Indesign & PDF Settings For AutoPublish Adverts

NOTE: All measurements mentioned in this article are based on a standard A5 publication measuring 148mm x 210mm.

If you use different settings or produce a publication of a different size you will need to adjust the sizes accordingly.

Below you'll find the correct settings to create your adverts in Indesign & export them as a PDF file.

They are based on using the standard MagManger A5 - 16 Grid layout with settings of:
Page Width 148mm
Page Height 210mm
Top & Bottom Margin of 10mm
Inside & Outside Margin of 8mm
Horizontal & Verticle Spacing of 4mm

 

Adverts WITHOUT Bleed (set within the margins of the publication)
Eg Full page set inside the margin, half page, quarter page, eighth page.

1 - How to Create a New Advert Without Bleed

2 - How to Export Your Finished Advert Without Bleed to PDF

3 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - Without Bleed

 

Adverts WITH Bleed
Eg Full page with bleed

4 - How to Create a New Full Page Advert With Bleed

5 - How to Export Your Finished Advert With Bleed to PDF

6 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - With Bleed

 

Double Page Spreads

7 - How to Create a New Double Page Spread Advert With Bleed

8 - How to Export your Finished Double Page Spread to PDF

 

Other Topics

9 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - Auto Crop

10 - When To Use The - AutoBleed Setting

11 - Trouble Shooting

 

1 - How to Create a New Full Page Advert Without Bleed

These adverts will sit inside the margins of the publication.

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Open InDesign and go to File > New > Document

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From the New Document dialogue box > select print > for a full page advert without bleed set the width as 132mm and height as 190mm.

Click Margins to expand the setting - Top & Bottom margins should be set to 10mm and Inside & Outside margins set to 8mm (or whatever your specific settings are).

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Click Bleed and Slug to expand the setting - The bleed should be set as 0mm > click create.

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Your document is now ready to design.

 

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Note the process is the same for all other advert sizes without bleed you simply adjust the width and height measurements eg:

Half page landscape - 132mm x 93mm
Quarter page - 64mm x 93mm
Eighth page - 64mm x 44.5mm

 

2 - How to Export Your Finished Advert Without Bleed to PDF

Select File > Adobe PDF Presets > [PDF/X-1a@2001] > Choose where on your computer you want to save the file and click Save.

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From the Export Adobe PDF dialogue box select Export.

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The PDF will be saved on your computer in the folder you selected and is now ready to upload to MagManager.

 

3 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - Without Bleed

3.1 For All Adverts Without Bleed

The Crop Marks and Has Bleed settings should be switched off.

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3.2 For Full Page Adverts Without Bleed - (Auto Bleed Setting)

For full page advert without bleed which have been designed in a way that they could bleed off the page, ie there is no text close to the edge of the advert.  From the flatplan you can open up the Page Layout screen and switch on the Auto Bleed toggle switch to have MagManager Auto Bleed the advert.  

NOTE: The advert settings 'Has Crop Marks' and 'Has Bleed' should be turned off - see 3.1 above.

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You can check how the advert looks by clicking 'preview with trim' which displays how the final PDF will look with a green trim box, indicating the edge of the page.

Left image AutoBleed OFF            Right image AutoBleed ON

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If you felt the text was too close to the edge you can switch Auto Bleed back off and revert to the advert displaying within the normal magazine margins.

 

4 - How to Create a New Full Page Advert With Bleed

These adverts will run to the edge of the publication.

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In InDesign go to File > New > Document.

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From the New Document dialogue box > select print > for a full page A5 advert with bleed set the width as 148mm and height as 210mm.

Click Margins to expand the setting - Top & Bottom margins should be set to 10mm and Inside & Outside margins set to 8mm (or whatever your specific settings are).

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Click Bleed and Slug to expand the setting - The bleed should be set as 3mm under top, bottom, inside & outside > click create.

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Your document is now ready to design. The 3mm bleed is identified by the red line extending into the grey area.

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5 - How to Export Your Finished Advert With Bleed to PDF

Select File > Adobe PDF Presets > [PDF/X-1a@2001] > Choose where on your computer you want to save the file and click save.

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From the Export Adobe PDF dialogue box select Marks and Bleeds > Under Marks check the box for Crop Marks > Under Bleed and Slug check the box for Use Document Bleed Settings and ensure the Bleed is set to 3mm for top, bottom , inside & outside > Click Export.

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The PDF will be saved on your computer in the folder you selected and is now ready to upload to MagManager.

 

6 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - With Bleed

For full page adverts with bleed that have been saved as per the above instructions.  The Crop Marks and Has Bleed settings should be switched on.  

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MagManager will detect the crop marks.  From the Flatplan Page Layout screen, when you 'preview with trim' the final output will appear as below with the green trim box indicating the edge of the paper. Screenshot_2021-08-06_162209.jpg

 

7 - How To Create A New Double Page Spread Advert With Bleed

In InDesign go to File > New > Document.

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From the New Document dialogue box > select print > for an A5 double page spread advert with bleed set the width as 148mm and height as 210mm (note the width setting is the widith of each page and not the full width of both pages) > Orientation as portrait > Pages set as 2 > Start # as 2.

Click Margins to expand the setting - Top & Bottom margins should be set to 10mm and Inside & Outside margins set to 8mm (or whatever your specific settings are).

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Scroll down and Click Bleed and Slug to expand the setting - The bleed should be set as 3mm under top, bottom, inside & outside > click create.

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Your document is now ready to design. The 3mm bleed is identified by the red line extending into the grey area.

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8 - How To Export Your Finished Double Page Spread To PDF

Select File > Adobe PDF Presets > [PDF/X-1a@2001] > Choose where on your computer you want to save the file and click save.

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From the Export Adobe PDF dialogue box select General > Under Pages select All and Export as Spreads.  

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Next select Marks and Bleeds > Under Marks check the box for Crop Marks > Under Bleed and Slug check the box for Use Document Bleed Settings and ensure the Bleed is set to 3mm for top, bottom , inside & outside > Click Export.

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The PDF will be saved on your computer in the folder you selected and is now ready to upload to MagManager.

 

Click the link below to go back to step 6 above for the instructions on MagManager Advert Details Settings.

Link to Step 6 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - With Bleed

 

9 - MagManager Advert Details Settings - Auto Crop

TIP - Before using the Auto Crop function ensure you have a back up copy of the advert file.  As once clicked the Autocrop function CANNOT be undone.

If a half page or quarter page advert (see Monnow Voice advert below) has been supplied to you with crop marks which are not necessary, you can use the Auto Crop function in MagManager to remove them. (Full Pages can also be auto cropped).

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From the Advert Details Page > Click Auto Crop. 

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A ninja will briefly appear on screen and will automatically crop the advert but ONLY if the PDF has been created with a trimbox.  If no trimbox is detected, MagManager will not be able to Auto Crop the advert.  And you will have to revert to other software to remove them.

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If you would like to add a border to frame the advert, MagManager can do that for you. Simply switch on the toggle switch for Border > Choose the colour of the border and the width of the line > Click Save.

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From the Flatplan Page Layout screen - select 'preview with trim' you'll see that the crop marks have been removed and a border has been added.

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10 - When To Use The - AutoBleed Setting

The AutoBleed setting can be found on the flatplan page layout screen.  You should only use ‘Auto Bleed’ for full page or double page adverts. 

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These will be adverts that have been designed as a standard full page/DPS WITHOUT Bleed to fit within the margin of the magazine (left image below with AutoBleed switched OFF), but may have sufficient space that would allow it to bleed without encroaching on the text (right image below with AutoBleed switched ON)

To make a decision on whether to use Auto Bleed, switch it on for your advert and then click on ‘Preview with Trim’ this will enable you to see if it will work for this particular artwork.  Be careful to ensure that any artwork elements do not get too close to the trim box (green box above). Printers will generally respect your trim box, but artwork that gets too close may be trimmed.

Note – if you use auto-bleed make sure you switch off the footer as you probably won’t want to see the footer over an advert with bleed.

Left advert AutoBleed OFF          Right advert AutoBleed ON

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11 - Trouble Shooting

The most common problems we see with full pages not displaying properly in AutoPublish is due to:

11.1 - The page being designed at the wrong size & no trim box being set

11.2 - The advert PDF file being saved without cropmarks

- both can be solved by creating & saving the advert using the settings above.

11.3 - A double page spread being uploaded as a PNG file.

11.4 - Unable to upload a PDF file because it contains too many images. 

 

11.1 To check the size and trim box settings of your PDF file open it in Adobe Acrobat DC > Select Print Production > Select Set Page Boxes.

Under Margin Controls > Apply to choose CropBox from the dropdown menu > The page size will be displayed below the image and the area will be represented by the pink line.  In the example below 154mm x 216mm is correct overall size for an A5 full page with bleed. (148mm + 6mm bleed = 154mm and 210mm + 6mm bleed = 216mm).

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Next Under Margin Controls >  Apply to choose TrimBox from the dropdown menu > The trimmed size of the page will be displayed below the image and the area will be represented by the green line.  In the example below 148mm x 210mm is correct trimmed size for an A5 full page with bleed.

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11.2 Full pages and double page spreads with bleed must have the PDF saved with cropmarks. Otherwise MagManager cannot detect the trimbox.  Using the AutoBleed setting on the flatplan page layout may appear to show show the advert as ok, but as that function is desgined to be used for adverts created without bleed the advert will appear out of alignment with the other pages in the final PDF.

- Use the settings mentioned above at Section 4 for Full pages and Section 7 for Double page spreads.

 

11.3 A double page spread uploaded as a PNG file will not display correctly.  It must be uploaded as a PDF as the CropBox & TrimBox settings saved within the PDF are required in order for MagManager to display the advert correctly across the two pages.

 

11.4 - Unable to upload a PDF file because it contains too many images. Mag Manager supports a maximum of 175 images per PDF.  If you receive this error message it will show you how many images your file contains

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This problem is often caused when the PDF is created using an older version of software.  If you are unable to recreate the PDF file you can save the file as a PNG and upload it.  Unless it's a double page spread in which case it needs to be in PDF format in order to display properly across both pages.

To identify the problem open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat DC.  Select Edit PDF and you'll be able to see the fragmented images.  You can also analyze the file by selecting Print Production > Preflight > Analyze > Expand the Overview Section > Click Images - a full list of all the images in the file will be displayed.

 

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