If you are an artist of any kind, you probably have to have some of your prints printed at a professional printer. That means that you must have the proper specifications for printers to produce quality work for you. If you are designing your digital photos in Adobe Photoshop, crop marks and bleeds will be very useful to you.
Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator are equipped to handle bleeds and apply crop marks automatically. Adobe Photoshop allows you Print with Previews crop marks and bleed options. This means that you can, and often will have to make your own crop marks. Just in case you are still in that dark or if you are just getting started on your art journey in Photoshop, let???s talk about what crop marks are. Crop marks show where the page will be cut or trimmed once it is printed. The image usually goes all the way to the edge of the printed page after cropping. A bleed is typically used when this happens. When you hear someone use the term ???bleed???, they are referring to the ink that is extended past the crop marks. This makes sure that the little mistakes in registration or trimming does not make an undesirable white line at the edge of the image.
If you are going to make a bleed, you will need to make the decision. Photoshop???s Print and Preview allows you to make bleeds of 0.125 inch. If you choose to use a bleed of 0.125 you will need a canvas size one-quarter inch wider and taller than the art you are creating. In order to place guides numerically, you will go to Photoshop???s menu and click on ???View>New Guide???.
At the time you are ready to output, go to Photoshop???s ???File>Print??? with the Preview command. Once the Print with Preview dialog box opens up check, ???Show More Options???. Point your mouse arrow in the Output area and select the Corner Crop Marks box. Next, click on the Bleed button. Choose between 0.0 to 0.125 inches for the proper bleed you want. The crop marks will be moved inward when the page is printed out.
Before you print your artwork, it is important to know if the ink will bleed off of the edge of the page. It is important to know if your work will bleed before it is printed because the trimming knives cut the area of one of more edges. Bleeds don???t really run off the page. Instead the trimming knives slice so close that the ink looks like it is running off the edge. That means that your printer might need a larger press sheet to print your work. A large press sheet may only be available in a larger press, thus costing you more money. This is why it is important that you call ahead before you take your artwork to a specific printer.
If you want to use the Adobe Illustrator, you can build a bleed into your document by setting the document size to your actual trim size. Extend the area of the color beyond the edges of your document. You will want to be careful when you are determining the exact bleed measurement. Extend the area of the color to the measurement.
Bleeds vary greatly, so you will want to ask your printer how much of a bleed they require before you take in your artwork. Crop marks are not always a necessity but they can occasionally help your avoid some issues. You will need them in Illustrator sequences you plan to import and to keep the alignment of your images. Using crop marks will help you avoid recompressing the layer. Importing vector files without crop marks in Photoshop can leave you with sharp lines on your artwork because Photoshop changes the image.
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