No bleed setting. Build the page at the bigger size with bleed baked in — A5 = 154×216mm, not 148×210.| Size | Finished (trim) | Page size with 3mm bleed | Common for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4 | 210 × 297 mm | 216 × 303 mm | Magazines, brochures, reports |
| A5 | 148 × 210 mm | 154 × 216 mm | Zines, novels, booklets |
| A6 | 105 × 148 mm | 111 × 154 mm | Pocket zines, postcards |
| Square | 210 × 210 mm | 216 × 216 mm | Photo books, children’s books |
Making your artwork with ChatGPT or Claude? Paste one of these in, swap the [brackets] for your details, then add your text. It forces the AI to build at the right size, fill the bleed, and keep your text safe — the three things people get wrong.
Design me a [what it is — e.g. children's picture-book cover / 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 / 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 / details]
Design me a [what it is — e.g. children's picture-book cover / 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 / 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/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 / 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 →
A stapled booklet or zine is made from large sheets folded in half — 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 an odd number, add a blank or a half-title page. We’ll always help you make the count work.
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 cover, which we need as a single spread (back + spine + front) so the artwork wraps correctly around the spine.
Print uses CMYK. If you design in RGB (which most free tools do), don’t panic — we manage colour conversion and will flag anything that’ll shift noticeably. For the closest match, export to CMYK if your software allows it.
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.
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.
Yes. There’s no minimum — print a single copy, hold it, check it, then order 1,000 when you’re happy. It’s the cheapest way to be 100% sure before committing.
