How to set a different bleed on each side of the page

Bleed in Layout by Zaweba is set for the top, bottom, inside and outside edges independently. The four values are linked by default, so typing one number fills all four, and once you unlink them each edge takes its own figure. Zero is allowed on any edge, which is exactly what you need when one side of the page meets a fold, a binding or another panel.

Most people only meet bleed as a single number a printer asks for, usually the same all round. Real jobs are often less tidy. A wall calendar may need generous bleed at the bottom where the pages are trimmed and none at the top where the wire binding sits. A leaflet that will be glued into a folder might need bleed on three sides only. Layout lets the document say that directly, rather than leaving you to remember which edge to ignore.

Why bleed is set per edge

Bleed is the extra artwork that runs past the trim so that a slightly uneven cut never leaves a white sliver. Where the paper is trimmed, you want it. Where the edge is a fold, a spine or a join with another page, extra artwork is at best wasted and at worst prints somewhere it shouldn't. Naming the edges inside and outside rather than left and right means the setting follows the page: on a left-hand page the inside edge is on the right, on a right-hand page it is on the left, and the same numbers hold for both.

Layout also handles spreads for you. Where two pages are joined in a spread, the inner edges never get bleed, so a picture running across the spine is not cut short or doubled at the join. You set the outer edges and the program looks after the middle.

Setting it up step by step

Start with the printer's specification in front of you, because the figures should come from them. Open the document's bleed and slug settings, where the four bleed edges sit together. Leave them linked if every edge gets the same amount. If they differ, unlink them and type each value in turn: top, bottom, inside, outside.

Enter zero for any edge that is a fold or a binding. That is a perfectly valid value, not a mistake the program will try to correct. When you return to the page, the bleed shows as an outline beyond the trim, so you can see at a glance which edges have it and how far it reaches. Pull background colours and pictures out to that outline on the edges that need it and stop at the trim on the others.

The slug is set per edge in the same place. The slug is an area further out than the bleed for notes the printer will see but the reader won't, such as a job name or a colour bar. It also shows as an outline, so the two zones are easy to tell apart.

Checking before you send it

Live preflight keeps an eye on the bleed and slug while you work. Its profiles can flag objects sitting in the bleed or slug, which is a quick way to catch a caption or a logo that has drifted outwards by accident. The count shows in the status bar, and clicking a problem takes you to it.

When you export a PDF for print, you choose whether bleed and bleed marks go into the file along with crop marks. A press preset is the usual starting point. If the printer has asked for a PDF/X-style file, the presets with those names are there too. After exporting, open the PDF and look at each edge with the trim marks in mind: artwork should reach the bleed on the trimmed edges and stop cleanly on the edges you set to zero.

Slips that cost a reprint

The first is unlinking the values and then forgetting one edge, so it keeps an old figure. Read all four back before you close the settings. The second is setting the inside bleed on a single page and expecting it on the facing page's opposite side; because the edges are named inside and outside, that is exactly what happens, so trust the names rather than thinking in left and right. The third is adding bleed at a fold because the printer's general instructions said so. If an edge is folded or bound, ask the printer, and if they agree, zero is the honest answer.

Set it once at the start of a job and the rest of the work follows the outlines you can see on the pasteboard, which is the main reason to get it right before the first picture goes down.