Book design issue with the gutter

[Crina]

Hi!

I've been learning how to use AP today and I've been sort of designing my book. I noticed when I export, if I select PDF (for print) and then include bleed, something strange happens to the pdf. The gutter area has a small portion of my image duplicated on the other page that is supposed to be white (or if it's not white and the illustration is on top of both pages as a spread, that duplicated bit is added onto the continuation of the image). Not sure if this makes sense.  When I select no bleed, that duplication doesn't happen (but of course the bleed on the edges is removed as well). If I select no bleed, it appears I can't select PDF (for print) - that area just shows up blank on the screen. I want to make sure I generate the best pdf for printing. Should I select PDF (press ready) instead of print? 

I was testing and noticed that when I upload the generated pdf with bleed on KDP,  the duplicated area in the gutter doesn't show. It shows as it is in the Affinity Publisher project which is how I want it to look, so all is good. That works for me because I will be using KDP to print this book, but I am worried in case of printing flat books (or other platform for publishing books, such as IngramSpark). If I want to print a book using the same generated pdf with bleed, will that gutter area look strange or do the same thing it did on KDP?

 

I'm using AF on a PC.

Thank you in advance for your help! I'm so excited about continuing to use the software and designing my upcoming books. 🤗

[Old Bruce]

Hi and welcome to the forums @Crina,

I am assuming AP means Affinity Publisher and not Photo.

Are you using double page spreads or single page spreads? Are you using Master Pages, and are they single or double page spreads?

1 hour ago, Crina said:

If I select no bleed, it appears I can't select PDF (for print) - that area just shows up blank on the screen.

All the blank means is that the preset has been modified. The name is just a name, nothing extra special about the preset.

[Crina]

Hi and thank you for having me!

Yes, I meant Affinity Publisher. I forgot there's Affinity Photo as well. I was only thinking about the Designer and the Publisher. I'm very new to using these softwares, as you can probably tell.😊

 

So I've set my document at:

8.25 x 11 inches

 

Margins: inner 0.75

The rest of them 0.5

Bleed: 0.125

76 pages

I wasn't aware there's such a thing as single page spread and double page spread. I thought it's either single page within the document and/or a double spread (as in 2 facing pages form 1 spread).

 

So, f ex, I have the first page (the one on the right) as a single page, but the following ones are a spread since there's two facing pages.

 

I have been using Master pages a bit.

 

I notice that I can do individual changes to a page within the spread - so would that mean those are actually a single page spread? I'm confused. I thought spreads are just 2 facing pages.

 

When I exported the pdf, I selected export as individual pages (not spreads).

 

Anyway, the thing is in the gutter area, on one side there is some blank space added, and on the right there is a bit from the image on the left. They look fine in AP, just as I'm designing and want them to look. It's just when I look at the generated pdf (with including bleed) there's that extra thing in the gutter. As mentioned, in the KDP preview it looks as if the printer will print as I actually designed it, how it looks in the AP software, not like in the exported pdf.

 

Thank you for your time, Bruce!

Edited June 15, 2021 by Crina

[Old Bruce]

15 minutes ago, Crina said:

Anyway, the thing is in the gutter area, on one side there is some blank space added, and on the right there is a bit from the image on the left. They look fine in AP, just as I'm designing and want them to look. It's just when I look at the generated pdf (with including bleed) there's that extra thing in the gutter.

bleed and extra thing are the same thing, the extra bit is the part of the paper that will be trimmed off. This will happen either in reality or in software as the book is imposed on printing plates. Looks scary but is not anything to worry about.

This has me curious, is it a standard size for KDP or a typo? Standard ANSI Paper size is 8 1/2 inches not 1/4.

23 minutes ago, Crina said:

So I've set my document at:

8.25 x 11 inches

 

[Crina]

That's just the size I chose for this particular book. As an example. It could be any other size. The same thing happens with the gutter area.

 

I know the bleed area gets cuts of. That's why I'm a bit confused with the interior/gutter area. It's usually as designed and that bit doesn't get cut off. I've just never had this sort of thing happen before when I was designing and generating the pdf in Canva.

 

Here's a few photos:

the first one is from the pdf generated with spreads (the image is not strange in the middle)

2 and 3 are from the pdf generated with individual pages (as you can see there's that thing in the middle)

 

Maybe it's just a particular thing when the pdf is generated as pages instead of spreads but the document is not actually affected when printed. Maybe it's just for those cases when a printer needs a pdf with pages instead of spreads so it automatically has certain setups to prevent screwing up the print. 

 

 

[Old Bruce]

If you generate a PDF of Single Pages and include Bleed and Printers marks you'll see that the extra bits will be removed/trimmed from the gutter and the outsides as well as the top and bottom.