Participant

Question

Printing a zine on a4 without bleed

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 4, 2025
4 replies
645 views

Heya guys! I urgently need help, would be deeply apprecaited!

I designed a mini zine on an a4 using indesign but every time i try to print, in a store or with the home printer i am forced to include a bleed. I know its possible to print without a bleed but you need to change x things that im unsure about. I tried with tutorials but nothing worked, im becoming very desperate and frustrated.

I have been told to print it out on an a5 and then cut the a4 size out but that adds up to too much money.

Thank you so much.

-Dre

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

What might be a simpler path is to scale the layout down to what fits within the bleed size, then trim the margins on the A4 sheet and fold.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Are you printing directly from InDesign or from a PDF created by InDesign?

If InDesign, turn off these settings:

You still won't print the entire page as most printers do not print edge-to-edge. Only a few inkjets and usually for photography purposes.

If from a PDF, you will need to crop out the bleed.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

D

Dre BarqueroAuthor

Participant

Heya big thanks, didnt work out either way, still printing out with the edge.

I did find the option to readjust my file directly on teh printer page thanks to you mentioning the photography fact, im still having trouble but im one step closer. Might have to print it out on a bigger piece of paper and tehn cut it, but the whole point of a zine is for it to be cheap and to not waste that much paper/ ink.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

Are you sure the bleed wasn't built into the pagelayout? If it was, it's probably on the parent pages.

You can message me--I'll give you my email and perhaps I can take a look at your file.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

Joel Cherney

Community Expert

"Forced to include a bleed"

I'm not 100% certain that I understand what you are asking, but I'm pretty confident in my guess. Your zine features artwork that is meant to go right to the edge of the paper, right? But pretty much every printer on the planet, as far as printers available to consumers, has a small border around the edge of the paper that the print head can't get to. It's where the print path grips the paper. So what we do is we print on larger paper, with bleed marks, and then trim. The word "bleed" refers to ink that is printed beyond the edge of the page, which is why you're being told to print on A5 and trim.

The exception to my "every printer on the planet" statement, as far as printers that you're going to find in your home or at the store (what kind of store are we talking about, here?) is that some photo printers can do what is called "edge to edge printing." They can typically only do it on specific paper sizes, and A4 is typically not one of those sizes. In my experience, it's usually a separate 4" x 6" tray. It's possible to find instructions on the Internet like these, but honestly I wonder if those instructions are AI slop. I don't know what printer makes and models currently offer borderless printing, so I can't judge. But I have a hunch.

So: makes and models! If you can tell us about your your home printer (e.g. manufacturer and model name), or the printer at the store, I'm sure that we could figure out whether or not it offered borderless printing. My money is on "no" but, like I said at the beginning of my post, that's a guess.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

The printer has to be capable of edge to edge printing. Not many are except in a photo mode. Cut down is the standard approach.

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