Previewing a Non-Bleed Ad to the Trim

The other day, I was showing a non-bleed ad to a client on my monitor to get his approval before sending it to the magazine. He asked, “Is there a way to preview the ad with the white space it would have around it in the printed magazine?” “Sure, give me a second,” was my reply.

I temporarily changed my settings by going to File > Document Setup, and clicked the More Options button to reveal Bleed and Slug. To simulate the trim size of the magazine, I made Slug Area .5″ on all sides and clicked OK. Then to preview the ad with the extra white space around it to the trim, I clicked and held on the Preview button in the bottom right part of the Tools palette and selected Slug from the pop-up menu. The client approved the ad and I got rid of the slug before packaging.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.