More Preflight Profiles

So far we have discussed Color, Transparency, Resolution, and Spot Colors. In this section we are going to talk about fonts and glyphs as well as trim and bleed settings.


Notice that I've only checked Font Missing and Glyph Missing and right above that, just out of the screenshot, is Overset Text. I purposefully did not check dynamic spelling (kind of a nightmare when used as a preflight profile) or anything to do with styles or types of fonts not allowed but you may want to consider these for projects. By choosing Glyph missing I am tagging something that burned me once. I used a dot leader from one type face while my copy was in another typeface and that turned into a nightmare. Glyph characters can be very useful but typically may only be one character in a string of text.

In the next section I'm going to talk about "live matter."


Notice how I've created a trim hazard 1/4 inch from the trim edge (the size of the document). InDesign defaults to a 1/2 inch margin but I find the 1/4 a more useful reminder. Nothing that must be in the final print can be outside of this line (except for full bleed images). Page numbers, inset photos, text frames, etc... all must be inside of the trim hazard or else they may lose part or all of their appendages. That being said, the bleed section, below, is just as important.


The standard bleed is 1/8 inch on the top, bottom, and outside edge of a facing pages document. It would be 1/8 inch on all 4 sides of single page documents. Any image the you want to be trimmed must be pulled out to the bleed line. Failing to do this may result in a white strip as part of your page.

When you create a new document in InDesign you create it at the size it will be trimmed to. Placing a business card on an 8.5x11 document is just crazy. If you follow rules that keep live matter 1/4 away from the trim and use 1/8 bleed you should have no problem, even if the paper shuffles a full 3/8 of an inch.

One more thing to remember is adding Printer's marks. If the offset for Printer's marks is less than the 1/8 bleed (and by default it is), then your marks could end up in your final print. Take the time to change the marks to offset at least 1/8 inch