Understanding the measurements in a print publication’s media kit
At Babski Creative Studios, we work with clients to design print projects of all kinds, including magazines and publications that include advertising. This means we are often in communication with advertisers about their press-ready artwork. Sometimes they need help understanding how to work with the measurements listed in a publication’s media kit, such as Live Area, Trim Size and Bleed, as well as Gutters, Margins and Slug (Fig. 1). In this article we are going to break it all down for you.
Let’s examine the dimensions listed in a sample magazine media kit (Fig. 2).
In our sample, you can see the publication has a Trim Size of 8.5” x 11”, a Bleed size of 8.75” x 11.25”, and a Live Area of 8” x 10.5”. (NOTE: For the purposes of these blog posts, measurements are usually given in inches, but you might see a media kit that uses millimeters or picas for print ads, or pixels for digital ads.) So, what do the terms mean?
Trim Size
The Trim Size is the final size to which the printer will trim the finished page. Keep in mind that an 8.5” x 11” magazine starts life as a larger sheet of paper on a printer’s press. If you are designing an ad, the Trim Size is what you will set the page size to in your design software, such as Adobe InDesign (Fig. 3).
Live Area
When a magazine page is printed on a larger sheet of paper, there can be a little wiggle and give on those big press machines. When designing your ad, you need to make sure nothing important (like your website address in the bottom corner) is accidentally chopped off. This is where Live Area comes in. Live Area is just a guideline to help you keep all important text and information inside the printer’s “safe zone.” So, when you are designing that ad, while your background can go all the way to the edge, your text and important graphics (such as logos) need to stay within the Live Area.
Margins
In addition to the practical need for keeping your information safe from the trim edge, Live Area and Margins work to help balance the design. It’s generally more pleasing to the eye if your design allows for breathing room between text and the edge of the page.
A Margin is the zone of no-text around the border of a page. Sometimes the margin coincides with the borders of the Live Area, and sometimes it is wider if you want more of that breathing room we mentioned above. Margins can contain graphic backgrounds, as in the case of full bleed ads, or they can be blank paper, in the case of a page of text. Our example ad here has a .25” margin all around.
Bleed
Remember how our magazine page is trimmed down from a larger sheet of paper? If you want your ad to have a background that extends all the way to the trim edge, you’ve got to allow for Bleed. This is usually an additional .125” of background that extends past the Trim Size all around, and which is intended to be cut off. The large press machines printing your magazine are usually quite accurate when it comes to trimming where the designer specifies, but there’s always a little give. Including that extra background will make sure you don’t see any blank paper along the edge of your finished page, so your finished project looks clean and professional.
If your project does not allow for bleed, such as an ad smaller than full-page, you do not need to include bleed in the finished artwork file (most often a PDF file). Including bleed will never hurt, so when in doubt, add it. In the case of a publication which does not print with full bleed, such as many book interiors or newsletters, be sure none of your design elements extend to the edge of your page but stay within the minimum margins.
Slug
Slug is a measurement you will not usually see in a media kit, but you may notice it in the settings for your page when you are working with design software such as Adobe InDesign (Fig. 3). Most often, you can safely ignore the Slug settings, because slug will be automatically added (to accommodate your crop marks for example) when you output a final PDF. Slug (in print design lingo, not the same as the slug in terms of website URLs) is the area outside the trim and bleed size which will be included in your PDF, but not visible in the final printed page (Fig. 4). In the slug you can choose to include optional information for your printer to see, such as your logo, notes or contact information. The slug zone typically includes crop marks, printer registration marks, color bars and/or the name of the file. You can choose to specify the amount of space in this zone, but if you add additional slug, you will need to check the box to include it in your final PDF output (Fig. 5), along with the other printer marks you wish to include.
Gutters
No one wants to be in the gutter! Least of all your advertising text. This is a term that most often you won’t need to worry about unless you are designing a centerspread magazine ad or double-truck (a pair of facing pages). The gutter is the interior margin of a publication, along the spine. For our example magazine, a centerspread or double-truck ad would be twice the full-page size (17” x 11”). You might be tempted to plaster your text all across this space, but if you do, the middle text (where the publication’s spine will be) might get lost in the fold, especially in a perfect-bound publication. Treat the gutter just like you do the margin space outside of the Live Area. Feel free to include backgrounds and photos that span the gutter, but make sure your text stays clear (Fig. 6).
Finalizing for Press
Once you’ve designed your ad with all the above parameters in mind, be sure your finished artwork preserves that information when you create the final press-ready file. If you are creating a PDF, be sure your bleed is included in the output specifications of your design software (Fig. 5). Crop marks are useful but not always necessary, as long as the appropriate bleed is included in your final file. Color format is a complicated topic for another article, but for our example magazine ad, you’d want your output format to be CMYK, or whatever the media kit will specify. Adobe Acrobat has a useful tool called “Output Preview” which allows you to view color separations to ensure your colors will print the way you intend. Another useful tip for Acrobat users: when you want to check the size of your ad to make sure your bleed was included, just open the PDF in Acrobat, and move your mouse over to the bottom left corner of your computer screen. If you hover there, the measurements of the page will appear. If you’ve included crop marks, the slug (all that blank area around the crop marks) will be included in the measurements, so don’t let that throw you off, but this is a good quick way to check to see if your page size outputted correctly.
Well, that’s it. Easy, right? If you have questions we didn’t cover here, just reach out to us and we’ll be happy to help. Thank you for reading!