Printing Thumb Tabs

[Grant Hogarth]

Yup-- you are pretty much SOL if you want to print bleeding tabs on
anything but a professional printer.  Even those are usually (99%+ in my
experience) printed with the expectation that the pages will be trimmed
to a smaller size.  I'd leave the tabs in, as they are still useful when
flipping thrugh the book (as you noted).  If anythin, I'd create a
template for a "universal" (A4/US Letter) page, and apply that page to
the FM book before creating the PDF, as any user who prints the doc will
be printing to that size of paper, and then either stapling or ring
binding the output.  

You could always offer "tab inserts" for an added price, I suppose. <g>

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+grant.hogarth=reuters.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+grant.hogarth=reuters.com at lists.frameusers.com]
On Behalf Of donandjudy1
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 11:31 AM
To: Framers (E-mail)
Subject: Printing Thumb Tabs

Hi, folks:

With the help of several stalwart frameusers, I successfully created
thumb tabs along the edge of a version of my fixit book.
However, my inkjet printer won't print close enough to the edge for the
tabs to "bleed." It will create the tabs with the text which can be
viewed by flipping through the book sideways, but they won't show when
the book is closed.

And I know that laser printers require even larger blank margins than
inkjets. So, perhaps this option shouldn't be offered to the on-line
customer without a warning. Or perhaps the tabs should be reformatted to
represent what can be realistically printed. Pity.

I have a vague recollection that, in the recent days when I was
ferreting out the tab formatting problem, someone wrote about the
printing difficulties of bleeding tabs, suggesting larger paper and
cutting it afterwards. But I can't find that e-mail. Furthermore, this
doesn't seem practical when one considers that most folks can only print
on longer (14"), not wider paper.

Perhaps bleeding tabs can only be handled by professional printers and
therefore included only in a hard bound version, not a print at home
PDF.
True or false? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

~ Don Spencer