Bleed calculator
Type the size you want the finished thing to be. The document size is that plus bleed on every edge — which is twice the bleed on each measurement, and the half people most often leave out.
The arithmetic, done by hand
A 5 × 7 in card with the usual 0.125 in bleed:
| Finished size | 5 × 7 in — what it measures after it is cut |
|---|---|
| Add bleed | 0.125 in on the left and the right, top and bottom |
| Document size | 5.25 × 7.25 in — 5 + 0.125 + 0.125, and 7 + 0.125 + 0.125 |
| Safe area | 4.75 × 6.75 in — keep text this far inside the cut line |
| At 300 DPI | 1575 × 2175 px for the document, 1500 × 2100 px finished |
Where this goes wrong
- Adding the bleed once instead of twice. 5.125 × 7.125 is the most common rejected file. The bleed is on both edges of each measurement.
- Designing at the finished size and hoping. If the artwork stops at the cut line, any drift in the trimming shows as a white sliver. That is what bleed is for.
- Forgetting the safe area. Bleed protects the edge of the artwork; the safe area protects the text. Both are needed and they pull in opposite directions.
- Bleeding a design that is printed at home and not cut. If nobody trims it, bleed only wastes ink — set the bleed to zero.
BoboCreate puts bleed on every print preset at 0.125 in, and the Include bleed box in the PDF export extends the page by it. You do not have to do this arithmetic to use the app; it is here because a print shop will ask you for the document size and it helps to know where the number comes from.