Wasn't that a tasty tip in part two? It may have been a little gory (after all we were talking about bleed!) but it was definitely a necessary topic. This topic won't be quite as gory, though we are still talking about guillotine blades. However, there will be no blood this time, as I said in the prior article the mistake that is made third most commonly is quite similar to the second, that is Critical Content is too close to final trim!

In the preceding article, bleed was described as any object which is used as a background cause and circulates right to the boundary of a paper.

Critical content can be defined as the complete opposite. It is considered anything that isn't in the background. Examples of this would be body text, headlines, logo's, pictures and captions. Anything at all that is not part of the background.

Remember how we talked about how guillotines and book cutters don't cut every sheet in the exact position? Physically the paper reacts to the pressure applied during the cutting process. Bleed compensates for if the sheet is cut a little bigger than normal.

If you place your 'critical content' too close to your final trim, it is possible that the blade might cut closer than it usually does. If this happens, you might cut into text, logos, and other content that is critical.

Even if it's not trimmed off but it still really close (1-2mm) the 'asthetics' of the finished product will look like it has been cut too close.

The answer would be that critical content has to be in, at the very least, 5mm from the final trim of the product. Margins will need to be the guide you use when positioning graphics and text. This applies to applications such as brochures, stationary, business cards and anything else that is printed.

If you're making a thicker book, you'll want to increase the distance by the spine to about 15 - 20 mm. You should insure that you have the "facing pages" set correctly so that even numbered pages are on the left (with the spine on the right) and odd numbered pages are on the right (with the spine on the left).

You need to have 5 to 10mm minimum distances away from the edge of the paper for the right (not the spine), top, and bottom. This gives a more standardized appearance.

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