Bleeds? Who’s going to bleed?

Flickr: Thomas Hawk

With the fall conference season coming up, it’s printing time at many nonprofits. Here at the National Council, we just received our snazzy new pocket folders for our Member Meeting next week (and now we get to stuff them!).

If you’re a newly-minted communications pro–or the colleague in charge of print ordering is on vacation–you may need a cheat sheet to figure out what info the printer needs. Here are some common printing terms to use in your order forms or in frantic, drop-deadline phone calls.

Bleeds: when the ink on the page goes all the way to the very edge. Printers need your design file set up a certain way so they can make sure the ink reaches the edge of the page. On your order form, specify “with bleeds,” “partial bleeds,” or “no bleeds.”

CMYK: stands for cyan (that means blue), magenta (that’s red), yellow, black. Also known as four-color process or full-color, this means you get all the colors in your printing (usually more expensive than two-color or black only).

Design file: the electronic file containing the design for your project. Usually done in a program such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PageMaker, or Quark. All of these programs have settings that show the printer the little nitpicky things they need to do the job right.

Finish size: the measurements of a project when it’s folded however you want it folded. A flyer made out of a regular sheet of paper and then folded in half could have a finish size of 8.5”x5.5” (the 8.5” side and half of the 11” side).

Flat size: the measurements of a project when it’s unfolded. A brochure that starts out as an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper before being folded would have a flat size of 8.5”x11”. Also called trim size.

Folds: there’s a whole zoo of fold types. Some common ones are the half (or simple) fold, letter fold, and French fold. I’ll defer to my favorite online cheat sheet for the details.

PMS: Pantone Matching System. This is an industry-wide standard system of colors. If you want the colors of your project to be exactly the same as your logo or other branding, find out what PMS colors they are (your organization’s style guide should include this). For example, one of our logo colors is PMS 326, which is a very weird teal that would be impossible to match without knowing that number.

Proof: the mockup of your project that the printer will send you to make sure it looks the way you want. One proof is usually free. If you find a typo or something you want changed, some printers will charge you to send an additional proof, so just make sure to ask how much before you add that comma you forgot the first time.

Stock: the paper your project will be printed on. It’s hard to know what different stocks look and feel like without having them in front of you, but many printers will send samples for free if you ask. Some heavier papers don’t fold well, so ask your printer for a recommendation if you’re not sure.

Last year I was lucky enough to have a customer service rep from a printing company sit in my office to explain many of these things to me…and then give me cheat sheets and guides galore. So when in doubt, don’t guess; call the printer and ask!

Did I leave out any must-know terms? Share them in the comments section.