Different computer printers may render the crop marks slightly differently, even though the positioning and measurements for the crop marks are set perfectly in Microsoft Word. You can adjust the marks manually, if you really need to, with the following procedure: 1. Open the header or footer that contains the crop mark you want to adjust. Browse our collection of Word Business Card Template With Crop Marks and create a stunning design even if you’re not a designer. Free to personalize.Send your best wishes when you create your own personalized greeting cards with one of our free greeting card design templates. Brother Creative Center offers free, printable templates for Cards & Invitations. You can customize the Card. Open up any Word file, there must be four marks of right angle in every page of your document. Method 1of 3:Using a Standard Crop. Open your Microsoft Word document. Double-click the document that contains the picture you want to crop. This will open the document in Microsoft Word. Select a picture. Scroll through your document until you find the picture you want to crop, then click once the picture to select it. Margin marks or crop marks are different from text boundary marks. To turn on or turn off text boundaries, use the Text boundaries option in Microsoft Word. FWIW: these steps worked at the time of writing but (as you may know) things change with Microsoft applications, so you may have to experiment a little.
When printing your marketing materials with our local Greenfield print shop, you’ll most likely be asked to provide bleed and crop marks. If you’re outsourcing your printing, you have nothing to worry about. Your professional graphic designer will know what to do!
But if you’re choosing to do it yourself, and you’re making artwork that goes edge to edge, you need to know how to create a PDF with bleed and crop or cutting marks. Not sure how to do that? No problem! In this blog we’ll go over exactly how to create a print ready PDF.
Understanding Printing and Graphic Design Terms
The printing world has a language of its own: bleeds marks, trim marks, crop marks. What does it all mean? Before we get into the specifics of how to add marks and bleeds to your PDF, we’ll go over basic printing terminology.
Bleed Marks
If you’re creating marketing material that has a background, shape, line, or image spanning from edge to edge, you’ll want to add a bleed. The bleed area ensures that your brochure, business card, etc. doesn’t have a white edge once it’s cut. Once printed, the bleed marks will be cut off rather than the white margin ensuring that your final product has a clean finish and no weird edges.
Trim Marks or Crop Marks
The words trim marks and crop marks mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably. They’re the lines printed in the corner of your PDF that tell the printers where to cut. Marks and bleeds work cohesively to make sure colors or images go all the way to each edge of your marketing collateral. Anything past the trim mark will be cut off.
Content Area
You can think of your content area as your “safe” area! Anything within this area won’t be trimmed or cut off. This is where all of your text, branding, and content will go. Be sure to check that none of it is hanging over the crop marks!
Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-silver-imac-and-magic-keyboard-with-mouse-326508/
How Do You Add Bleed and Crop Marks?
Removing Crop Marks In Word
As a general rule of thumb, your bleed margins for printing should be 0.25” on all sides. So if you’re printing 3.5 x 2 inch business cards, your PDF should be 3.75 x 2.25 inches including the bleed and trim marks.
Adding Crops and Bleeds to a New Adobe Illustrator File
Add Crop Marks In Word
To add bleed and crop marks to a new Adobe Illustrator file, follow these steps:
- File > New…
- Set the four bleed values to 0.25”, set height and width > Create
- When done, File > Save as .ai > File > Save as .PDF
- When PDF window appears, Adobe PDF Preset > “Press Quality” > Click “Marks and Bleeds” > Check “Trim Marks” and leave other values at default > Check “Use Document Bleed Settings”
Add Crop Marks and Bleeds in an Existing Illustrator File
If you already have a file completed and are looking to add a bleed to it:
- File > Document Setup
- Set the four bleed values to 0.25”
- When done, File > Save as .ai > File > Save as .PDF
- When PDF window appears, Adobe PDF Preset > “Press Quality” > Click “Marks and Bleeds” > Check “Trim Marks” and leave other values at default > Check “Use Document Bleed Settings”
Adding Print Crop Marks and Bleed Margins to Microsoft Word
If you don’t have access to Adobe Illustrator, that’s okay. You can use Microsoft Word too! Although this option is mainly used to create eBooks. To add crop marks and bleeds to your Word file:
- File > Page Setup
- Paper Size > Manage Custom Sizes
- Click the “+” sign and name it “Edge to Edge”
- Toggle “Non-Printable Area” > “User Defined”
- Set all margin values to zero
How Do I Remove Crop and Bleeds From a PDF?
If you have a PDF with bleed margins that you want to remove, you can use Adobe Acrobat to do so. Once you open the document:
- Tools > Pages > Crop
- Drag the crop tool over the document excluding the print marks
- Double click your mouse inside the crop area to open the “Set Pages” box
- Enter new size for cropping area. If you’re happy with how it is, you don’t need to make any changes.
- Choose “Page Range” or select “All” and click “Ok”
Are Crop Marks Necessary?
If you’re creating a document that is the exact size you want it to be when it’s trimmed, you might not need to add trim marks. If your document will need to be cut, and you have any assets within your printing material the span edge to edge, adding bleed and crop marks are necessary. Otherwise, your final print might have some irregularities on the edges.
In Greenfield, IN and Looking for a Print Shop Near You?
Look no farther! If you have any questions about setting your PDF up to be printed, we can help. Davant Indy is a Greenfield Indiana printing solutions company that helps individuals and small businesses with their printing, design, mailing, signage, and promotional products.
To get in touch, give us a call at (317) 849-6565 or simply upload your file HERE.
- File > Page Setup
- Paper Size > Manage Custom Sizes
- Click the “+” sign and name it “Edge to Edge”
- Toggle “Non-Printable Area” > “User Defined”
- Set all margin values to zero
How Do I Remove Crop and Bleeds From a PDF?
If you have a PDF with bleed margins that you want to remove, you can use Adobe Acrobat to do so. Once you open the document:
- Tools > Pages > Crop
- Drag the crop tool over the document excluding the print marks
- Double click your mouse inside the crop area to open the “Set Pages” box
- Enter new size for cropping area. If you’re happy with how it is, you don’t need to make any changes.
- Choose “Page Range” or select “All” and click “Ok”
Are Crop Marks Necessary?
If you’re creating a document that is the exact size you want it to be when it’s trimmed, you might not need to add trim marks. If your document will need to be cut, and you have any assets within your printing material the span edge to edge, adding bleed and crop marks are necessary. Otherwise, your final print might have some irregularities on the edges.
In Greenfield, IN and Looking for a Print Shop Near You?
Look no farther! If you have any questions about setting your PDF up to be printed, we can help. Davant Indy is a Greenfield Indiana printing solutions company that helps individuals and small businesses with their printing, design, mailing, signage, and promotional products.
To get in touch, give us a call at (317) 849-6565 or simply upload your file HERE.
When prepping a file for platemaking (or any printing job), you may find yourself deciding between crop marks and registration marks. Not sure which one to use? We’ve put together some scenarios where you might find these tools helpful — but first, we’ll start with some definitions and distinctions between the two.
Crop Marks Or Trim Marks:
Crop marks — also called trim marks — thin lines placed at the corners of your artwork that indicate where to trim your finished project. If your paper is larger than your final cutting size, it is helpful and sometimes crucial to include them. Crop marks help the person cutting to know precisely where to cut your piece.
When might it be important to have paper that is larger than your final size rather than a pre-cut size? For presses that grip the paper, using a larger sheet and making a finish cut allows you the paper edge or space to grip and guide the paper while printing, and provides space for you to use a guide pin (which may leave a mark on the paper).
Crop marks become crucial if you are printing a bleed (which is a design that runs to the edge of the finished piece). A design with a bleed is one where the artwork extends a minimum of 1/8″ past the edge of the finished design. Extending your artwork past that point prevents a blank or unprinted area from showing up along the edges of your design.
Crop marks are added during the design stage of a project, and are an option in most design software. We’ll share tips for adding them below.
Registration Marks:
Registration marks are used when you have a piece that will have multiple applications during production. This could mean two or more letterpress ink colors, die cutting, foil stamping, or embossing. Registration marks are important for precision and placement.
A piece that is mis-registered (as shown above) will show elements that may be side by side when they should have been on top of each other. There are many different forms of registration marks, but the most common are the “crosshairs” or “target” style marks, color bars and even using the lines of crop marks.
These marks will eventually be trimmed off the final piece, and registration marks should also have crop marks added, too. Registration marks will appear on each plate that you make, and they should be aligned to overlap perfectly.
Creating Crop Marks
When creating crop marks in Adobe Illustrator there are two ways to make them:
Option One
Create crop marks in Adobe Illustrator by drawing a box using the rectangle tool (M) with no stroke or fill color the same size and position as the final trim. Using the direct selection arrow (the white arrow tool), click on the box. In your color window, turn off the stroke by clicking the red diagonal line (none).
Now click EFFECT > CROP MARKS (for all versions of Adobe Illustrator). You may also use OBJECT > CREATE TRIM MARKS (this is only available for Adobe CS6 and above). Lines will appear on each corner of the box.
With the box still selected, click OBJECT > EXPAND APPEARANCE. You can now modify your crop marks, if needed.
How To Create Crop Marks In Word For Mac Os
Option Two
Set your art board in Adobe Illustrator to the final piece size. You can set this when you click FILE > NEW and put your measurements in under length and width. If your art board is already open, select FILE > DOCUMENT SETUP > EDIT ARTBOARDS and resize if needed.
Once you are done creating the file, you can save it as a press quality PDF by going to FILE > SAVE AS > ADOBE PDF (file format).
A window will open – choose Press Quality PDF from the Adobe Presets dropdown at the top. On the left, select MARKS AND BLEEDS and click trim marks. You can also set your registration marks by clicking on the Registration Marks box. NOTE: The default trim mark thickness may be less the the required minimum line thickness for your plate type, so adjust this to be higher, if needed.
In most printing jobs, registration marks and crop marks should always be in Registration Black. That means they will show up on every color plate and will not affected by spot colors or other special markings added in design.
Feel free to contact our prepress team if you’re not sure if you need crop marks for your next plate order. They do add additional space and cost to your platemaking ticket, but may save you time and money in the long run.
