Producing a Double Truck Ad

A double truck ad is an ad that spreads across the gutter to both pages -usually with a bleed, but not always. When producing a double truck ad, you should make allowances for the type to cross the gutter. A beautifully produced ad will leave the reader unaware that there is a gutter. In the first image below, you can see that the designer left a huge gutter. Much to large for this magazine. This is a rather high end home decor magazine with a high end advertiser placed within the first 10 pages of the publication ( a pricey placement location). The creative in this ad is really sophisticated and beautiful, but the production was poorly executed.I know that most times, the designer doesn't know where in the publication the ad will be placed, but as a rule of thumb, you can use a 1/8" gutter on each side of the gutter, and be ok most of the time. Usually the publication will have a gutter size in the specifications of the ad. In this case the gutter is much too large, it's about 3/8" on each side of the gutter. It's possible this ad was created for a different publication and then sent to this magazine — maybe the wrong file was picked up and sent to this publication. Either way, you should always print out the ad at 100% and mock it up with the actual gutter size to proof yourself, before sending the ad out for printing. I know it takes more time, but it's worth it, to make sure your production is as high quality as the product the ad is selling.The one thing you don't want to do, is allow the magazine to revise the ad for you, they just don't have the time. They will more than likely print whatever you send them.Tomorrow, I will post an ad with the opposite problem. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer it.