Tutorial
Specify a Trim Size

For most designers, the first task in any job is to establish a trim size and set up grid or column guides to establish consistent rules for the placement of elements on their pages. You can specify a page size, or trim size, at any dimensions you want.

  1. Choose the Page Setup command from the File menu. The Page Setup dialog box appears with US Letter size (8.5 inches by 11 inches) and upright orientation selected. The width and depth of the page are displayed in inches in the dialog box. A number of other standard page sizes are presented as options for your convenience. But for this brochure, the trim size is 6 inches by 9 inches. The width of the page is already selected in the Width box, so you can simply type a new number to replace it.

  2. Type 6. 6 replaces 8.5 in the Width box, and the Custom option is automatically selected. When you're working in dialog boxes that include places for you to type information, you can quickly select the contents of each text box, in order, by pressing the Tab key.

  3. Press the Tab key to select the contents of the Depth box and type 9. 9 replaces 11 in the Depth box.

  4. Click OK to confirm the page size you specified. The dialog box disappears, and the page outline and crop marks in the document window change to reflect the new 6-inch by 9-inch trim size.