Some of the people who find themselves here at ATCO have done so by searching for a specific question about InDesign. I’ve noticed that a lot of these questions have fairly straight-forward answers. It’s probably a safe bet that other people, somewhere out there in internet land are having the same issues. Perhaps this post (and the others that will follow) will help.

“How can you make a document print all the way to the edge of the page in InDesign?”

In printing terms, this is called bleed. The only way to produce a print with full bleed (ink all the way to the edge of the paper) is to print on a larger sheet of paper and trim down to your final print size. For example: if you want to print a basic, letter-sized piece (8.5 x 11 inches) with full bleed, you need to print on a larger sheet such as an 11 x 17 inch, and trim down.

Proper Document Structure

First, when you are setting your document up in InDesign, make sure that you position your page elements so that they extend over the edge of the sheet of paper wherever they touch the edge. In the example below, the red page element is lined up perfectly with the upper right hand corner. This is unnecessarily limiting.

This is wrong. Don't do this.

The correct way to do this is to drag the color elements over the edges of the paper, as in the illustration below. (Since only the elements inside the page edge will ultimately end up in your final printed piece, there’s no harm at all in doing this, and it actually makes everyone’s life easier as I will explain in a moment).

This is right. Do it this way.

In this case, the red element is positioned so that it overlaps the page edge. Anywhere from 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch is plenty. We set our full bleed files up in this fashion because when we print the file and start trimming it out with an Exacto Knife, we will want to have ink on both sides of the line on which we will cut. This reduces the pressure to make a perfect cut.

Slicing a relatively straight line between two crop marks is difficult enough without also worrying about following the edge of your ink line along the entire length of the cut. Overlapping the ink solves this problem.

Printing

In order to print with bleed, like I said, you need to print to a larger sheet and cut down, so if your printer can’t handle a sheet larger then your final print size, you’re either going to have to think creatively, or admit that you can’t have bleed on your file.

Go to File>Print, and in the resulting dialogue box select your printer.

Click “Setup” in the left-hand window and set the paper size as indicated (I’m using 11×17). Also make sure that you have selected the proper page orientation and make sure “Page Position” is set to “Centered.” If you’ve done it properly, the preview window should appear as it does in the illustration below.

Now click on “Marks and Bleed.” This is where you will set up the print for bleed. Make sure “Crop Marks” is selected. (Without Crop Marks, you won’t know where to cut out your final print). Make sure “Use Document Bleed Settings” is unchecked. Click the little chain button indicated by the bottom arrow in the illustration below. This sets all bleed settings to be equal allowing you to change all four of them at the same time. Type in 0.125 inches (1/8th of an inch). Again, make sure that the preview window looks as it does below. You should see crop marks at the corners and pink shaded areas outside the page edge that denote where your bleed will appear.

If for some reason you set all of this up perfectly, but do not position the page elements in your design so that they overlap the page edges, you will print a properly formatted, full bleed image, it just won’t have any ink in the bleed areas. Make sure you position the page elements properly.

You’re now ready to print your document. Once printed, you’ll need a good old fashioned straight-edge and Exacto Knife. Line the straight edge up on the crop marks and slice away. Make sure you don’t cut all the way to the edge of your larger sheet of paper or you won’t be able to line up the remaining crop marks. I try to carry my slice about an inch past each crop mark, being really careful not to slice all the way to the edge of the larger sheet of paper.

-oAk-