How to set up a Safe Zone when on larger than print canvas?

[marygold]

Hello! A few of you may remember me from that thread about trims and bleeds a few days ago. I’m having some struggles with the Safe Zone and I need some help.

I am wondering how to set up a Safe Zone when I am working on a canvas that is larger than what the final print will be (but with the same aspect ratio). I think it’s a simple conversion problem, but I am wondering if I am overthinking things and there’s a simple formula to use.

To put my problem in context:

I’m hoping to print my comic pages at 6x9” with a Safe Zone that is 0.5” away from the edge of the page all the way around— so a 5x8 Safe Zone basically.

I naturally want to draw my pages bigger so that I have room to shrink them down for printing. I am thinking of having a 8x12 digital canvas to draw my pages since it has the same aspect ratio as 6x9.

With a 8x12 canvas I set up a Safe Zone that was 7x11, exactly 0.5” away from the edge of the page all around. However, when I shrank the canvas to 6x9 and printed it out, I found the space between the Safe Zone and the edge of the paper was not 0.5” like I had originally set up, but smaller.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Downsizing the canvas would naturally shrink that space. This means my Safe Zone for an 8x12 canvas needs to start out more than 0.5” from the edge of the page, I just don’t know by how much.

In conclusion, I am wondering what dimensions I should use for my Safe Zone on an 8x12 canvas. I want to guarantee that the Safe Zone for my final print size will be exactly 0.5” from the edge of the paper.

How far from the edge of the paper should my 8x12 Safe Zone be to guarantee that? My math skills are not very sharp at the moment so if I could have some tips and/or answers that would be great!

How do you guys set up Safe Zones on your larger canvases while keeping the original print model in mind?

Thanks in advance!

[keii4ii]

To make things simpler, instead of changing the inch dimensions of your files, just work at a higher dpi at the same inch size. So 6"x9" at, say, 600dpi, or even higher if your computer can handle it. After the image is finished, downsize to whatever dpi you need (but keep the original high dpi file separate from the downsized version).

[keii4ii]

Also, if any of your pages are full bleed, make sure to add bleed space to your files as well.

[marygold]

Thank you! I may do that if my computer can handle it then. Fingers crossed! If you have a minute, for future reference I think I figured out how artists who do choose to work on a larger canvas may take care of the Safe Zone. Could you look at my idea and see if it’s on the right track? Thank you so much!

I was thinking that artists may take the ratio (if that’s the right word) between the larger digital canvas and the intended print size and apply it to 0.5” to figure out the distance needed between the Safe Zone and the edge of the page on the larger canvas.

To get from 6x9 to 8x12, I divide the original length and width by 0.75. Therefore, to get from 0.5” to my new wider distance I need to calculate (0.5”/0.75). Later, when I shrink the canvas down from 8x12 I’ll essentially be multiplying everything by 0.75. 8x12 becomes 6x9 and (0.5”/0.75) goes back to 0.5”.

This is probably a really roundabout way to solve the Safe Zone problem (and I welcome any and all simpler solutions), but do you think this line of thinking is correct? Thanks again for your time (and for the reminder about the bleed)!

[Beatrush]

Just throwing in my 2 cents

If you are doing colour printing, you could get away with 300DPI but anything B&W or monochromatic 600dpi or above is best (I do 1200DPI for my comic)

Also double check with who you are printing with to make sure those bleed measurements line up with what they want. I know Ka-blam has some weird requirements for bleeds and margins so we had to make adjustments to our page layouts.

Gun+Blazer | Tapas

[marygold]

@Beatrush Thanks! Do you think a laptop could handle 8x12 1200 DPI greyscale? As for printing, I currently don’t have any printing company in mind, so how do you think I should set up my bleed and page layout to be safe?

Printing is a distant dream for me as of now, I just want to set up my documents with the assumption that I will one day print in order to save me future trouble.

Thank you!