1. Full Bleed Size
5.5 inches wide
x 7.75 inches high
These are the dimensions that the page files you send to us MUST be.
If you look at the graphic to the right, Full Bleed Size is the
ENTIRE page ... the open area in the middle, as well as the areas overlaid with yellow and red. (Don't worry
we'll exlain what the colors mean in just a second).
2. Trimmed Size
5 inches wide x 7.5 inches high
This is the size that your comic will be after it has been printed and trimmed. The red
areas (The Bleed Areas) in the graphic to the right (one eighth of an inch --0.125 inches -- on
top and bottom and one quarter of an inch --0.25 inches-- on the right and the left) have been trimmed away, leaving only the clear area in the middle and the yellow
area. This is what we mean by Trimmed Size.
All artwork and any balloons, captions, or sound f/x within the red area WILL be trimmed away
and never seen by your readers. (The staple-side edges of the page are trimmed away digitally
during our imposition of the pages into a print ready document.)
So if you have relevant text, captions, balloons, or really important artwork in the red area --
you must move it inward or it will be lost.
3. Live Area and Margins
4.5 inches wide x 6.25 inches high
The yellow areas are the margins and the clear area in the center of the page is the Live Area. This is
the safe zone. The live area is the part of the page to the right that is
NOT overlaid with a color. All relevant text, captions, and balloons should be contained in
this area or as close to it as possible in order to avoid any danger of being trimmed away.
Any text, captions, balloons, etc.
that are in the margins (the yellow area) should be moved into the Live Area if possible.
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To help you better understand the differences between the Bleed, the Trim, and the Live area, and
to help you quickly and easily check if your pages are properly conforming to those areas, we've built
a simple color-coded PSD template. You can download it by clicking the button below.
To use the template, simply ...
1. Open it in Photoshop
2. Also in Photoshop open a page file from your comic
3. Double check that your page file is properly sized (5.5W x 7.75H)
4. Select and Copy the template
5. Paste the template on top of your page file
6. Adjust the opacity of the template layer down to about 60%
You should now be able to see quite easily where the Live, Trim, and Bleed Areas of your page are.
If you have important parts of your page in the yellow or (especially) in the red, you should move
them inward towards the Live area.
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