merging data with art file for printing

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
November 12, 2025
3 replies
93 views

This is a frustrating issue that keeps coming up between our print department and me, the designer. I am making this postcard that is 6x9 inches with a 0.125 bleed. We use two versions when we data merge the addresses on. One version is just the artwork front and back, when exported with bleed and crop marks, the dimensions are 6.583 x9.583 in because of the .083 offset that the crop marks add. The first issue that came up was that our printers didn't want the data merged file to have any printer marks on it, so I sent them the merged file at 6x9 inches, because it didn't have bleed or crop marks. This led to another problem where the printers said they could not merge the two files because they were now two different sizes. To solve this, I manually started changing the page size of the merge file to be the 6.583x9.583 dimensions so that I could export it without any print marks at the same size as the art file. This worked for a long time, but now they are telling me that they dont need the crop marks on the art file and that it is not working because once again the two files are no the same size. Am I crazy or is this standard file setup when working with printers?

Print

A

ak_1809

Participating Frequently

I dont understand why your providing 2 files with different sizes.

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Randy Hagan

Community Expert

My suspicion is that they want to be able to "float" one side of the card when they're printing.

I'm not on the press crew, but it's one thing to align color plates to get good color registration, it's sometimes quite another for a press to "hold" perfect registration. Especially from one side of a printing sheet to the other. A good way to illustrate the point would be to print something "centered" on your print sheet with crop marks on a typical office laser/inkjet printer. Then manually flip that sheet over, put it back in the tray, and print that again with crop marks on the other side of the sheet. When you put that two-sided output on a light table, the crop marks very rarely line up perfectly from one side to the other.

If the press is running the job 4/1, or CMYK on one side and just one color like Key color blacK on the other, often folks will adjust the 1-color side to fit, irrelevant of what the press offers for holding registration or what the crop marks would indicate. If that 1-color side also holds the variable data for the print job — name and address blocks, different mail indicia, customized sales content — printers have to align that variable content appropriately on the 1-color side, adding another reason to move things around until everything lines up on the 1-color side. Maybe enough that the crop marks would be inside the trim on the 1-color side. Eliminate the crop marks on the 1-color/variable data side, and there will be no evidence of the crime.

Without quality perfecting equipment, floating the 1-color/variable data side is the safest, easiest way to get everything that's supposed to be on the print job printed there. Even if the job is multi-colored on both sides, this may be the best way to work if you can get things to line up with eyeball alignment and press adjustment. It's just more difficult, and more print waste until you get everything "screwed up" until it prints correctly.

Randy

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Nick34122787msx3Author

Participant

That feels like a good explanation to me. Every time I talk with our printers, they can't really explain the issue well, and they also have no idea how InDesign sets up the file. For example, I can't just export one with crop+bleed and one with just bleed and get the same dimensions (at least I haven't been able to figure that out yet).

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

Fudging trim size of a page is not a standard practice. Both front and back should be the same trim size. If there is a bleed on front, but not back, the trim size stays the same along with consistent bleed area. A printer should not have any issue with this file supplied with crop marks or no crops.

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Randy Hagan

Community Expert

As you're discovering, it's more about the standard file setup for working with your printer.

You've reached an accommodation with your print department before, and I'm hopeful that you will be able to again. It could be as easy as asking them exactly what they need from you to get quality results, then providing it to them. Sometimes equipment upgrades/software changes will affect the rules for getting the best results from your printer, even though you've all worked out how to make it happen before. It happens.

It may require some testing, but if you work with them I'm sure you can collectively come up with a solution that works for everybody.

Hope this helps,

Randy

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