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Questions about hi-res PDF creation for MagCloud.
Hi all,
These are questions related to publishing on MagCloud.
I'm not familiar with the print production process and its jargon.
My questions are about such terms (found on the MagCloud site), and about alternatives to Adobe InDesign; please refer to the information given here (after you sign in as a publisher):
http://magcloud.com/publish
Under step 2: "Make a PDF".
Q1: Under "PDF Specs:":
>Additional bleed: 0.125′′ on top and bottom edges, 0.25′′ on the outside edge, no bleed on the inside edge
I googled "bleed" and found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleed_(printing)
Read the article there (but not the links at the end of it - yet; will be reading those).
But the info there is somewhat confusing, as it mentions several things. Specifically in the context of MagCloud, what exactly is bleed?
Q2:
>Pages: Save as multi-page PDF, no spreads
What are "spreads"?
Q3. Can any alternatives to Adobe InDesign be used to create PDFs for MagCloud? For example, can Scribus be used - http://www.scribus.net ?
Q4. I saw somewhere else on the MagCloud site that it requires hi-res PDFs. What exactly are the specs of a hi-res PDF - is it a certain number of dots per inch or something else?
Q5. Any recommended resources (sites) to get more of an overview of print production topics and terms?
Thanks for all answers,
Vasudev Ram
www.dancingbison.com
These are questions related to publishing on MagCloud.
I'm not familiar with the print production process and its jargon.
My questions are about such terms (found on the MagCloud site), and about alternatives to Adobe InDesign; please refer to the information given here (after you sign in as a publisher):
http://magcloud.com/publish
Under step 2: "Make a PDF".
Q1: Under "PDF Specs:":
>Additional bleed: 0.125′′ on top and bottom edges, 0.25′′ on the outside edge, no bleed on the inside edge
I googled "bleed" and found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleed_(printing)
Read the article there (but not the links at the end of it - yet; will be reading those).
But the info there is somewhat confusing, as it mentions several things. Specifically in the context of MagCloud, what exactly is bleed?
Q2:
>Pages: Save as multi-page PDF, no spreads
What are "spreads"?
Q3. Can any alternatives to Adobe InDesign be used to create PDFs for MagCloud? For example, can Scribus be used - http://www.scribus.net ?
Q4. I saw somewhere else on the MagCloud site that it requires hi-res PDFs. What exactly are the specs of a hi-res PDF - is it a certain number of dots per inch or something else?
Q5. Any recommended resources (sites) to get more of an overview of print production topics and terms?
Thanks for all answers,
Vasudev Ram
www.dancingbison.com
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The best answer from the company
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Great questions! Hope I can answer them here, and we'll also work to get the info onto the site for others.
- Bleed: The physical page is defined by the trim size, which for MagCloud is currently 8.25"x10.75" (yes, we print on larger sheets and trim to the final size). Bleeding your content is the process of extending it *beyond* the trim, so that when it is trimmed you are guaranteed that the content will extend all the way to the edge. The bleed margins are the widths of the bleed on each edge of the page. On MagCloud the inside edge has no bleed since there is no trimming; there is 0.25" bleed on the outside edge, and 0.125" bleed on top and bottom. You should design your page so that if the trim occurred anywhere within the bleed margin, your content would look ok.
Check the Publisher Guide (link to the PDF is on the Help page) for a diagram. You will see we have also indicated a "live area" that is smaller than the trim size. In general it is recommended to keep non-bleeding content within the live area, but ultimately that is a design choice.
- Spreads: A spread is a pair of facing pages, side by side. The front and back covers have just one page in their corresponding spreads. We display spreads in the issue previewer (click through to an issue's page and then click on the cover image, or the "Show a Preview" link).
- Alternatives to InDesign?Yes! The catch is that all applications author PDF somewhat differently, thus it is a challenge for us to support them all immediately. The intent of our publishers guide is to provide enough information so that any PDF-generating application can be used successfully.
We are testing Scribus right now and have one minor (we hope) problem left to fix. A number of people use Photoshop, and others use PDF converters from Microsoft Word or other applications. We're even waiting to see what people can do with Google Docs.
- High-res images: We recommend 300 dots per inch resolution for images, compressed using standard JPEG at medium to high (but not highest) quality setting. 300dpi images are necessary to take advantage of the high resolution of the printing presses. It is not a production requirement, but if you don't know the implications of 300dpi vs 100dpi in print, you almost always want 300dpi. 100dpi images should be the exception, used for stylistic effect or because the content is important but not available in high resolution form.
- Any recommended resources? We'll continue to add information like this to the site and our publishers guide. I hope MagCloud users can add their favorite references here.
The company and 2 other people say
this answers the question
- Bleed: The physical page is defined by the trim size, which for MagCloud is currently 8.25"x10.75" (yes, we print on larger sheets and trim to the final size). Bleeding your content is the process of extending it *beyond* the trim, so that when it is trimmed you are guaranteed that the content will extend all the way to the edge. The bleed margins are the widths of the bleed on each edge of the page. On MagCloud the inside edge has no bleed since there is no trimming; there is 0.25" bleed on the outside edge, and 0.125" bleed on top and bottom. You should design your page so that if the trim occurred anywhere within the bleed margin, your content would look ok.
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Inappropriate?Great questions! Hope I can answer them here, and we'll also work to get the info onto the site for others.
- Bleed: The physical page is defined by the trim size, which for MagCloud is currently 8.25"x10.75" (yes, we print on larger sheets and trim to the final size). Bleeding your content is the process of extending it *beyond* the trim, so that when it is trimmed you are guaranteed that the content will extend all the way to the edge. The bleed margins are the widths of the bleed on each edge of the page. On MagCloud the inside edge has no bleed since there is no trimming; there is 0.25" bleed on the outside edge, and 0.125" bleed on top and bottom. You should design your page so that if the trim occurred anywhere within the bleed margin, your content would look ok.
Check the Publisher Guide (link to the PDF is on the Help page) for a diagram. You will see we have also indicated a "live area" that is smaller than the trim size. In general it is recommended to keep non-bleeding content within the live area, but ultimately that is a design choice.
- Spreads: A spread is a pair of facing pages, side by side. The front and back covers have just one page in their corresponding spreads. We display spreads in the issue previewer (click through to an issue's page and then click on the cover image, or the "Show a Preview" link).
- Alternatives to InDesign?Yes! The catch is that all applications author PDF somewhat differently, thus it is a challenge for us to support them all immediately. The intent of our publishers guide is to provide enough information so that any PDF-generating application can be used successfully.
We are testing Scribus right now and have one minor (we hope) problem left to fix. A number of people use Photoshop, and others use PDF converters from Microsoft Word or other applications. We're even waiting to see what people can do with Google Docs.
- High-res images: We recommend 300 dots per inch resolution for images, compressed using standard JPEG at medium to high (but not highest) quality setting. 300dpi images are necessary to take advantage of the high resolution of the printing presses. It is not a production requirement, but if you don't know the implications of 300dpi vs 100dpi in print, you almost always want 300dpi. 100dpi images should be the exception, used for stylistic effect or because the content is important but not available in high resolution form.
- Any recommended resources? We'll continue to add information like this to the site and our publishers guide. I hope MagCloud users can add their favorite references here.
The company and 2 other people say
this answers the question
- Bleed: The physical page is defined by the trim size, which for MagCloud is currently 8.25"x10.75" (yes, we print on larger sheets and trim to the final size). Bleeding your content is the process of extending it *beyond* the trim, so that when it is trimmed you are guaranteed that the content will extend all the way to the edge. The bleed margins are the widths of the bleed on each edge of the page. On MagCloud the inside edge has no bleed since there is no trimming; there is 0.25" bleed on the outside edge, and 0.125" bleed on top and bottom. You should design your page so that if the trim occurred anywhere within the bleed margin, your content would look ok.
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Inappropriate?Thanks for the prompt reply, Andy!
Comments on your answers:
Bleed: Got it with right brain, but will try to get it with left brain too :) to make sure.
Spreads: seems fine, will try what you said.
Alternatives to InDesign: sounds good, will try Scribus to start with.
High-res: so the "high-res" refers only to the resolution of images? if so, no problem. -
Inappropriate?Yes, the high-res refers only to images. Re: Scribus and other apps, we now think that will work ok, but please limit images to standard JPEG encoding (no ZIP/Flate or JPEG 2000 encodings for now).
1 person says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?>Yes, the high-res refers only to images. Re: Scribus and other apps, we now think that will work ok, but please limit images to standard JPEG encoding (no ZIP/Flate or JPEG 2000 encodings for now).
Thanks again for the answers. All my questions are answered as of now. -
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