Print to edge of paper

[_Feote_]

I have forgotten how to make a page print all the way to the edge of the paper, and I cannot remember what that effect is named. Thus, I can't find an answer in the FAQ's. Thank you for any help.

[Michael_Gianino]

"Bleed" is when you print to a page size that is larger than your finished piece with trim marks indicating the trim size, and is printed so that the image extends beyond the trim marks. When trimmed through the excess image, the remaining image extends all the way to one or more of the edges.

Is that what you were thinking of?

[CO73]

I am trying to create two identical cards with a blue boarder around the entire 4.25" x 10.75" cards so the only cut the printer will need to make is down the middle. There are two of these cards on 8.5" x 11" paper. When I create  PDF of the document it looks fine, but when I sent it to the printer he said there is a ton of white space around the top, bottom and each edge. I have messed with this thing so much I am frustrated, I want to start over. What should my document presets be for this project?

[_Jeffrey_Smith_]

A lot of Inkjet printers can print to the edge and the term "Borderless" is possibly used in the print driver options.

[Mary K. Corp]

I am okay to live in bewilderment at this time.  I am using Adobe Illustrator to make cards and I was not able to print to the edge.  I followed instructions in the Illustrator program with bleed in trim.  My Canon printer will print photos but not to the edge from Illulstrator so far. 

[BobLevine]

This is an InDesign forum and you just hijacked a 13 year old thread. Please post your question in the Illustrator forum.

[_Feote_]

Bleed, that was it Michael. Thank you. I cannot seem to get the bleed set to print to the edges of the page. InDesign document setup doesn't allow for a minus number for bleed. Any suggestions?

[Michael_Gianino]

You want to use a positive number. The larger the number, the farther out past the trim area the bleed will extend. If you could use a negative number, I suppose it would contract the image onto the page, and you would get blank paper at the edges instead of image.

Are your crop marks on, and is the page you are printing to large enough to hold the page plus the trim marks and bleed?

[_Feote_]

I'm not having success, Michael. Using positive numbers for bleed increased the white border area. I went back to zero, the scaled the grouped images up 3%, and just chopped peoples heads off. When I go back to the document default (saved) I get a 3/8 border of white paper all the way around. i do thank you, sir, but I think I will put it away for the weekend. have a good one!

[Mr. Met]

If you create a new document, you have the option of setting bleed. .125 is commercial standard for majority of offset print jobs though some printers prefer .25 bleed. Critical information, like text, may need to be .125 from the edge of the sheet. This area is your safety and you set this in margins. So when you make a new doc with defined safety and bleed, you should see 3 boxes: Black for the actual page, an outer red box indicating bleed area and inner red or magenta box indicating safety.

[Michael_Gianino]

Can you post a screenshot of your page? Make sure the guides are on so we can see everything

[BobLevine]

If you are truly trying to print to the edge of the paper you need a
printer capable of borderless printing.

If you don't see that setting in the printer software then it can't be done.

Bob

[Mr. Met]

Other than photo printers, no laser, digital or offset printer can print edge to edge. No such thing as borderless printing in commercial printing. <br /> <br />Here's a brief explanation of what bleed is. The middle image has trim marks. Everything outside the trim marks gets trimmed (cut off) leaving a finished bus cd (bottom image) that has art to the "edge" of the card. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1v3uESkVXBNq9AQhXGEF1oZZvhUoA" /></a> <img alt="Picture hosted by Pixentral" src="http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1v3uESkVXBNq9AQhXGEF1oZZvhUoA_thumb.jpg" border="0" />

[RodneyA]

Actually, my old Xerox "Phaser" laser printer could print to the edge of the page -- or impressively close, anyway. But if that's what the original poster meant, it's printer specific and you need to go into the Page Setup dialog (ignoring Indesign's warnings) and look in the "printer features" pages for an "edge to edge" printing option. Xerox's logic in not making that on by default escapes me. Why would anyone would want an artificial margin when the printer is capable of edge to edge?

[Dov Isaacs]

One of the reasons why most digital printers either don't provide full edge-to-edge printing or if they have it, don't by default enable it, is the problem of bleed. In traditional offset printing, you handle edge-to-edge by printing to paper larger than your logical page size and trimming the excess off. That way, you don't have ink slopping off the edges on the press. But most laser printers and their users don't user such oversize papers and don't cut all output to final logical page sizes. (That option is often available, though, on B-size laser printers that accept 12x18 paper that can be used to print edge-to-edge - i.e. bleeds - for output to be cut to 11x17. Similarly, 9x12 paper could be used on such printers to bleed 8.5x11.)

- Dov

[_Feote_]

Thanks to everyone. It turns out that my printer lacks edge to edge capability. I was able to print a normal copy, then scan and copy it at 107%. That filled the page, but the picture quality suffered. I have reached the "acceptance" stage;-) In an effort to single handedly jump start the economy I will purchase a printer that will do edge to edge jobs. Thank you all very much for the comments.

[Gast]

>In traditional offset printing, you handle edge-to-edge by printing to paper larger than your logical page size and trimming the excess off. That way, you don't have ink slopping off the edges on the press.

This is a good point to keep in mind. If you do very much Borderless printing you will be spraying past the edge of the paper causing buildup on your rollers that can cause ink blotches and globs after a time. You would be better off getting a printer that will take an oversize sheet and trim it.

[Vernox]

I've had a couple of Xerox laser printers over the years that would print edge to edge, but it was always more trouble than it was worth, due to toner buildup on the rollers. When we had to do it, we always had to open them up, wipe off the rolls and run a few blank sheets to clean the internals.

Yours
Vern

[Kath-H]

We use a Konica-Minolta Bizhub that takes paper up to 311mm wide (no idea what that is in American) and allows for crops & bleeds on A3. The only sensible way to do it IMO.

[Michael_Gianino]

>311mm wide (no idea what that is in American)

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