Paths, solid fills and strokes are written as PDF geometry. Zoom right into the proof and the edges stay sharp.
PRINT &
PDF!
Bleed, safe margins, preflight, crop marks, booklets and CMYK. Design the poster, the card or the whole comic issue, and hand the printer a file they will not send back.
An event poster. Command-P opens Print: what to print (every page), how the pages sit on the paper (single pages), and Full bleed, already on for a print page. Crop marks is turned on; the dialog says what each sheet will be.
KA-CHUNK!
THE PROBLEM
The printer emailed back. Again.
“No bleed.” “Fonts not embedded.” “The logo is 72 dpi.” “Can you send it as single pages?” Every one of those emails costs a day, and the screen-first design tools leave you to find out the hard way, because their idea of a page is a frame on an endless canvas.
A Print file in PopCraft has real pages of a real size, and the inspector grows the things a press needs: trim, bleed and safe margin on every page, a Preflight tab that knows what printers reject, and an export that writes the boxes, marks and fonts a print shop looks for. Same canvas, same components, same brand colours. Different rules, because paper is different.
3 mm
bleed on the metric presets (0.125 in on the imperial ones)
300
dpi by default for print pages
6
ways to put pages on paper
0.25 pt
the thinnest stroke Preflight lets pass quietly
X-RAY
Anatomy of a printed sheet
Five boxes, outside in. PopCraft draws the inner three on the canvas as you work and writes all of them into the PDF, so the printer's software knows exactly where to cut.
SHEET
MARKS
BLEED
TRIM
SAFE
YOUR ART
- SHEETThe MediaBox. With marks on, it grows past the bleed to make room for them.
- MARKSCrop marks 3 mm off the trim corners, as 0.25 pt hairlines on every plate. Color bars and registration targets if you ask.
- BLEEDThe BleedBox: art runs this far past the cut. 3 mm or 0.125 in on the presets.
- TRIMThe TrimBox: where the guillotine falls. Your page size.
- SAFEKeep text inside this. Preflight flags anything that crosses it.
PRESS ⌘P
Print straight from the canvas
⌘P opens Print. Pick what to print (every page, this page or the selection) and how pages sit on the paper. Full bleed prints each sheet at trim size, so art runs to the paper's edge. Turn it off and each sheet carries its bleed margin for a press to cut into. Crop marks are one tick.
The pages are rendered to a PDF first, then sent to your printer. The browser's own print would only see the app around the canvas, which is nobody's idea of a poster.
An event poster. Command-P opens Print: what to print (every page), how the pages sit on the paper (single pages), and Full bleed, already on for a print page. Crop marks is turned on; the dialog says what each sheet will be.
IMPOSITION
A whole comic, folded and stapled
One question decides how pages meet paper. Single pages, spreads cut in half is what almost every printer asks for. Pages as drawn keeps spreads whole for the ones that cut them themselves. Reader spreads show facing pages together, for reading on screen.
Booklet puts two pages on a sheet in folding order: print double-sided, flip on the short edge, fold, staple. Two and four per sheet save paper on proofs. The dialog counts the pages and the sheets of paper before you print.
The whole-issue comic template: covers, eight pages and a centrefold. Command-P opens Print. Pages on the paper is changed from single pages to Booklet, and the dialog counts the sheets of paper and says how to print and fold them; then Four pages per sheet, for a proof of the whole run.
EXPORT AS PDF
The file the print shop wants
⋯ › Export › Export as PDF… asks for a resolution from 96 to 600 dpi, RGB or CMYK, how pages sit on the sheet, and whether text is embedded or turned into outlines. Then tick bleed, crop marks, and registration marks with color bars.
It checks your page sizes too. A file a printer accepts has one page size throughout, so a centrefold is cut back into two pages and an odd page is scaled to fit, and the dialog tells you which one.
The whole-issue comic template. ⋯ › Export › Export as PDF… opens the PDF export. Color is switched to CMYK (uncalibrated), Full bleed is turned off so each page carries its bleed, and Crop marks and Registration marks and color bars are ticked; the notes under each control say what the file will be.
UNDER THE HOOD
What is actually in the PDF
REAL TEXT
SELECT!Each typeface becomes an embedded subset, with a map back to the characters, so the text can be selected, searched and copied. Or choose outlines.
EXACT PIXELS
RENDER!Pictures, gradients, effects and masks are drawn by the same GPU renderer as the canvas, at your export resolution, and placed exactly where they sit.
REAL BOXES
CUT!Every print page gets a TrimBox and a BleedBox. A slug for press notes goes outside the bleed, never inside it.
EVERY PLATE
REGISTER!Crop marks and registration targets are painted on all plates, so they show on every separation.
HONEST FONTS
NOTED!A font that forbids embedding, or a variable-font instance, is drawn as outlines instead of being left out.
CMYK, HONESTLY
Four inks, no fairy tales
Pick CMYK (uncalibrated) and every colour, fill and picture in the file is written as cyan, magenta, yellow and black instead of red, green and blue. It is the classic split: black is one minus the brightest channel, and the other three make up the rest.
What it is not: a profile-based, colour-managed conversion, or a PDF/X file. There is no ICC profile in the loop, and we would rather say so than let you find out on a proof. For exact brand colours, send the RGB file and let the print shop convert it with their own profile. Preflight leaves a note to the same effect, and another when the file uses transparency or blend modes your printer may want flattened.
PREFLIGHT
Catch it before the printer does
The Preflight tab in the right panel checks every page of a print file and lists each problem with the layer it is on. Click one to go to it. Errors are worth fixing; warnings are worth a look; notes are things to tell the printer.
- Safe margin. Something crosses into the strip that gets trimmed.
- Bleed. Art runs off the trim but stops short of the bleed edge.
- Hairlines. A stroke under 0.25 pt, which can vanish on press.
- Image resolution. A picture that prints below your minimum dpi. Under half of it is an error.
- Missing fonts. Type in a font that is not loaded.
- Overflowing text. More words than the box can hold.
- GPU-only paint. A shader or effect that has to be rasterised and converted.
- Transparency. Blend modes or see-through layers: ask your printer how they want them.
The bold business card template. The Preflight tab opens in the right panel and Run checks both sides: image resolution, safe margins, bleed, hairlines, overflowing text, fonts and transparency, each issue listed with where it is.
COMICS
Trims the comic trade really prints at
Drawn to one scale. Each comes with bleed and a safe margin set, and the spreads know they are two pages with a fold down the middle, so an export can cut them back into single pages.
Comic page
6.625 × 10.25 in
Comic cover
6.875 × 10.5 in
Manga page (B5)
182 × 257 mm
Comic spread
13.25 × 10.25 in, folds in the middle
Comic strip
13 × 4 in, no bleed
The classic comic page template in the editor: three tiers of panels on a trimmed page. The view moves down the page tier by tier — the establishing shot with a caption and speech balloon, three beats with a thought balloon, then the reveal with an inset, an impact star and a sound effect. A panel is clicked and the inspector shows it, a masked group, then the whole page comes back into view.
The two-page spread template: pages 10 and 11 as one sheet, with art running straight across the fold in the middle. The view pans along the spread from the left page, over the fold, to the right page, then pulls back to the whole sheet.
FROM ZERO
Paper-ready in six moves
- 1
Start from a print size
New file, then a preset: business cards, A6 to A0, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, brochures, postcards, invitations, posters, comic and manga pages. Or start from a print template. - 2
Run art into the bleed
Stretch backgrounds past the trim to the bleed line. A picture that stops on the trim has nothing to give when the cut drifts. - 3
Keep words inside the safe line
Rulers and guides show trim, bleed and safe margin. Text and logos stay inside the safe one. - 4
Run Preflight
The Preflight tab checks every page and lists each problem with the layer it is on. Fix the errors, read the warnings. - 5
Export as PDF
Pick the resolution, RGB or CMYK, embedded fonts or outlines, how pages sit on the sheet, and whether to add bleed, crop marks and color bars. - 6
Or just print it
⌘P renders the pages to a PDF and sends that to your printer, so you get the artwork and not the app around it.
ONE DESIGN, MANY COPIES
Bulk create from a spreadsheet
Name badges, certificates, a hundred business cards. Write {{name}} in any text, name an image layer {{photo}}, then Bulk create… and pick a CSV. You get one page per row, each with its own words and picture, ready for Preflight and the same PDF export.
Going the other way? A PDF from another app can be imported as a new file, with its pages, text and pictures as layers you can edit.
A launch post in the editor. ⋯ → Import as new file… opens the file picker and a PDF (PopCraft’s brand guide) is picked; it opens as a new file with its pages, text and pictures as layers — the PDF round-trip for a document Publisher itself exported.
A launch post with its frame selected. At the bottom of the Design panel, Add export adds an export setting; its scale is set to 2x, with PNG as the format, and Export Page 1 writes the file.
THE OLD WAY
Design here, rebuild there
| THE OLD WAY | IN POPCRAFT |
|---|---|
| Design in a screen tool, rebuild it in a layout app for print | One file, with real pages, bleed and safe margins |
| Find out about the 72 dpi logo from the printer | Preflight flags it, with the layer it is on |
| Imposition software for a booklet | Booklet is an option in the Print dialog |
| Merge fields in a word processor | Bulk create: a CSV in, one page per row out |
| Hope the fonts made it | Embedded subsets, or outlines, your choice |
PRINT SOMETHING
Fold your own comic tonight
Click New file, search for Whole comic issue, press ⌘P and pick Booklet. Print it double-sided, fold it, staple it. The print docs cover every option.
ASKED & ANSWERED
Questions, answered
Does PopCraft export print-ready PDFs?
It exports vector PDFs with a TrimBox and BleedBox on every print page, optional crop marks, registration marks and color bars, and fonts embedded as subsets or turned into outlines. Shapes, solid fills, strokes and text are real PDF geometry. Pictures, gradients, effects and masks are rendered at your export resolution and placed exactly where the canvas draws them.
Is the CMYK export colour-managed?
No. CMYK is an uncalibrated conversion with no ICC profile, and the file is not PDF/X. It is fine for proofs and many digital presses. For exact brand colours, send the RGB file and let the print shop convert it, and expect a proof either way. The dialog and Preflight both say so.
What is bleed, and how much do I need?
Bleed is art that runs past the cut so a slightly off trim does not leave a white edge. The print presets use 3 mm or 0.125 in, which is what most printers ask for. Your art has to reach it: stretch backgrounds to the bleed line.
Can I print a booklet on my own printer?
Yes. In Print or Export as PDF, choose Booklet. Pages go two to a sheet in folding order. Print double-sided, flipping on the short edge, then fold and staple down the middle.
Which comic sizes are there?
Comic page (6.625 × 10.25 in), comic cover (6.875 × 10.5 in), manga page in B5 (182 × 257 mm), comic strip (13 × 4 in), and two-page spreads and cover wraps with a fold guide down the middle. Exports cut spreads back into single pages unless you keep them whole.
Can I make a hundred name badges from a spreadsheet?
Yes. Bulk create merges a CSV into a page: any {{field}} in text becomes that row’s value, and an image layer named {{field}} takes that row’s picture. You get one page per row, ready to print or export.
THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS
KA-CHUNK! YOUR TURN.
Bleed, crop marks and CMYK, ready for the printer. Free to start, in your browser or on your Mac.