Do I need a gutter bleed for full page illustrations?

[biggeek]

Hi there, I'm an illustrator compiling a picture book for the first time, using InDesign (for the first time).

I have created my master pages including margins and bleeds. This works fine for full spread illustrations but also need to layout a vignette on one page and a full bleed illustration on the facing page.

Some posts say to ignore the bleed and just crop at the gutter. Is this correct or should i separate the page and give it a bleed edge on the gutter side?

Thanks in advance

Dan

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

It depends upon how your final piece will be bound. Wire-bound or single-page printed will require gutter bleed; saddle-stitch or perfect-bound will not. 

[biggeek]

Thank you for the speedy reply! I hadnt really thought about that aspect and with this in mind, i'll go back to the author/commissioner and see what she has in mind. I guess it will be a fairly easy tweak once i know, as i'm creating all the illustartions with bleed, just in case.

[John Mensinger · Accepted solution]

Ultimately, it will depend on the binding method and possibly the page's location in the imposed book.If the page will be trimmed on that edge, as it would in mechanical binding or some 'perfect' binding methods, then you need bleed. If the page will be part of a two-page, printed spread, as it would in saddle-stitching, crop to the gutter.

[biggeek]

Thank you too for answering the question so quickly! This has been very helpful and I'll take this information to the commissioning party and the printing company.

[biggeek]

If i were to add a bleed along the gutter, do i separate the page from the facing page and show it or just presume that because the inside bleed is set within the Document Setup that the information will be there for the print setup?

[rob day · Accepted solution]

Ask the printer, not the author. With most binding methods any inside bleed will be removed in the page imposition—the signatures are going to be folded and gathered. Some printers might want an inside bleed for the creep amount caused by the folding, but the content of the inside bleed would not matter because by definition it is hidden in the binding.

[biggeek]

Thank you Rob! I'll see what they say and post an update when i know. Hopefully it will help others too.