Setting marks and bleed options

When you prepare artwork for printing, a number of marks are needed for the printer device to register the artwork elements precisely and verify correct color. These marks include trim marks, registration marks, color bars, and page information. The Marks & Bleed options in the Print dialog box enable you to add these marks to your separations.
Illustration of Printer's marks with these callouts: A. Star target B. Registration mark C. Page information D. Trim marks E. Color bar F. Tint bar
Printer's marks A. Star target B. Registration mark C. Page information D. Trim marks E. Color bar F. Tint bar

Bleed, meanwhile, is the amount of artwork that falls outside of the printing bounding box, or outside the crop marks and trim marks. You can include bleed in your artwork as a margin of error--to ensure that the ink is still printed to the edge of the page after the page is trimmed or to ensure that an image can be stripped into a keyline in a document. Once you create the artwork that extends into the bleed, you can use Illustrator to specify the extent of the bleed. Increasing the bleed makes Illustrator print more of the artwork that is located beyond the trim marks. The trim marks still define the same size printing bounding box, however.

Note the following:
* By default, Illustrator applies a bleed of 0 points to roman printer marks and 8.5 points (3 millimeters) to Japanese printer marks (which have a double line to show any difference between the original origin point and any offset). This is only available if your primary operating system is Japanese.
* The maximum bleed you can set is 72 points; the minimum bleed is 0 points.
* The size of the bleed you use depends on its purpose. A press bleed (that is, an image that bleeds off the edge of the printed sheet) should be at least 18 points. If the bleed is to ensure that an image fits a keyline, it needs to be no more than 2 or 3 points.
* Your print shop can advise you on the size of the bleed necessary for your particular job.

You can set the following Marks & Bleed options in the Print dialog box:

All Printer's Marks

Selects all printer's marks at once.

Trim Marks

Adds fine (hairline) horizontal and vertical rules that define where the page should be trimmed. Trim marks can also help register (align) one color separation to another.

Registration Marks

Adds small "targets" outside the page area for aligning the different separations in a color document.

Color Bars

Adds small squares of color representing the CMYK inks and tints of gray (in 10% increments). Your service provider uses these marks to adjust ink density on the printing press.

Page Information

Labels the film with the name of the file, the time and date of printout, the line screen used, the screen angle for the separation, and the color of each particular plate. These labels appear at the tops of the images.

Printer Mark Type

Prints roman and Japanese marks.

Trim Mark Weight

Specifies the width for trim-mark lines.

Offset

Specifies the distance between the trim marks and the artwork. To avoid drawing printer's marks on a bleed, be sure to enter an Offset value greater than the Bleed value.

Top, Bottom, Left, and Right

Lets you enter values from 0 to 72 points to specify the placement of the bleed marks.

The link icon Link icon

Makes the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right values the same.

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