Let It Bleed
When you create a new InDesign document, you’re given the option to create a dedicated bleed zone (Figure 11.23). In the New Document dialog, click the More Options button and you’ll see the Bleed and Slug options. Entering a value in the Bleed fields does more than just provide spiffy red bleed guides. It earmarks a special bleed area so you can easily invoke it with one click when you print or export the file.
Figure 11.23. Click the More Options button (not shown, because it’s already been clicked) and InDesign allows Bleed and Slug entries. Creating a dedicated bleed area in this manner makes it easy to invoke bleed as you print or export.
It’s important to note that InDesign makes a distinction between this official bleed area and any bleed you manually create by extending frames beyond the trim edge of the page, and this fact can bite you. During print or output, if you select Use Document Bleed Settings, InDesign looks for the dedicated bleed value entered in the Bleed options fields of document setup. If you haven’t entered values in these fields, InDesign sees a zero value and obligingly gives you zero bleed (Figure 11.24). So keep an eye on the bleed value fields; don’t just blindly click the Use Document Bleed option.
Figure 11.24. If you select Use Document Bleed Settings and see the correct value in all the Bleed fields (left), you’re in good shape. But if you see all zeroes (right), you’ll have no bleed on printed or exported output, regardless of any manual bleed you add.
If you forgot to designate the official bleed area when you created the document, you can still do so at any time by choosing File > Document Setup and then clicking the More Options button in the resulting dialog to create the bleed area. When the Use Document Bleed Settings check box is selected, you will get the desired result during output.