Page Size, Margins, Bleed & Safe

Customize your page dimensions and margins in the Settings tab. Keep in mind that you can always change your Settings at any time, and your project will resize to fit the new dimensions.

Important: when entering custom dimensions for a printing service provider's product, please consult your printing service directly to determine their exact specifications. 

There are three types of guidelines - Margins, Safe Inset, and Bleed Inflate.

Default Margins

Margins are custom guidelines that indicate the exact area of your design region. Use margins to create negative space (padding) around your composition, giving your composition a more dramatic visual impact. Margins are set separately to the top, bottom, left and right sides of the page.

Note: You can custom adjust your margins while editing your page by dragging on the margin tabs on the ruler's edge.

Printable

The printable area is defined by your printing company's requirements. These include the type, size and number of pages allowed.

Page size: Specify the finished (trimmed) size of a sheet. You can also specify the units of measure. 

Note: changing from inches to centimetres will not recalculate the current settings to the new measurement (eg; 10 inches will not be converted to 25.4 centimeters; your project will convert to 10 centimeters.)

Safe zone: A safe inset is a guideline to indicate the maximum area where "meaningful" content on your page will not be cut off during the printing and binding process.  As designated by your printing service, enter the safe inset values for your page.

Bleed zone:  A bleed inflate slightly increases the size of your page so that any background color or photos extend past the edge of the page. This guarantees that there will not be any unprinted paper around the edge of your trimmed page. 

As designated by your printing service, enter the bleed inflate values for your page.

Move to the Index tab after setting your page size to import your portraits and database.