The 4 Biggest Letterhead Design Stuff Ups! - Part 3

We like to think the second part was a very clever hint. If we were the type to overdo the puns, we would make a comparison to those "Nightmare" movies, since we are discussing bleeding and sharp edges. However, we are not that sort, so let us move on to the Marie Antoinette portion of the program. The password is guillotine blades! Fortunately, unlike the French version, it is possible to recover from this error. Simply pull your content back into the body of the page, away from the final trim!

In the preceding article, bleed was described as any object which is used as a background cause and circulates right to the boundary of a paper.

The remainder of the page can be collectively identified as critical content. To reiterate, anything other than the background image or graphic can be put into this category. This includes all text, headers, graphics, logos, links or whatever you decided was necessary to get your message across.

If you recall, we discussed how the book cutter never cuts two sheets in the exact same position every time. Each sheet of paper reacts differently to the pressure it experiences during cutting and slight variations in the cut result. Well, guillotines work the same way. Bleed compensates for a slightly larger sheet length.

However if your 'critical content' is too close to the final trim and the blade cuts closer than normal, it could cut into your text, logos, and other 'critical content'.

Even where it has not been lopped off, if it comes within 1 to 2mm, the unfortunate result will be that it will appear to the eye to have been shaved too closely.

The solution is to place critical content at least 5mm from the final trim. Place graphics and text by using margins as guidelines. This is important for any printed product including magazines, business cards, brochures, and stationary.

When making a thick book you are going to want to make sure that the distance from the spine to the pages is larger. Instead of 5mm you are probably going to need something closer to 20mm. It is also important to ensure that you have the 'facing pages' setting on. This will ensure that odd numbered pages have the spine on the left while even number pages have it on the right.

In order to keep your page looking tidy, margins roughly eight millimeters away from each of three edges should be your goal. The spine side is the exception.

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