OT: A3 page size + bleed area = ?

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Hector Pascal
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Post by Hector Pascal » Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:40 am

Hi all,

Sorry that this is a little off-topic, but....

I just wanted to mention that I am trying to make a cover for a score. If this is no interest to you, don't read on...

So, first I made a finale score into a booklet. I used wiggy's pdf booklet-making application to make it. My first attempt worked very well. I printed the booklet onto A3 sheets, then I folded them, then I saddlestitched (staple) them with a long staple, then I trimmed it all.

For my next trick, I am trying to design a full colour cover to be used with the above booklet making activity. My priority is to have a colour printed cover with no white margin. So, I am experimenting with Scribus (open source) design software. So far, I have set my document to A3, then set the margin and bleed to be 0.124in (that's what my local print shop suggests on its website). I set the colour to be CMYK. I entered the required text, colour etc to make a quick test score cover, then exported it as a PDF in the necessary version (PDF1.5). The PDF inspector says that the outputted PDF's page size is 44.05cm x 31.75cm. So far so good.... because A3 size is 42cm x 29.7cm, so this extra amount will be what gets trimmed off eventually....

I plan to speak to the print shop person in a few days. Anyone on the forum with helpful hints? In the meantime, I will continue on with my experimenting....

Cheers,
Hector.


BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Sun Nov 11, 2018 10:19 am

Welcome to the exciting world of print production! :D Have you included crop marks in your PDF?

Bleed is usually around 3mm, because you can only rely on a printer trimming to within 1.5mm of your intended mark. :roll:

If you've already got an A3 printer, it will be considerably cheaper to find some coloured A3 card and print a mono design on top. Big printers usually have a "pass-through" flatter path for thick card that doesn't take it round the rollers.

Glad the booklet maker worked for you.

Hector Pascal
Posts: 432
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:43 pm
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Post by Hector Pascal » Mon Nov 12, 2018 3:07 am

Hi Buontempi,
Yes, I am discovering print production is an exciting world!

I have ticked boxes in Scribus to allow for crop marks in the pdf, as well as bleed marks, registration marks, colour bars and page info...

What I have saved on not using subscription-based design software I plan to spend on colour printing covers for my scores. I will keep the coloured A3 card stock in mind for when I hit my budget limit... I am yet to locate A3 coloured glossy card stock, but it must be out there somewhere.

Thanks, too, for the booklet making software. It was quite an exciting thing when I saw the first Finale score booklet produced as if by magic, complete with creep and everything. I need some more time to fully understand all of its settings.

In other news, I am also on the lookout for an open source equivalent to Photoshop, as I think an upgrade to Mojave is probably going to finally break my antique PS Elements.

Best wishes and thanks,
Hector.

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OCTO
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Post by OCTO » Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:39 am

I think that you do everything correctly. The printer will stop if anything is wrong.
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Mon Nov 12, 2018 9:38 am

Hector Pascal wrote:What I have saved on not using subscription-based design software
In other news, I am also on the lookout for an open source equivalent to Photoshop,
Not free, though very cheap, and an excellent professional alternative to Photoshop is Affinity Photo. There's also Affinity Design, which is a similarly excellent professional alternative to Illustrator. And they have Affinity Publisher in Beta, soon to be released.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/

The leading open source free Photo package is called GIMP. The vector drawing package is Inkscape.

Do send me an email if you need any help with the booklet script.

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OCTO
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Post by OCTO » Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:34 pm

Scribus, InkScape, GIMP – In my opinion very good alternatives.
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Hector Pascal
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Post by Hector Pascal » Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:44 pm

Thanks, everyone! These applications that you mention are very interesting. I will investigate them all.
I also have my ISMNs ready to go, and am entertaining the thought of using a barcode with the score ISMNs, though i am yet to settle on a particular program to produce that. (This is an interesting website regarding barcode generation:
https://www.online-qrcode-generator.com/ismn It is another source of some excitement in between composing dots:)
Cheers,
Hector Pascal.

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