Ceeryo

Do I need crop marks and bleed on my book's PDF?

Updated

Only if your printer asks. KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu trim by the PDF's page size and want no printer's marks, and a text-only interior needs no bleed. Offset and local printers usually ask for a CMYK PDF with crop marks outside a 3 mm (0.125 in) bleed. Ceeryo downloads both versions.

Crop marks are short lines outside each corner that show the printer where to cut. Print-on-demand platforms cut by the file's page size instead, so marks on a KDP upload are at best ignored and at worst flagged as content outside the page.

Bleed is the area past the trim that is cut away. It matters for anything printed to the edge — a full-page photo, a tinted background. A novel or a text-led nonfiction interior has nothing there, which is why KDP calls it a no-bleed interior.

An offset or local printer is different: many ask for the file in their own terms, with CMYK colour, black text on the black plate only, a PDF/X output intent, and crop marks set outside a 3 mm bleed. If yours sets their own marks, they will ask for the file at exact trim. Ask before the run; the right answer is whatever their prepress expects.

Ceeryo's result page has both: the Print PDF for KDP, and a press-ready PDF with crop and registration marks outside a 3 mm bleed, or without marks at exact trim.

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