BLEEDS

[brownsugarbabe]

First of all, have to say pretty cool forum, I've learned a lot and I've just joined.

Okay, I'm a novice pagemaker user. I've only done layout for a VERY simple pamphlet and an in-house newsletter, nothing complex.

I want pictures/colored shapes as my backgrounds and type the text over... I'm doing another informational pamphlet. My question is, how do I stretch the pictures in the background so they run to the end of the page and print to the end. I need to know all the steps. I think I set the margins to zero and stretch the photos from top to bottom. Is this all? When it prints on a proper printer, will it print correctly? (I know the bleeds won't print on my printer because it doesn't have that capability). TIA

 

[BionicJohn]

Let your shapes run about 3mm-4mm over the edge of the page. Your margins are a guide for layout, not printing. Print on over size paper and then guillotine it

Iechyd da! John
09:27 04/02/03 GMT

 

[brownsugarbabe]

Thanx!!!!! Just wanted to make sure I was on the right track. I read somewhere on here on another user's post that it is best to scan the images at HIGH resolution. What resolution should I scan an image if I intend to make it a bleed for a 8 1/2 x 11 page?

 

[Eggles]

First of all - the resolution you scan at has nothing to do with whether or not your photo will bleed. Second - you should NEVER 'stretch the photos from top to bottom'.

When you scan an image to be used in your layout, have some idea of the final size you want it to be. Then if your scanner allows it, scan at whatever percentage of the original your final size is to be.

For example, say you want your final image to measure 6" x 4" (including the bleed) but your original is only 3" x 2" - you will need to scan at twice the size (200 percent). If the printing is to be done commercially, they usually like their images to be 300 dpi CMYK TIFs. The 300 dpi is set AFTER you have set the dimensions. If for example, you set the resolution to be 300 dpi, then scale the scan to 200%, the final resolution will be only 150dpi (half the value as you have doubled the dimensions).

If your scanner does not allow you to alter the scale factor, then scan at whatever resolution is necessary to get 300dpi after you have resized in your photo editing software. In the example given, this would mean scanning the original size at 600 dpi. Thus when you double the size, the resolution is halved back down to the 300 dpi required.

For printing on a desktop printer, 300 dpi is usually overkill - resulting in large files that are slow to open and work on, and take lots of storage space. Depending on the quality of your printer, 150-200 dpi is probably quite satisfactory.

So to answer your question "What resolution should I scan an image if I intend to make it a bleed for a 8 1/2 x 11 page?" - depends entirely on how big the original photo is.