What is bleed in printing?
Bleed is artwork that carries on past the line the paper will be cut along. It exists because cutting is not accurate to the millimetre, and without it a cut that lands a hair outside the design leaves a white sliver down one edge.
Three lines, not one
Most confusion about bleed is really confusion between three different edges. They are easiest to keep straight from the outside in.
| Bleed | Outside the cut. Background and photographs run into it and are thrown away. Usually 0.125 in on every edge. |
|---|---|
| Trim | The cut itself. This is the finished size — a 5 × 7 card is 5 × 7 at the trim line. |
| Safe area | Inside the cut. Keep text and anything that must not be clipped about 0.125 in in from the trim. |
So a 5 × 7 card with bleed is drawn 5.25 × 7.25 in, cut down to 5 × 7, and the words sit inside roughly 4.75 × 6.75. Nothing about the finished card changes; the extra is insurance.
Why 0.125 in
It is the amount commercial printers have asked for long enough that it is simply the default — an eighth of an inch, 3 mm in the metric world. Some printers ask for more on large work. Almost none ask for less, and a printer that wants something specific will say so in its file specification.
Trim marks are a separate setting
Trim marks — crop marks — are the short hairlines at each corner showing where to cut. They sit outside the bleed, in a margin of their own, and they stop short of the artwork so they are never printed into it.
That margin needs room. Turning marks on adds 0.25 in around the sheet, which is why a design that only just fits a page can stop fitting when you ask for marks. Better to be told that than to have the marks quietly cropped off.
Where it goes wrong
- A white line down one edge. No bleed, and the cut missed outward by a fraction. The commonest reason a home-trimmed card looks amateur.
- Text cut off. No safe area. The words were correct at the trim line and the trim line moved.
- Bleed on a design that is not being cut. A printable somebody prints at home on their own paper does not want bleed or marks. Send them the plain trim size.
- Background that stops at the trim. Bleed only helps if the artwork actually extends into it. Stretching the background out is the work; turning the setting on is not.
Questions
Do I need bleed for a digital download I sell?
Usually not. A customer printing at home wants the finished size on their own paper. Offer a bleed version as well if the design is meant to be sent to a print shop.
Is bleed the same as borderless printing?
No. Borderless is a printer setting that prints to the paper's edge. Bleed is extra artwork that gets cut away. You can have either without the other.
What if my printer cannot print to the edge?
Print on larger paper and trim. That is what bleed is for: the design is printed inside a bigger sheet and cut down to size.