Eighth Inch Bleed

Community Diary: one narrow print question at a time

Short, dated notes from Eighth Inch Bleed. Each takes one point that catches people out on a real job, names the source of its figure, and ends with a step you can take before you ask anyone for a quote.

Why each note answers only one question

We keep this diary for the questions that fall between the larger pages on this site. Choosing a print process is worked through on Resources, setting up a press-ready file is on The Record, and choosing who prints the job is on Community Faq. What is left are the narrow points that trip people up, such as a file saved in the wrong colour mode or a mailpiece that is priced differently because one measurement is slightly out. Each note stands alone, so read the one you need and leave the rest.

A note gives a figure only where its source states it, names that source beside the figure and links to it. If a number is not in a source we have read, it is not in the note. The date on each note is the day it was published, and none of them describes an event, a visit or a job.

A note earns its place only if it answers one question a reader actually has, and then stops.

Eighth Inch Bleed
Close-up of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink cartridges in a desk printer
The four cartridges are the CMYK set, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, shown in a desk printer rather than on a press.

A screen colour is not a print colour

Press printing builds its colours from four process inks, which is the CMYK model. Screens work the other way and build colour from red, green and blue light, so artwork made for a monitor shifts when it is converted for print. UVU's guide to setting up print files states the difference directly, and it is the first thing worth checking in a file.

Before you export, set the document to CMYK and look hardest at the colours the job depends on, such as a logo or a brand colour, because the view on a screen is not the view on paper.

A print specialist in an apron checking colour swatches against a printed sheet at a counter
The check is made on the printed sheet, not on the quote. A mailpiece deserves the same check against its limits.

An oversize mailer is a flat, and a flat has a ceiling

Oversize brochures, catalogues and large postcards that go through the mail as flats may not be more than 15 inches long, 12 inches high or three quarters of an inch thick. Anything larger is a parcel, which is a different service with different rules.

Measure the finished piece against those three figures before the run is approved, not after it has been posted. The limits come from the USPS design standards for commercial letters, flats and parcels, section 4.1.

Checking a postcard, then a letter, before you order

Is it a postcard? Check the card band first

Postcard rates apply to a card inside a narrow band. The smallest card that qualifies is 3.5 by 5 inches and 0.007 inch thick, and the largest is 4.25 by 6 inches and 0.016 inch thick. A card larger than that is priced as a letter or a flat. The limits are set out in the Postal Explorer postcard dimensions section, 6.2.2.

Step: write the finished height, length and thickness on the proof, and check that set of three against the band before you order stock, because the stock sets the thickness.

Is it a letter? Check the length, height and ratio

A letter-size mailpiece must be at least 5 inches long, 3.5 inches high and 0.007 inch thick, and no more than 11.5 inches long, 6.125 inches high and a quarter inch thick. It must also sit at a length to height ratio between 1.3 and 2.5, and a piece more than 4.25 inches high or 6 inches long needs a minimum thickness of 0.009 inch. These are the same USPS design standards cited above.

Step: divide the length by the height. If the answer falls outside 1.3 to 2.5, change the proportions before the run is printed.