A common design feature when preparing artwork for a book is to have elements that cross over from the left page to the right page – a “crossover”. All layout programs make this easy to do when pages are laid out using readers spreads.

Despite this, once the book is printed and bound, the results may not be what was expected. Printing with crossover design elements do have their own pain-points:

When offset-printed with any binding method

• Color variation between sections.

In a perfect world, colour consistency in a print run would be perfectly maintained throughout the whole production. In reality, offset printers try very hard to achieve this but it isn’t always possible as there are lots of variables in play. Using the example shown earlier, consider that the left page is at the end of the first folded signature on page 16, and that the right-hand page is at the beginning of the second folded signature on page 17. Any variation in the colour between the sections will now be quite obvious from a crossover.

• Folding variation from one section to another.

Using the same example, let’s also imagine that each folded signature of 16pp sections did not fold perfectly, but were perhaps a millimetre or two off – a reasonable level of tolerance to expect. Here is what would happen in addition to the crossover

When printed with any print technology, whether offset, xerography, high speed inkjet

• Stock variation (if the artwork is printed on several stocks.

Consider the same example but another scenario – the first 16pp of this example was colourful spreads on glossy stock, but this spread is used to introduce the part of the book printed on uncoated laser paper. Because the right page starts on page 17, that means it is printing on the section that is the laser paper, meaning the left-hand page will be glossy, but the right-hand page will be dull. Assuming colour and folds were maintained perfectly, here is a simulation of what would happen with the two stocks.

If bound using Perfect, burst, or section sewn binding

• Binding variation for the inside front cover to first page; or inside back cover to last page due to being obscured by the binding edge.

Using the same example but this time, the left-hand page is actually the inside front cover on a glossy stock, but page 1 of the text is on the uncoated laser stock. If this is a soft cover book that is burst bound, consideration must be given that a portion of both the inside front cover and page 1 of the text will be bound to each other with glue, so a portion along the spine edge will be hidden. Here is how that same spread would look once printed (without any intervention from the printer)

Again, that is assuming the folding and binding is 100% spot on. What if it isn’t?

This will be the same situation if there is a crossover from the last page of text to the inside back cover.

This should be compensated for, but is something best discussed with your printer prior to submission of the artwork. In order for them to properly compensate for this, providing native files would help rather than only print ready PDFs.

• Disappearing into the spine of perfect/burst bound books.

Sticking with this example, let’s consider same stock on the same section with excellent colour consistency and folding. Perfect bound and burst bound books don’t exactly lie flat, and to see this spread as you would see it on screen, you would have to pry the pages apart. This is a simulation of what you are more likely to see:

If bound with Saddle Staples

The next two issues were covered in more detail in last week’s article, but the takeaway points are below.

• Creep not compensated for at all.

Using a slightly different example, consider the layout of the following centre spread of a 64pp saddle stapled magazine.

Note how the layout has been designed to have the word BASH nicely fit the width of the spread. However, because creep was not compensated for, here is how it would ultimately look.

• Incorrectly applied creep compensation.

Consider this design instead for the centre spread.

If creep compensation was applied by the printer, but it was the kind that moved the content closer to the spine rather than the scaling compensation, this is how that centre spread would appear.

If bound with coil or wir-o binding

• Disappearing into the spine and design not compensating for coil/wir-o.

Consider a similar design, but this time in a wir-o bound publication. On screen it looks fine.

But once the wir-o bind has been applied, we can see that the design element has gone from saying WALLABIES to WALLIES.

• Wir-o where items that abruptly stop at the spine are more of a problem than the crossover

There is a situation unique to coil bound books where rather than crossovers being an issue, it is when a design element abruptly stops at the spine. Take this example:

Looks fine on screen, but the print PDF looks like this:

Note the gradient that is just to the left of the trim edge? Unless controlled by the printer during their imposition, may be visible on the final print if folding and trimming aren’t within tolerance.

Sure, it’s hidden in a bind edge, but it’s still there.

If the printer is using Enfocus Pitstop Professional, there are Action lists that can aim to remove elements like this such as “Remove anything completely outside the Media Box” or “Remove irrelevant objects”. Similarly, there is also an action to add bleed in specific spots, namely “Generate Bleed to 3mm if Some, None, or not Enough” or a custom one that can be made from scratch using the action “Change objects that are close to the page edge”.

Similarly, Adobe Acrobat has preflight profiles that can perform similar tasks. I’d like to think that in this AI era that we’re in, that Enfocus or Adobe would consider a “magic bleed” fixup that would do more than expand, stretch or distort existing content and be able to make new content with tools like Adobe’s generative fill. Adobe Illustrator already has generative expand that can do something quite similar.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. With only imposition software, the printer can usually control unwanted bleed on the spine edge by making that bleed value a zero, but that means the left page – that does require bleed – will not be able to, and the opposite may occur.

Let’s say that the printer wanted bleed and didn’t make the previous change, but wanted to avoid the colour coming through on page 3… but it’s already printed. They could trim the book down slightly smaller on the bind edge, but then the wir-o will be closer to the text, potentially cutting some of it off.

So what to do

This article isn’t saying never use crossovers – it is asking designers to be mindful of how they work when compared to how they look on screen. I’d recommend:

• Talk to your printer if you have crossovers in your artwork, whether it is from the inside cover to first page, or generally throughout the book;
• If you insist on using crossovers in your artwork, consider the tolerances at play and consider using images that won’t be as noticeable if the lineups aren’t within tolerance.
• Avoid using type over crossovers, and again if you insist on using doing this, at least consider positioning the text so that the spaces between words are over the spine.
• If the publication is to be offset printed, consider keeping the crossovers within their own printed, folded sections. Ask your printer for a breakdown of what the printed, folded sections would be. Consider an example burst bound 80pp document that is made of 5x16pp, so to avoid crossover issues, consider placing the crossovers on pages that would not be on the end of one section and the start of another, such as 16-17, 32-33.
• Take an opportunity to look at previously printed books and see how their binds have affected any crossovers that may be present.