Introduction
In the world of printing, delivering a well-prepared pre-press document is crucial for ensuring that your final printed materials meet your expectations. This guide will walk you through the process of preparing a pre-press document, including the essential step of adding lines indicating where to cut the paper. Best of all, we’ll be using free open-source software like GIMP, Inkscape, and Scribus, making this accessible to everyone.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve regularly created materials for print like A5 flyers, A3 posters and even a booklet once. Next to the design, also keeping an eye on the details is important to obtain a great finish. By getting to know the tools you’re using, it becomes more straightforward to obtain the desired results.
For example, in the past I only needed to provide a pdf including bleed margin. Recently, a new print provider asked to also include cut lines in the pdf document. While you can find resources on how to manually add a layer in Inkscape on which to draw cut lines, I found out that Scribus, whcih I’ve used before can be used for accomplishing this. At the same time, Scribus can be used to convert an RGB document to CMYK, which I used to do with a separate script.
Tools being used
In this article, I’m referring to the following tools.
- GIMP is a powerful open-source raster graphics editor that allows you to enhance and edit bitmap images for your print materials.
- Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor, perfect for creating layouts with varous elements.
- Scribus is a free and open-source desktop publishing software that enables you to add crop marks and export your document in CMYK.
I’m not going to cover installation or usage of these tools. Instead, I’ll focus on some of their aspects that are useful for pre-press.
Edit Bitmap files using GIMP
I’m mentioning GIMP here because it’s a great tool to process any bitmap image for cropping, enhancing and overall improving your jpg, gif or png images (and many more image formats). GIMP is very good to help you being aware of image resolution and as long as you don’t overdo it, will be able to help increasing image resolutions to an acceptable level for pre-press.
I haven’t used GIMP for color model conversions from RGB to CMYK yet. This should be possible using a GIMP plugin. However, if that’s all you want to do, you might be better of using ImageMagick like in this command.
1convert input.jpg -colorspace cmyk -compress LZW output.tif
Creating a Vector-Based Layout with Inkscape
When using Inkscape for the layout of your document, knowing the following is useful for pre-press.
1. Color mode
When starting a new document, you can configure Inkscape to use a CMYK color mode. Go to the Document Properties (Shift+Ctrl+D) and select the Color tab.
2. Pages Tool
Previously, to add page bleed, I just added the required bleed dimension to the width and height of the document. This required to change margins accordingly.
Since Inkscape 1.3, you can utilize the Pages Tool for setting margins and a page bleed directly within the “Pages” dialog. The main benefit of this is that your document dimensions will remain the final print format you’re working on.
Page bleed is hardly an issue if your design doesn’t come with a background. As long as the design elements stay within the margins, you’re safe. However, if your design contains a background that should cover the entire page, also after the paper is cut, it’s crucial you stretch the background image over the page borders to fill up the page bleed surrounging the page. With the Pages Tool introduced in Inkscape 1.3, this has become trivial.
Exporting PDF with CMYK and Cut Marks Using Scribus
Complete the process by exporting your final design to a print-ready PDF using Scribus.
1. Open Your Inkscape File in Scribus
Launch Scribus and open the svg file you’ve created in Inkscape.
2. Check and Set Up Color Profiles
- Go to “File” > “Document Setup” in Scribus.
- Under the “Color” tab, ensure your document is set to use the CMYK color model.
3. Add Crop Marks
- In the Scribus menu, go to “Item” > “Marks and Bleeds.”
- Choose the “Crop Marks” tab and adjust settings based on your print provider’s requirements.
4. Convert RGB Colors to CMYK
- Go to “Colors” > “Color Management.”
- Enable “Convert Colors to Output Profile” and choose a suitable CMYK output profile.
5. Export Your Document
- Go to “File” > “Export” to save your document.
- Choose PDF as the format and select “Marks and Bleeds” under the PDF export options.
- Ensure “Convert to Destination” is selected, and choose the same CMYK output profile used earlier.
- Click “Export” to save your final document.
Conclusion
By following this comprehensive guide, you’ll seamlessly edit bitmap images using GIMP, create a vector-based layout with bleed areas using the Pages Tool in Inkscape 1.3, and export a print-ready PDF with CMYK color and cut marks using free and open-source software. This approach ensures your print materials meet the highest standards and adhere to your print provider’s specifications.
References
- As an experiment, part of this blog post was written using assistance from ChatGPT. However most content was redacted by me.
- Valuable information for finding out a suitable workflow came from this website.