Want to print a board game rulebook using a pdf. Print design questions
November 9, 2022 4:36 PM Subscribe
I’m making a print and play edition of a board game and I want to print a mini rulebook to fit into the box I’m using to store the game. I have no design skills or experience prepping digital files for printing.
The box’s inner dimensions are 4 3/8 x 6 3/8. I’m thinking the rulebook should be no more than 4 x 6.
The pdf of the rulebook I’m going to use is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17_jkXHeHNg18vsLyHML_HBQgZudkX2EK/view?usp=drivesdk
I want to make sure that when I have it printed that it
A. Is sized proportionally so that it doesn’t become smushed or illegible
B. Doesn’t have anything cut off near the edges of the pages due to “bleed”
I don’t know how to account for bleed or how to modify a pdf to make room for bleed so if I take this pdf to a local printshop will they help me modify the pdf if needed? Will they proof the manual first so we know that the final product will look right? How much should I expect this to cost, to print 2 or 3 copies?
Thanks!
The box’s inner dimensions are 4 3/8 x 6 3/8. I’m thinking the rulebook should be no more than 4 x 6.
The pdf of the rulebook I’m going to use is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17_jkXHeHNg18vsLyHML_HBQgZudkX2EK/view?usp=drivesdk
I want to make sure that when I have it printed that it
A. Is sized proportionally so that it doesn’t become smushed or illegible
B. Doesn’t have anything cut off near the edges of the pages due to “bleed”
I don’t know how to account for bleed or how to modify a pdf to make room for bleed so if I take this pdf to a local printshop will they help me modify the pdf if needed? Will they proof the manual first so we know that the final product will look right? How much should I expect this to cost, to print 2 or 3 copies?
Thanks!
You can create this in Canva - it will let you choose the size, they can print on card stock and there are lots of background templates to choose from if you want to make it prettier. Their printing costs are really reasonable and I’ve been happy with the results.
posted by Mchelly at 6:04 PM on November 9, 2022
posted by Mchelly at 6:04 PM on November 9, 2022
Your simplest option is to ask them to scale the pdf to fit the page. Looks like about 70% or so will do it. This shouldn't skew anything - it will just scale down. The text will be kinda small. You could do a few pages and see if it's readable enough for you.
If you want to control bleeds better, you can have a graphic designer place the pdf pages into a document at the proper size and manually adjust each page, adding bleeds if you'll be printing with bleeds or removing them if you won't. That's probably an hour or 2 worth of design work.
A local print shop can assist with either of these options and give you a cost estimate (price will vary depending on paper, color, bleeds, etc.)
Last option is to have a designer cut and re-paste the whole booklet, re-imagining pages so you don't lose text size. This will add to the page count.
posted by hydra77 at 9:13 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you want to control bleeds better, you can have a graphic designer place the pdf pages into a document at the proper size and manually adjust each page, adding bleeds if you'll be printing with bleeds or removing them if you won't. That's probably an hour or 2 worth of design work.
A local print shop can assist with either of these options and give you a cost estimate (price will vary depending on paper, color, bleeds, etc.)
Last option is to have a designer cut and re-paste the whole booklet, re-imagining pages so you don't lose text size. This will add to the page count.
posted by hydra77 at 9:13 AM on November 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
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A printing place totally can. But, as they don’t likely know the Glory To Rome saga, they might refuse to print it, as copyrighted material.
posted by Windopaene at 5:01 PM on November 9, 2022