edge of the cover design will simply end where the fold is supposed to go. You do not create a bleed along that edge. The color stops where the theoretical fold line should be. The designer can only hope the folding machinery is accurate and folds EXACTLY along that line.
By the way, the software apps also set up folding lines.
Vince M
October 29, 2011 at 10:42 am