Creating bleeds in Illustrator

[deemac]

Hi, if I can start this question with an example it may help. If I'm in QuarkXpress and I create an A4 page then put an image onto the page outwith the page bounderies then create a PDF my PDF image will have the bleed exactly as I wanted. Now if I create an A4 page in Illustrator and put the same image past the page bounderies as before and make a PDF there is no bleed because of imageable bounderies etc. My desktop printer will only print A4 but I'm only really concerned with making PDF's. If I create an A3 page in Illustrator it still has an A4 imageable area anyway.
So after that the basic question is, how can I create bleeds past the edge of the page in Illustrator as I would in QuarkXpress.

Thanks for any help.

 

[jimoblak]

I may be way off in the interpretation of your question...

Instead of saving to a PDF, print to a virtual postscript printer. The virtual postscript printer should offer registration marks. Then distill the postscript file in Acrobat Distiller.

You might also draw crop/bleed marks on your art in Illustrator and print to the larger sheet of paper.

 

[askIllustrator]

In AI you need to change both your DOCUMENT setting and your PRINT SETTINGS. If you go into your print set up ctrl+alt+p and then click on Print Setup, you will see another set of page size options. These are the options your printer actually uses, not the document. So if the document was set at A4 and the Print Setup at letter, you would get cutoff etc. So go directly to Print Setup, choose A4 portrait or landscape, hit OK and inside your document setup make you check the box for Use Print Setup. Once back to your document, click and hold on the hand tool to reveil the page tool (dotted square) and double click on it to center your page tiling to the artboard. BEHOLD! As Steve Jobs introduces us the latest in desk-lamp technology!

http://www.apple.com

 

[deemac]

Thanks to all for your help.

I thought that I would be confined to size A4 maximum because my desktop printer drivers would make this so but I'll give the options above ago and see how I get on.

Thanka again.