1. Bleed - When printing a book, "bleed" is a necessary design element to ensure that a book cover is trimmed correctly. It refers to the area extending beyond the finished (trim edge) of a document. Bleed protects the trim edge of a document when it is being cut to its proper size during the final stages of the book production process. Without bleed, white edges would appear on a final document. Proper bleed area is 1/8 inch from the edge on all four sides of a book, which means that an 8.5” x 11” document with proper bleed would be 8.75” x 11.25”.
2. Trim - The trim size is the final size of a document- the dimensions of a book in its final bound size.
3. Safety Zone –The safety zone is a protected area 1/8 inch smaller than the trim size of a book. Any critical information, including type (text) logos, graphics, or page numbers must remain within the safety zone or these elements will appear crowded when the document is trimmed to its final size.
4. Crop Marks – These short little lines are found at the outside corners of each page indicating the exact trim size of a document. Crop marks are an essential element during the bindery process so that documents are trimmed correctly.
5. Embedded Fonts - This refers to the fonts that are necessary to print a job; fonts are embedded in the PDF file so that they appear exactly as they were intended to be seen by the author of the document. The fonts will appear the same to different users in all applications.
6. Image Resolution - All images should be scanned or saved at the correct resolution required by a printer, which is usually a minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch).
