Bleed and crop marks

[Cassel]

As the only one with a little bit of experience in working with graphics, at the office, i am often asked to do that kind of work. I created a leaflet that will be printed both sides and it was sent to the printer. However, we got a reply that the printer now requires the bleed and crop marks. I know what they are, but i am a bit unsure how I am supposed to add that to those two jpg images (the back and front).

What would you recommend I do to fill that request?

[Jean-Luc]

Do you print borderless ?
Are those crop marks needed for cutting ?
You may ask the printer how much space is needed outside the image and put your marks there.

[Cassel]

Yes the end result will be a borderless card so yes, the crop marks are likely for cutting.
I'll have to get in touch with them.

[Jean-Luc]

Are you sure your printer asks JPEG files ?
The standard is often PDF files at 300 DPI.

[Cassel]

You are right, he asked for pdf and i did send a pdf, but i have no idea how to incorporate bleed and crop marks on a pdf (i am not even sure how to add it to a jpg anyways)

[JoeB]

I wonder if we're getting ahead of ourselves here. If you submitted a PDF, in what program did you create the PDF? If with a version of Acrobat Pro then you would find the option to add marks under Tools>Print Production (or similar depending on your version of Acrobat). Corel Draw, InDesign and other such programs also provide tools for adding crop marks to PDF exported files.

Depending on the program you use to create the PDF, do a Google search for "add crop marks to PDF" (without the quotes) and adding the name of your program and you should find plenty of info on how to create the marks with your particular program. The websites of many commercial offset printers provide instructions on how to properly mark submitted artwork to ensure that nothing important is cropped and everything important is pleasingly located within the final product cut. I'm providing one link to such a page, chosen completely at random from many doing a Google search, in case it helps:

https://www.m13.com/help/bleed

[Cassel]

If i remember, I created the pdf using PSP.
I`ll look into it.

[JoeB]

I have added a slight edit to my previous post. As well, I don't think PSP has printing crop marks options (although somebody might correct me)

[Jean-Luc]

If i remember, I created the pdf using PSP.
I`ll look into it.

PSP doesn't have a PDF "maker".
CorelDraw is able to export directly in PDF format.
If you will create a PDF with PSP, you need to print your file from PSP to a virtual PDF printer (PDF Creator, Adobe PDF, ...). The printing will create the PDF file.

[Jean-Luc]

Found that you don't need to draw the crop marks inside your drawing if you create your PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro :
http://help.adobe.com/fr_FR/acrobat/pro ... bc5.w.html
(in French but you understand it, I think, and you may find the equivalent in English)
Acrobat Pro will place the crop marks when creating the PDF document.

[Cassel]

After i manually created the bleed and crop marks, i found that in the Print command window, under the Options tab, there is a radio button to add the crop marks. That is good. However, i am still wondering if there is a way to have them WITH bleed, since the crop marks, here, only go to the edge of the image, which is exactly what a printshop does NOT want.

[JoeB]

After i manually created the bleed and crop marks, i found that in the Print command window, under the Options tab, there is a radio button to add the crop marks. That is good. However, i am still wondering if there is a way to have them WITH bleed, since the crop marks, here, only go to the edge of the image, which is exactly what a printshop does NOT want.

In what program did you do this?

[Cassel]

In what program did you do this?

In PSP.

[Jean-Luc]

However, i am still wondering if there is a way to have them WITH bleed, since the crop marks, here, only go to the edge of the image, which is exactly what a printshop does NOT want.

If your image is 50 x 50 mm, and the bleed need to be 5mm, your final image must be 60 x 60 mm (50 mm + 5mm all around).
The 8 crop marks must be drawn inside the bleed and never inside the final image itself.
Hope this helps...

[Cassel]

I know that Jean-Luc. That is what i did manually. I am just wondering if there is a place that it will do it automatically, like it did for the crop marks. Also, the crop marks automatically set in the print window is flush to the edge of the image, so it is not exactly what it should be, unless a printshop does NOT need a bleed, which i doubt.

I think i see a script in my near future!