inDesign Brochure Fold Question

[davisjw]

I'm building a brochure using inDesign's basic three fold 8.5" by 11" template. My problem is the template indicates where the folds are by having two parallel lines and you assume it falls in between.

The problem is the inside panel is a single block of color while the two other inside panels are white so it's critical I place the blue at the right spot for the fold.

Does anyone know where exactly in between those two lines the fold will actually be?

And one last question (cause you're here :D) in the inDesign template (same one), there's a pink box that's inside the box they provide for you. What does that indicate?

Thanks for your help!!

[Kwill]

"inDesign's basic three fold 8.5" by 11" template" is not quite descriptive enough but I'll give it go. For more specific help from others, try indicating the version of InDesign and template name.

For example with InDesign CS3, I see two double-fold 3-panel 3-panel templates.

Brochure2.indt (with the cover on the wrong end) 11x25.5" folds to 8.5x11"
Brochure4.indt folds folds to 8.5x8.5"

The latter has a pink ruled crop line in addition to the red ruled bleed line and includes dashed fold marks. If you have a similar template, it should be self-explanatory.

These basic templates make every panel the same width. In practice, two panels (cover spread: two right most panels; inside spread: two left most panels) should be 8.5x11" and the one that folds in should be 8.375x11" so it won't buckle when folded.

When all panels are made the same width, the printer will "fudge" a bit in the bindery process by shaving a bit off the third panel. The slight difference in margin width is usually unnoticed. So you can either compensate for the slightly narrower page or not. It depends on how exact you want to be.

[Designer Dale]

Preset brochure templates can be a pain because some printers will slice 1/8 in off the end unless you specify that they not. Call the printer who will be getting the job and ask them if they have specs for fold lines that they want you to use.

Dale

[bodhi77]

when i do three fold brochures i create the document myself. make the second page 1mm smaller than the first, and the third page 1mm smaller again.

that's all that's required to allow for the fold, unless it's unusually thick stock