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We like to think the second part was a very clever hint. If we were the type to overdo the puns, we would make a comparison to those "Nightmare" movies, since we are discussing bleeding and sharp edges. However, we are not that sort, so let us move on to the Marie Antoinette portion of the program. The password is guillotine blades! Fortunately, unlike the French version, it is possible to recover from this error. Simply pull your content back into the body of the page, away from the final trim!

In the preceding article, bleed was described as any object which is used as a background cause and circulates right to the boundary of a paper.

Critical content can be defined as the complete opposite. It is considered anything that isn't in the background. Examples of this would be body text, headlines, logo's, pictures and captions. Anything at all that is not part of the background.

Remember how we talked about how guillotines and book cutters don't cut every sheet in the exact position? Physically the paper reacts to the pressure applied during the cutting process. Bleed compensates for if the sheet is cut a little bigger than normal.

If the blade ends up cutting closer then formal for the final trim, your "critical content" of text, logos, and other items could end up being cut.

If the trim ends up being too close (1-2mm), then the "aesthetics" of your completed project could look as though it was cut too close after all.

The Answer? Integral content must be 5mm or more from the final trim of the products. The 'margins' should be used as guides for text and image placement. Consider this for all printed products including stationery, pamphlets, business cards, or periodicals.

If your producing a thick book, you'll need to make the distance from the spine quite a bit more than 5mm, probably more like 15-20mm. You'll also need to ensure that you have 'facing pages' settings switched on so that an odd numbered pages will have the spine on the left and even numbered pages will have the spine on the right.

You need to have 5 to 10mm minimum distances away from the edge of the paper for the right (not the spine), top, and bottom. This gives a more standardized appearance.