One print-ready PDF at the finished size, with 3mm bleed where colour touches the edge, images around 300dpi, and pages in reading order. Perfect bound books and hardbacks need a second PDF for the cover.
Not sure it’s right? Send whatever you have. A real person checks every file for free.
One PDF is all we need
You don’t have to be a designer. You just have to send us a print-ready PDF, and if you’re not sure how, we’ll help you make it.
From blank page to “it’s on the press” in four steps
- Choose your softwarePro, free or AI: pick what suits you. Each one handles your page set-up slightly differently.
- Set up the page, with bleedYour finished size, plus 3mm of bleed all round. It’s the number one thing people miss, and we’ll make it painless.
- Design itKeep important content away from the edges. White space is your friend, and text doesn’t have to be massive. Need ideas first? Browse our 20+ creative cover ideas.
- Export and send a PDFExport a print-ready PDF and send it over. We check it for free before anything happens.
By hand, before anything prints. We catch the low-res photo on page 67 so you don’t open a box of mistakes. Send what you’ve got, however rough: we’ll tell you what’s right, help you fix what isn’t, and the check is always free.
There’s no minimum order either, so you can print a single copy to hold and check before the full run.
Where are you right now?
There are three ways people get to a finished file. Pick the one that sounds like you. The rest of this page works whichever you choose.
You’re comfortable in design software, or willing to learn. We’ll point you to the right program and the few skills you actually need.
No design background? Free tools and AI can absolutely get you there, as long as you set them up right. We’ll show you the one trick.
Want someone to do it for you? We don’t design in-house, but we recommend Fiverr and PeoplePerHour to find a book designer.
Use what you’ve got. Just know the one rule.
There’s no “right” program, only the right set-up. The single thing that changes between them is where you add your bleed. Here’s the cheat sheet.
Pro, paid. The industry standard for books and multi-page layouts.
- Set the page to your finished size: for A5, 210mm high × 148mm wide.
- Add 3mm bleed outside the trim size in the document set-up. The program does the maths.
- Export as Adobe PDF (Print), ideally PDF/X-1a, with Use Document Bleed Settings ticked.
Pro, and free. Free with a Canva account, no subscription. A brilliant InDesign alternative.
- Set the page to your finished size, the same as InDesign.
- Add 3mm bleed in the document set-up.
- Export to PDF with Include bleed ticked, and All Pages (not All Spreads).
Free. No design background needed, and the easiest free starting point.
- Canva has no bleed setting, so build the page at the bigger size with bleed baked in. For A5, that’s a custom size of 154mm wide × 216mm high, rather than the finished 148mm wide × 210mm high.
- Keep words and logos at least 8mm in from the edge of your Canva page: the 3mm bleed plus the 5mm safe zone.
- Download as PDF Print and send it over for your free file check.
AI. Generating a children’s book or a simple layout with AI? It can work, as long as you ask for the right size.
- Give it your finished size and ask it to add 3mm bleed on every edge, at 300dpi.
- Easier still, paste in one of our ready-made AI prompts. They make your artwork print-ready, with the bleed built in.
- Place the finished artwork into one PDF and send it for your free file check.
Want the long version? Compare every design program in full.
If you only learn one thing, learn bleed
Printers can’t cut to the exact millimetre. Bleed is 3mm of extra colour or image that runs past the trim line, so when we cut the page you never get a thin white sliver on the edge.
An A5 page (210 × 148mm) becomes 216 × 154mm.
Any background, photo or block of colour that touches the edge must extend 3mm past it.
If your design sits inside a clean white frame, you can skip it. There’s nothing to run off.
Pull important words and logos about 5mm in from the edge, so nothing gets trimmed.
Read the full bleed guide for step-by-step set-up in every program, with a video walkthrough.
Page sizes, with the bleed already added
Designing in Canva, Word, Photoshop or with AI? Use the “with bleed” size as your page size. In InDesign or Affinity? Use the finished size and add 3mm bleed in set-up.
| Size | Finished (trim) | Page size with 3mm bleed | Common for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A6 | 148 × 105mm | 154 × 111mm | Pocket zines, postcards |
| A5 | 210 × 148mm | 216 × 154mm | Zines, novels, booklets |
| A4 | 297 × 210mm | 303 × 216mm | Magazines, brochures, reports |
| Square | 210 × 210mm | 216 × 216mm | Photo books, children’s books |
Your cover is a second PDF with the spine in the middle. Pop your page count and inside paper into our spine calculator and you’ll get the spine width, plus the exact cover spread and inside page sizes to set up both PDFs, in seconds. For a hardback, we’ll send you the exact cover dimensions.
The three mistakes that send files back
When a file isn’t ready, it’s usually one of these three things. Now you know them, you’re ahead of most people who’ve ever printed.
Fix: The classic: colour stops at the edge, the cut shifts a hair, and you get white lines. Add 3mm bleed all round, or just send it and we’ll spot it.
Fix: Stapled booklets and zines are made from folded sheets, so the total page count has to divide by 4 (8, 12, 16, 20…). Short? Add a half-title or a blank page. We’ll help you make it work.
Fix: Supply the cover as one spread, back, spine and front, left to right, not as separate front and back files. We’ll calculate the spine for you, and our cover file guide shows you how to build the spread.
Using AI? Copy and paste our exact prompt
Making your artwork with ChatGPT or Claude? Paste one of these in, swap the words in ‹angle marks› for your details, then add your text. It makes the AI build at the right size, fill the bleed and keep your text safe: the three things people get wrong.
Best for illustrated artwork.
Design me a ‹what it is, e.g. a children's picture-book cover or an A5 poetry-zine cover›. I'll paste my written content at the end. Please illustrate and lay it out in the style of ‹style, e.g. warm hand-painted storybook watercolour or bold flat vector›.
This has to be PRINT-READY. Follow these four rules exactly:
1. SIZE. My finished (trimmed) size is ‹your size, e.g. A4, 297 × 210mm›. Add 3mm of bleed to all four edges yourself, tell me the full size you've worked out, and make the image at that full size (highest resolution possible).
2. FILL THE BLEED. The background (colour, pattern or artwork) must run right to all four outer edges. No white edge, no border, no frame. The outer 3mm gets cut off, so treat it as more of the same background.
3. KEEP TEXT SAFE. Keep ALL words, titles, logos, faces and any barcode well inside, at least 5mm in from where it will be trimmed.
4. THE FILE. Give it to me as a single high-resolution JPG or PNG at 300 dpi. A flat image, not a link or editable file.
Before you generate, tell me the full image size you'll use and confirm the background reaches all four edges. Then create it.
Here is my content to include:
‹paste your titles, text and details›
Best for clean layout and PDFs.
Design me a ‹what it is, e.g. a children's picture-book cover or an A5 poetry-zine cover›. I'll paste my written content at the end. Please design and lay it out in the style of ‹style, e.g. clean editorial, bold flat vector or warm storybook›.
This has to be PRINT-READY. Follow these four rules exactly:
1. SIZE. My finished (trimmed) size is ‹your size, e.g. A4, 297 × 210mm›. Add 3mm of bleed to all four edges yourself, tell me the full size you've worked out, and build at that exact size, 300 dpi.
2. FILL THE BLEED. The background (colour, pattern or artwork) must run right to all four outer edges. No white edge, no border, no frame. The outer 3mm gets cut off, so treat it as more of the same background.
3. KEEP TEXT SAFE. Keep ALL words, titles, logos and any barcode well inside, at least 5mm in from where it will be trimmed.
4. THE FILE. Give it to me as ONE finished, flat, print-ready file: a PDF (best) or a high-resolution JPG or PNG at 300 dpi, at the full size. Do NOT hand it over only as HTML, SVG or an editable web page. I need a final image or PDF I can send straight to my printer.
Before you build, tell me the full size you'll use and confirm the background reaches all four edges. Then produce the file.
Here is my content to include:
‹paste your titles, text and details›
You only need one number: your finished size. The prompt makes the AI add the 3mm bleed for you. Not sure it came out right? Send it to us for a free check.
The 60-second pre-flight check
Run down this list before you hit send and you’re most of the way there. Not sure on any of them? Don’t stress: send it anyway and we’ll check it for you.
- It’s a PDF: one single file, all pages in order.
- 3mm bleed added where colour runs to the edge.
- Pages divide by 4 (stapled booklets and zines).
- Single pages, not spreads (except perfect bound and hardback covers). Got spreads? Split them into single pages, free.
- Images are sharp: roughly 300dpi at print size.
- Fonts embedded, or text outlined, on export.
Getting the file to us
- Export a print-ready PDFChoose PDF/X-1a if your software offers it (in Canva, PDF Print), with crop marks and bleed switched on.
- Send it by WeTransfer, Google Drive or DropboxSend your PDF to hello@exwhyzed.com and, in the message box, add your print choices, quantity and delivery address. Artwork, choices and address are the three things we need to begin.
- We check and confirmA real person reviews it, flags anything, and confirms it’s good to go, usually the same day.
Still stuck? That’s our favourite bit
Send us whatever you’ve got: a rough Canva file, loose pages, a cover that looks “too wide”. We’ll check it, show you what to fix, or rebuild the bleed or cover with you. By phone, by name, and the check is always free.
As someone completely new to book printing, I really appreciated their patience, support, and willingness to walk me through every step. They've got a brilliant eye for detail and genuinely care about getting things just right.
The things people ask us most
Why do booklet pages have to be a multiple of 4?
A stapled booklet or zine is made from large sheets folded in half, and each folded sheet gives you 4 pages. So your total page count, cover included, has to divide by 4: 8, 12, 16, 20 and so on. If you’re short, add a blank or a half-title page. We’ll always help you make the count work.
What’s the difference between a single page and a spread?
Send your inside pages as single pages in reading order (page 1, 2, 3…), not as side-by-side spreads. The one exception is a perfect bound or hardback cover, which we need as a single spread (back, spine, front) so the artwork wraps correctly round the spine.
Asked to resupply your inside pages as single pages? Our free Spread Splitter does it in about a minute, with the 3mm bleed kept on every page.
Should my file be RGB or CMYK?
Print uses CMYK. If you design in RGB, which most free tools do, don’t panic: we manage the colour conversion and flag anything that’ll shift noticeably. For the closest match, export to CMYK if your software allows it.
How sharp do my images need to be?
Aim for around 300dpi at the size they’ll print. A small web image blown up to a full page will look soft or pixelated. Not sure? Send the file: checking image quality is part of our free file check.
I’ve no idea what I’m doing. Can you still help?
Absolutely. Most of our customers aren’t designers, and helping you get the file right is the part we love. Send whatever you have, however unfinished, and a real person will walk you through it. There’s no such thing as a silly question here.
Can I order just one to check before a full run?
Yes. There’s no minimum, so print a single copy, hold it, check it, then order the full run when you’re happy. It’s the simplest way to be sure before committing.
Your project deserves to exist.
Don’t let a file setting be the thing that stops it. Send us what you’ve got, and a real person will check it for free and take it from there.
