Following our previous post about bleed, today we’re going to talk about the related topic of crop marks and registration marks.
Crop Marks
Crop marks are thin, short rules found at the corners of a layout to indicate where a sheet of paper needs to be trimmed to create the size of the final piece. As such, crop marks are a critical necessity in creating pieces with bleed and for insuring a piece is trimmed to its desired size.
Registration Marks
Registration marks, in conjunction with crop marks, are typically found on all four sides of a layout and consist of thin rules in a crosshair configuration resembling a target (see image above). All pieces printed with more than one ink color require registration marks to enable a press operator to insure the different ink colors are aligning properly on the paper.
Crop and registration marks are typically generated by the software used to create the design/layout of the printed piece. Professional design software programs, like the suite of products from Adobe, enable a variety of options when generating crop and registration marks. Commercial printers often provide specifications when submitting files for printing and will sometimes will request a file be submitted without crop or registration marks. Printers often use other specialized software to generate marks and/or to perform other pre-press functions such as page imposition, trapping, and to generate multiple-up layouts. We will be discussing each of these topics in future blog posts. Stay tuned!
If you have any questions about crop marks or registration marks, give us a call (330-597-8560). We’re happy to help you get the most out of your printing project.
