Live Matter Area Demystified (or “Why can’t you make my logo bigger? You have so much white space on the top of that page that you are not using.”)

By Tony Pesavento, Art Director, Advent Media Group

 

It happens a lot.

The client is sent a proof and sees clear, wide-open margins surrounding their logo.

Their eyes begin to burn. Followed quickly by an itch in the throat that induces nausea, mild diarrhea, dizziness, disorientation, and the inevitable loss of manners.

“I paid $50 for my logo, why isn’t it bigger on the page?” the client asks. “Are you an idiot?”

“Perhaps,” I answer. “But please let me explain why you are seeing those margins on the page. It has to do with something called the Live Matter Area. 

“Live Matter is a boundary that is set by the magazine publishers to ensure all of your pertinent information gets printed. Because we are submitting your ad to multiple magazines with different page sizes, the Live Matter Area is imperative. All ‘live’ content–images, text, and logos–should be within this area. Anything outside of this runs a risk of getting cropped out during the production of the magazines.

“Visualize this: the Live Matter Area is a 7” x 9.5” bounding box. It begins 0.875” from the top edge of the page and ends 0.5” from the bottom of the page. Its left and right margins are 0.625” from the edges of the page.”

“Oh, okay,” says the relieved client, “that makes perfect sense now. One last question, can we make our logo bigger?”