Bleed is one of those print words that sounds far more dramatic than it is. It is perfectly normal not to know it, and once you see it, it takes about two minutes to fix.
Key takeaways
- Bleed is extra artwork that runs past the edge of the finished print.
- Prints are trimmed after printing, and bleed stops thin white edges appearing.
- For most prints, add 3 mm bleed on every side.
- Keep text and logos at least 10 mm inside the trim line, in the safe area.
- Banners, fabric backdrops and dance floors need more room for hems, eyelets and panel joins.
- Export a PDF with crop marks and the document bleed settings turned on.
What is bleed in printing?
Bleed is the bit of your design that hangs over the edge. If a background colour, photo or pattern touches the edge of your artwork, it should carry on a little past the finished size. That extra strip is the bleed, and it gets trimmed away.
Illustration: the dashed trim line lands a whisker to the right. With bleed the colour still reaches every edge. Without bleed a white sliver appears.
Why do printers ask for bleed?
Every print is trimmed or cut after it comes off the machine, whether that is a guillotine on a stack of flyers or our Zund cutting a board to shape. Cutting is extremely accurate, but no cut lands on exactly the same hair's width every time, and boards and banners can move by a whisker.
Without bleed, even the tiniest shift shows a thin white line of unprinted material along the edge. With bleed, the cut lands in the extra artwork and the edge stays clean. That is all it is: a safety margin that makes edge to edge prints look edge to edge.
Pro tip Bleed matters most on dark or bold backgrounds. A white line next to a navy edge shows from across the room.
What is the difference between bleed, trim and safe area?
- Bleed sits outside the finished size. Backgrounds go out here. It gets cut off.
- Trim line is the finished size. This is where we cut.
- Safe area sits inside the trim. Keep text, logos and names at least 10 mm in, so nothing important is trimmed or crowding the edge.
How much bleed do you need for each product?
For most of what we print, it's simple: 3 mm bleed and a 10 mm safe area. Bigger pieces that are hemmed, fixed or joined need more thought:
| Product | Bleed | Safe area |
|---|---|---|
| Posters, boards and signs | 3 mm on every side | 10 mm inside the trim |
| Shaped pieces and cut outs | 3 mm outside the cut line too | Keep text clear of the cut path |
| PVC and mesh banners | Extra room for hems and eyelets | Ask us for your exact size |
| Fabric backdrops | Extra room for hems and fixings | Ask us for your exact size |
| Hoardings and dance floors | Bleed plus panel joins to plan around | Keep faces and key text off the joins |
If you are not sure, ask before you design. We'll tell you exactly how much room to leave for your job.
How do you add bleed to your artwork?
- Set the document to the finished size. For example 600 × 900 mm for a welcome sign. Hoardings and very large backdrops can be built at 1:10 scale; tell us if you do.
- Add 3 mm bleed in the document settings. In InDesign, Illustrator and Affinity it sits in the new document or document setup panel. In Canva, turn on the print bleed option.
- Stretch backgrounds out to the bleed line. Colour, photos and patterns that touch the edge should run right out to the outer line, not stop at the trim.
- Pull important content inside the safe area. Text, logos, names and QR codes at least 10 mm inside the trim.
- Export a PDF with bleed and crop marks. Turn on crop marks and use the document bleed settings. PDF/X-4 is ideal and PDF/X-1a is fine too.
- Open the PDF and check it. Bleed on every edge, nothing important near the edge, all text showing.
Our artwork guide walks through the whole setup, from size and resolution to CMYK colour. If your file is RGB we can convert it to CMYK, but there is a possibility of colour change, so it is worth reading CMYK vs RGB explained too.
What are the most common bleed mistakes?
Easy to miss
- Adding bleed in the settings but not stretching the background out to it
- Exporting the PDF with bleed switched off
- Putting a thin border right on the trim line, which can look uneven after cutting
Also worth checking
- Text or logos sitting in the bleed or right on the edge
- Shaped pieces with no bleed outside the cut line
- Faces or headlines falling on a panel join
Pro tip Zoom right into each corner of your exported PDF. If you can see white outside the trim marks, the bleed did not make it into the file.
Not sure about your bleed? We'll check it
Every job at Print Station gets a free artwork check before it prints, and we send a digital proof for you to approve. If something is missing, we'll tell you, and our in house design team can often fix it for you.
