What is bleed in printing and why does it matter?

Bleed is the extra 0.125 inches of artwork that extends past the trim line on all sides of your design.

• Jobs print on larger sheets that are cut down, and cutting machines can shift slightly during production.
• Without bleed, those shifts leave thin white edges on the finished piece.
• With bleed, the color runs off the edge cleanly no matter where the blade lands.
• Keep important text and logos inside a safe zone about 0.125 inches inside the trim line so nothing gets clipped.
• If a proof is rejected for missing or incorrect bleed, extend the background to the bleed line, re-export, and resubmit for a new proof.

Any full-color job that prints to the edge needs proper bleed set up in the file, built in CMYK for accurate print color.

Some products call for 0.25 inches of bleed, so follow the trim guide for your product. A design with a white border all around needs no bleed. When you export the PDF, keep the bleed area instead of cropping it to the trim line.