Printing question and the positioning of the art on a page..

[clamspirit]

I am working on a brochure right now, where its printing will be done without me being involved. Now, I want to make sure that it gets printed and cut the right way. So, questions...

1 - I know I have to position my artboard on a page, that's why we have the Page tool. Do I have to worry if my artboard fits into the marked page edges, or is it the printing press' concern? If I am supposed to be doing the adjustments, how do I make it so my page aligns the same way for all my 48 brochure pages?

2 - I have a logo that is going outside of the artboard - I do not require the bits of the logo which go outside of the artboard. Should I cut this excess out so that everything beyond the artboard is white?

Awaiting your replies.

[jayluebs]

Are you submitting as PDFs? If so, then you don't have to worry. PDFs automatically sense the page edges and crop accordingly when placed into a document layout program. If you are submitting AI or EPS, it may be an issue and I would just tell your printer about it and it shouldn't be a problem. If you do want to take the extra step to make sure, you could draw a box along the page edges and go to objects>crop area>make, and it will make crop marks for the printer. And depending on what layout program they use, when they place it in, it should only show what is in the crop area.

[Disjuku]

This would depend a bit on how it is being printed and how many you are after. If you are going to print, say, 10,000 brochures then it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect the printer to spend some time ensuring it is all setup Ok.

If you are just going to print 10 or so then you may have trouble finding a printer who will play around with 48 pages to ensure they are all Ok.

Assuming this will be a shorter run, you will probably want to:

-Account for page margins - Most laser printers can not print right to the edge of the page. (If saved as a PDF then they will be able to simply fit it to the page anyway... not sure if that would mess with your design)
-Leave the excess around the edges and use crop marks to show where it will be cut - cutting can not be done to a precice line, so you always want some extra print over the edge
-If printing double sided then you will probably be best leaving crop marks off on one side and giving it an extra edge - the paper can shift from one side to the other

I think in general you would find that Illustrator isn't really setup for a brochure - it isn't setup for multiple pages etc. InDesign is best suited for this.