Print Margins

Did you ever have a print project look great until the finishing came back with text nearly cut off or was too close to a drill hole?

Today we’ll talk about print margins or safety zones. Margins are a very important part of the design before print. These are small but important details that often get overlooked.

When starting the layout set up the margins in the print setup dialog. Think about borders, folding, drilling, trimming, binding and die cutting.

For simple projects like a letterhead most people use standard 1 Inch margins for text. If designing business cards 1/8 Inch will work.

But what happens when projects have special binding, folding or drilling. This is where things get important.

When laying out a page that will fold inward such as a six page consider the page that folds in should be 1/8 smaller than the front and back pages allowing for folding accuracy. An example would be a six page that folds to 8 1/2 x 11 should start with the art board 1/8 smaller. Starting with the art board 25 3/8 with print margins will keep text from getting too close to the trim and allow for folding.

When creating a calendar that will be wire or coil bound set your margins to compensate for the punched holes. Consider more than 1/2 inch when planning, keeping text away from the binding and holes will save your project and make it more appealing.

This rule doesn’t have to apply to everything but to keep the printed piece balanced it’s a good idea to follow margin and safe zone rules.

When questions about layout come up feel free to call or e-mail us. Please consider us as a resource. 847-550-4310 or e-mail sales@schneider-graphics.com