Trimming, Punching, Scoring & Hinging

Prepping prints for your Portfolio:

Trimming

The final trim of your page: When considering your final paper trim, take into account your art board (e.g. 11h x 14w landscape) and add an extra 3/4″ on the left side of the page, which would make your final trim for an 11 x 14 landscape image, 11″h x 14 3/4″w.  This extra 3/4″ on the left side of the page is where the holes are punched for the post binding and is hidden in the binding.

We recommend if you’re printing full-bleeds that you print on oversize paper with crop marks and extend your bleeds 1/8″ past the crops.  For example, if you’re printing 11h x 14w full-bleed images, we suggest printing on 13 x 19 paper, and extending your bleeds on the top, bottom, fore edge and into the gutter 1/8″.  This assures when final trimming that there will be no hairline white lines.

Punching

All of our portfolio books are built with a hidden screw post binding making it easy for you to add and remove images. If you are not using a pre-scored/drilled paper, you will need to punch holes in your pages that line up with the binding. We will send you a page template as a reference for punching your own pages, including a couple score references, we score twice from the left edge of the page at 7/8″ and 1″. You can get a hand held punch at Talas we suggest the 1/4″ drive punch.

Scoring vs. Hinging

Scoring & Hinging: scoring or hinging your prints helps your portfolio pages turn with ease and lay flat in your new portfolio.

Scoring

Scoring works great for matte papers. Scoring is the process of making a line or depression in your paper to help create a fold. This gives your pages a memory to fold at the spine and helps your pages turn with ease and lay flat in your portfolio book. To encourage a scored page to lay flat, we recommend once the book is loaded to turn each page and run your palm down the gutter to begin giving these scores a new memory. We typically score the pages twice at 7’8″ and 1″ from the spine/left side of the page. If you are printing full-bleeds, the scores will live on top of the image.  Scored pages work beautifully for trucking images across the gutter as there’s no break in the image.

Hinging

Hinging is the option to go with if you are printing on a luster or satin surface. Scoring will crack the emulsion on these papers and ruin your print. To hinge a page we add 1 1/2 inch strips of fabric to the spine side of your page. There are hinges available commercially as well if you want to do it yourself! Check out these hinges from Pinazangaro. Hinging your pages allows for ease in turning your pages and your prints will lay exquisitely flat in your portfolio book. The drawback with hinged pages is you can’t successfully truck an image across the gutter as there will be a break in the image.