PDF Export - Bleeding Area

[Julian23]

With AD I can create a PDF file with a bleeding area which is important for printing. 

 

Under document properties I can define the bleeding, i.e. 2 mm. 

 

But this only works for single page document. With multiple page documents I have this problems:

 

a) It is more difficult to change the page size - I have to update the width and height for any of the "Page X" artboards.

 

b) The document setting changes the whole view, not the pages.

 

c) The bleeding property seems to be ignored with PDF export (there are is no property in created PDF)

 

I think the pages in a multipage document should use a different kind of artboards which work 

 

This page-artboards should arrange themselves according to their order in the layer view.  Right now it is not obvious in which order the pages are created on export. 

The page-artboards also should have document properties, most important bleeding and width/height.

 

Right now I do not really know how to create a professional print-PDF if I need multiple pages.

 

- BTW - I just purchase AD for Windows. I like that very much.

[vonBusing]

You can do multiple page print pdf with bleeds on all pages with AD. Some aspects, as you mention, are not sot convenient in AD. But that may not be the real scope of this app. What you would need better here is Affinity Publisher, to come sometimes in the future.

 

For a publication with a few pages you can still manage it fairly in AD. Use artboards and define bleeds in the document setup, like you seem to have done. On pdf export, go in the "more" options (bottom of the dialogue) and check that the bleed option (and probably checkmarks as well) on export is enabled. I don't think any built-in pdf-export presets have this enabled out of the box. All pages in the exported file should now have bleeds.

[Julian23]

>> On pdf export, go in the "more" options (bottom of the dialogue) and check that the bleed option (and probably checkmarks as well) on export is enabled.

 

Yes, this works. The bleeding area (i.e. 2 mm is rendered visibly on the page.)

 

But this is not what is best for the usual print portals.

 

Here you need a PDF file which uses the real page dimensions, i.e. A4, and the bleeding should be in the non visual area.

 

Instead of adding the bleeding area to the visual page, it should be in the non visual, cropped area.

 

The code in PDF should look like this

 

/Type /Page

/MediaBox [  area including the bleeding ]

/TrimBox [  the visible area - this is the page ] 

 

The current Version of AD is just writing MediaBox - that is not enough.

I am not sure, possible the version before 1.5 wrote that bleeding information.

[Dave Harris]

Julian, I just tried using bleed here, and both TrimBox and MediaBox got written to the PDF.  Acrobat Pro shows them. What tool are you using that says the TrimBox is missing?

[Julian23]

I was using AD 1.5.4 RC2

 

to look inside the PDF I cannot use Notepad since the page object is compressed. I was using a tool which can open PDF files and shows the properties. 

 

But also AcrobatPRO does not show any border properties under Print/Crop Pages. 

 

I simply created a new document, set the bleeding areas to 2mm to each side and do the standard PDF export "for Print".

 

 

I attached my files - did I miss the properties or options?

Test.afdesign

Test_PDF_Export.pdf

[Dave Harris]

As vonBusing says, you also need to enable bleed in the export More settings. It is not enabled by default for the Print preset.

[Julian23]

But this setting will increase the page size by the amount of bleeding.

 

When you try this with my sample file you will see 2 mm of white space besides the gray rectangle.

 

This is also what I expect when I check "Include Bleeding". 

 

Without this check the the mediabox can start with negative X and Y coordinates and the properties 

CropBox and TrimBox can be used to limit the visible area. This would create a PDF file which looks perfect on screen and can be printed the same way.

[Dave Harris]

Are you saying that if the Include bleed option is unchecked, you want the bleed included anyway, with an inflated MediaBox, but with a CropBox set to the uninflated area so it can't be seen? As far as I can tell, this is not what InDesign or other Adobe apps produce. Does your print portal require this? If so, what settings do they want in InDesign?

[Julian23]

I checked this - in their template they do not use cropping 

 

This is the Page in their template

 

<</BleedBox[0.0 0.0 606.614 853.228]/Contents[,,,,]/CropBox[0.0 0.0 606.614 853.228]/MediaBox[0.0 0.0 606.614 853.228]/Parent 1 0 R/Resources<</ColorSpace<</CS0 8 0 R/CS1 9 0 R/CS2 10 0 R>>/ExtGState<</GS0 19 0 R>>>>/Rotate 0/TrimBox[5.6693 5.6693 600.945 847.559]/Type/Page>>

 

So this is what AD does when the include bleeding is checked. 

 

It seems to be impossible to have a template which displays in Acrobat as it looks after production. I expected otherwise.

[vonBusing]

It seems to be impossible to have a template which displays in Acrobat as it looks after production.

 

What do you mean with "as it looks after production"? Like when it is printed and cut according to the TrimBox, without the bleed (and other space around)? You can either export it without bleeds from AD, or, in Acrobat, set the CropBox equal to the TrimBox and you are done.