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Bleed Area Setup for Digital Print Files

If there is an object in your print design that you want to print right to the edge of the paper, (with no white border) then you need to provide your job with bleeds. ‘Bleed’ is a printing term used to indicate the area with printed material that will be trimmed off after the job is printed and cut down to the finished size. Since the bleed area will be trimmed off during the cutting process, there should be no text or other important information in the bleed area. Jobs that make use of image bleed should extend any bleeding element a minimum of 1/8 inch (.125") beyond the final paper trim size.
 

Example of bad bleed:
Image Bad Bleed
Safety: Text too close to the magenta line will get cut off in the trimming process. Make sure all information you want to keep does not go over the magenta line.

Your type (text) should be 0.125" (1/8”) inside the cut line (magenta line) on each side. This will guarantee your text is not cut off when trimming.

 

  


Bleeds: The example on the left shows a business card with no bleeds. Artwork that reaches the cutline (bleed line) needs to be extended beyond the magenta line. Add a total of 0.25" to your artwork for proper bleed. (0.125" on all 4 sides of your artwork so you have bleeds and the art centers correctly and does not print off-centered)

For example, for a 3.5” x 2” (magenta box) business card with full bleed, the image size should be submitted at 3.75” x 2.25”.

0.125" (1/8”) on each edge of the card will be trimmed off during the cutting process. This will leave you a 3.5" x 2" standard business card.
Example of good bleed: 
image of good bleed		  

 

Bleeds: Artwork extends beyond the magenta dotted line for proper bleed. 

Note, that even though there is no art bleeding off the bottom, an 1/8" is added to maintain the artwork centered top to bottom as well as left to right.
     
PDF Marks and Bleeds   PDF Bleed Settings: If you are creating a PDF file out of an Adobe product (PhotoShop, Illustrator or InDesign), you will need to make sure the appropriate settings are correct. Here is a screen shot from Illustrator that shows how to set your job up with crops and bleeds. If you are saving your job as a PDF file, it is crucial that you save it with bleeds and crop marks. Open the PDF file you created to check that it has bleeds and crop marks before you send it to us.
     
PDF compression setting   Also check the compression setting for your PDF file. A common problem with many PDF files is the compression settings. If these settings are set to a low resolution, it will take your high resolution file and possibly drop it down to 72dpi if you do not check these settings.