The article explains design guidelines for book covers and pages, emphasizing the bleed area for edge-to-edge printing, the safety area 5 mm inside edges to avoid cutting important elements, and spine design with correct width and minimum 2 mm text margin. It also offers ICC profiles for softproofing photos on Coffee Table Book paper and provides a tutorial for using Affinity Publisher for bleed and safety areas.
BLEED AREA
Please pay attention to the bleed area when designing. It lies on the outer edges of the cover or inner pages. Any elements that should reach the edge of the page must be placed entirely within the bleed area. This area is trimmed (inner pages) or folded (cover) during production and is subject to standard production tolerances. The bleed area ensures that no unprinted edges ("white flashes") appear at the edge of the page.
SAFETY AREA
In addition to the bleed area, there is a safety area. It is located 5 mm inside the page or cover edges. Please do not place elements closer to the edge than this safety area. This helps ensure that important elements are not too close to the edge or accidentally cut during binding.
BOOK SPINE
You may design the spine with photos or text. Place the desired elements within the designated area. Make sure to observe the correct spine width. Elements like text should have a minimum distance of 2 mm from the edge to account for production tolerances. Photos can, of course, be placed across the front cover, spine, and back cover. We recommend a font size of 11 pt or larger.
SOFTPROOFING
To create a softproof of your photos on the selected Coffee Table Book paper, we provide ICC profiles for download. A guide and instructions on softproofing can be found here.
AFFINITY PUBLISHER TUTORIAL
A tutorial with screenshots and instructions regarding bleed and safety areas in Affinity Publisher is available here.