Create Your Own Comic Art Board Template

So I own a pack of this one brand of comic art boards and I love drawing on these sheets. But it turns out the measurement ratios are slightly incorrect and don't match up with the 6.625" x 10.25" industry comic standard size. I looked all over the place online to see what brand made correctly measured boards. The only ones that I read to be correct, I couldn't find anywhere to buy! So I made my own template and am now printing them on the blank backs of the boards I already own. Here it is!

I made this template black for the purpose of it being visible on here, but everything is really a light cyan in print. Here are the steps I created to make a simple BLT (Bleed, Live, Trim) Board in Adobe Illustrator:

Step 1: Make these three boxes within an 11" x 17" document, all aligned to the center of the document.

            Trim 6.625"  x 10.25"

            Live 6" x 9"

            Bleed 7.125" x 10.75"

Step 2: Group these three boxes together. We will call this Group A.

Step 3: Create a 1" x 11" box and flush it up against the top of the document. Duplicate and flush the second box with the bottom of the document.

Step 4: Free Transform Group A so that the top and bottom lines of the Bleed align with the boxes from Step 3. This should leave 1" margins above and below Group A.

Step 5: Delete boxes from Step 3.

Step 6: Center Group A within the document one more time for good measure.

Step 7: Print and draw.

I hope that's helpful to any of you wanting to make your own template! You can download mine from DeviantArt.

Rock on.