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Cropping And Bleed

When loading your own image layouts it is very important to understand how professional printers print to the edge of the paper. In the printing and binding process , each piece of paper can shift up to 1/4" from the previous page so you need some "extra" image to allow for cutting all pages neatly. To do this, the printer prints the image slightly larger than the end result. This extra printing, called the "trim area" or "bleed"(see image below), is then cut off. This results in full paper coverage, though a very small amout of the original image will be trimmed. The trim area for Viovio is 1/8" on all sides.

In addition to the standard trim area, we advise an extra 1/4" (6mm) bleed on all 4 edges of the picture. This is called the "caution area". This means there should not be any important visual elements (text, faces) on the outer 3/8" (1/8" trim + 1/4" caution) of your image. If your layouts go too close to the edges, make small adjustments with your local software to move elements towards the center. You can then simply "Upload Replacement Image" when editing any photo and that will not affect your image order.

Uploading Images

When you use the Viovio Book Maker to create a PDF of your gallery images it handles the trim area for you. It will scale your images the extra 1/8" on all sides automatically. This is by far the easiest path and what we recommend for all users.

IMPORTANT NOTE: please make sure you don't have anything important in the caution area.

Uploading PDF's

If you are uploading a PDF you created, beware! This method is very dicey, and full of complications. Your PDF needs to allow an extra 1/8" on each side. That is an extra 1/4" total to height and width. For example, the PDF for a 9"x7" photo book needs to be 9.25" x 7.25".

It's most important that you receive the exact book you want. We definitely don't want you disappointed if our wild and crazy printer gets a bit frisky with the trim cutter and nips the edges off your beautiful layouts.

Photo Book Size PDF Size
6x9 6.25"x9.25"
9x7 9.25"x7.25"
8.5"x11" 8.75"x11.25"
14"x11" 14.25"x11.25"



Diagram and example of what *NOT* to do...

Here is an example of an image that does not have enough trim area and the printer chops off the top of this lovely lighthouse.

trim

Diagram and example of what *TO* do...

Here is an example of an image that DOES have enough trim area and the printer will only trim the polka dot area which is exactly what the creator would like. She kept all important elements away from the outer area and bled her background area out to the edge.

8.5x8.5sample

Comments

Full Bleed

by hypnattize, Saturday 02 of February, 2008 [06:36:40 UTC]
Hi. I'm trying to create the 11"x8.5" book. I have ensured that there is a bleed of 1/8" on all sides. When I look at my PDF properties it says that the size is 11.25"x8.75" which is what has been specified in this article. When then when I finish loading the PDF, it says that my book is not big enough for full bleed and that it needs to be 11.35"? Is this to compensate for the binding? What should I do? Make the bleed more than 1/8" width wise? Thanks.

Re: Full Bleed

by connie, Wednesday 13 of February, 2008 [21:08:54 UTC]
I see, the final file size would only need to be 11.25x8.75 so you only need 1/4" on each side

Re: Full Bleed

by Sylvia W, Wednesday 13 of February, 2008 [04:09:41 UTC]
To add to that, for hardcover books the specifications say 1/4 inch bleed on all sides, so that's 1/2 inch larger both ways. But your file specifications are only 1/4 inch larger than the final size. For example: an 11*8.5 book with 1/4 inch bleed on all sides should require an 11.5*9 upload, but it is listed as 11.25*8.75. Is this a mistake?

Re: Full Bleed

by connie, Monday 11 of February, 2008 [14:21:58 UTC]
Greetings, I'm showing your book size is 11.1" x 8.5 so you really want your PDF to be 11.25x8.75 and within that you will have 1/8" bleed.

Q about cropping images

by Yulia, Wednesday 12 of December, 2007 [22:26:37 UTC]
I have designed all pages for my book but I am worry that some parts will cropped after printing. Do I have to upload my pages in PDF? May I just upload all my pages in photo gallery and then from there create the book. Is it much easier? And it will not crop my pages?

Thank you,
Yulia

Upscaling jpeg's / Tiff's

by Mark, Thursday 07 of June, 2007 [13:26:00 UTC]
Hi, I am excited by the thought of getting my crisply shot Europe images into a 8.5x 11 book.
However I shot the images on a 6.3mp SLR at a res of around 3000 x 2000 orginally in RAW format.
These have then been tweaked and JPEGd in photoshop. If I upscale the images how crisp would they
look in a 8.5 x 11 Book, when they are natively closer to 6x9? Thanks...

Re: Upscaling jpeg's / Tiff's

by Judy R., Friday 08 of June, 2007 [15:00:37 UTC]
Hi,
Every book I've done I've upscaled the photos and been really pleased with the results. I did a photo album cover and back cover where the photos were greatly enlarged. My original was less than a 4" x 6", 600 ppi, and I put it on an 11" x 14" cover. It looked great and you could still see the details - but it wasn't a super crisp photo to begin with. In my book alot of the old fashioned photos that were 2" x 3" were also enlarged alot, but they were all black and white and I used photoshop layers then overlay then a high pass filter to sharpen them. If this is a really important book to you and you eventually want to order multiple copies, I totally agree with Cathy to order a test book (I'd also get it to make sure your color profile on photoshop/monitor matches viovio's, esp. with landscapes to make sure they aren't too dark or too light). I'd also definitely get the glossy option - no question. I've been really happy with all the books I've gotten through this site. Curious to see what Connie or Christian say.
-Judith

Re: Upscaling jpeg's / Tiff's

by Cathy, Thursday 07 of June, 2007 [19:17:27 UTC]
I've been really happy with my photos from my 5MP camera (2592 x 1944). Even ones that were landscape and cropped to fit the portrait format (although on photos with a lot of lot of sky, they can tend to show a bit of noise). Do a test with a small book and see if you're happy. You won't be out too much money and it'll give you some experience on a smaller scale with the viovio interface, which can have a bit of a learning curve. You may want to go with the glossy paper since it seems to print a bit smoother than the satin. But don't expect that it'll be as glossy as a photograph--it's not.

Keep in mind that you don't have to have all the photos at full page size, either, which would leave room for comments or captions or just white space. If you've already tweaked them in Photoshop, perhaps you'd want to just full bleed the really spectacular ones (remember to account for the cropping and bleed (http://www.viovio.com/wiki/index.php?structure_id=303) and set off the others with a thin line offset from the photo by a 1/4 inch or so to frame them. I find it easier to use a page layout program to put the books together (I use Pages on my Mac, but used Powerpoint for the first one I did) because then I can pay attention to facing pages. Good luck--give it a go! There's something really sweet about holding a book of your own photos in your hand. Way better than any photo album.
-Cathy

full wrap cover

by Tania, Tuesday 15 of May, 2007 [17:57:03 UTC]
Hi,
I want to upload pdf file for 8.5x8.5 hard cover book with 24 pages (including covers).
Sizes I created: inside pages 9x9.25 (to overlap images on spread.)
What is size for full wrap cover should be? Should I crop full wrap for 2 files (front & back cover). What size?
Thanks
Tania

Re: full wrap cover

by Tessie, Thursday 19 of July, 2007 [00:43:15 UTC]
Is the full wrap cover like a dust jacket? A separate page that wraps around the actual book that can be removed?