Hi, I have done one side of a 3 fold leaflet promoting our local art group. I have done the mockup on Inkscape. It has a background colour that bleeds off on all 4 sides, and there will be coloured photographs included. I have lots of questions, but for now just a few.
(1) As it will be a 4 colour job, how do I convert the background, Pantone colour, into a 4 colour equivalent?
(2) I have attempted to do the final in Scribus. Is this a good way to go or am I just repeating myself? It is proving a bit of a struggle.
(3) The finished leaflet will be size: A4. If I do the final artwork in Inkscake, how big do I make the Document? If I set the document up as A4 then the bleed will not show in the finished file, I think.

I had a printing business 40 years ago, when artwork was done on a piece of white board and Mylar overlays.
Regards,
Philip

(1)+(2) Inkscape has some issues with cmyk and Scribus does seams like a proper solution.
(3) Usually, consulting with guys form the printshop is the best solution. Otherwise .25", 1p6, or 3mm should do the thing.

Thank you for the post. I wasn’t aware of the difference between 4-color process and spot color printing. I can see how the 4-color process could be cheaper but also a loss in quality. Spot printing seems to be a lot more consistent throughout the whole printing process.

I'd go by SRA4 for (3) on an edge to edge print.
Would use something similar to this SRA3 template.

https://www.prepressure.com/library/paper-size