Before making the DVD cover it is worth knowing about things I will have to consider such as margins, safety and bleed. When making a new sleeve in Photoshop, click file in the top left followed by 'New'. The following screen should appear:
Name the file appropriately leave the preset as custom. Adjust the various settings to your requirements but it would be worth researching the various options and using the one that is best suited for your work. Traditionally the front and back of a cover fitting an Amaray case would be 129.5mm wide and an additional 14mm for the spine, the height would be 183mm, plus and additional 6mm to both the length and height for the bleed and safety zones.
The next option to select is resolution, this is important to get right as too low resolution will result in a blurry image. It is highly recommended to use 300DPI as this will provide you with a high resolution image that is suitable for printing.
Colour mode mainly depends on where your image is going to be viewed. If your image will be viewed on televisions or tablets etc. then RGB will be a suitable choice as it can create brighter colours due to the backlight from the screen. If your image is going to be printed then CMYK would be advisable as paper cannot generate it's own light and has to rely on reflected light, colours created using RGB would be dulled as the colours would switch. For both modes, it is best to select 32bit as it will allow for the largest range of colours, it would also be best to set your background as transparent.
Once the new file has loaded, place margins for bleed and safety. For accuracy and for ease of margin placement, click view and ensure there is a tick next to Rulers. If you wish to change the measurement of the rulers, click Edit, go down to preferences and click Units & Rulers and change the following to your preference.
Now everything should be set up so you can bring margin lines in, to do left click and hold on the axis ruler of your choosing, then drag towards the paper. You should see a blue line being dragged by your cursor, you can zoom in for greater accuracy and hold shift to move in increments of 0.5. If you wish to move a margin after it has been placed, click the move tool and click and drag as before. These lines will NOT show up when you print or publish your image.
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| Margins |
Above are the various terms that are used when dealing with an image for printing. The bleed line at the end is where your background must lead up to, going past the trim line. This is because prints are cut in the thousands and are not always 100% accurate, it also compensates for paper movement during printing and design errors. Between the trim and bleed lines should be content that is ok to be there if it wasn't cut, but not important content that should not be cut. The main purpose of the bleed line is to ensure that there are no plain white edges. The width of the bleed area depends on the printer and therefor should be contacted in advance for a template.
The safety margin is similar to the bleed line but contents must be within it as there as it may be cut off otherwise.
Sources:
- http://www.stationery-direct.co.uk/bleed.php
- http://www.discmakers.com/templates/faq.asp
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