Bleed Instructions

Bleed is a term that refers to artwork that extends past the page border and will be trimmed off the final piece. In the printing industry, bleed is used on every job that has ink which prints to the edge of the page. Jobs with bleed are always printed on a larger size paper than the final size. They are printed with crop marks (cut marks) in order to cut the job to size. The ink must extend past the crop marks (at least 1/16") so when the job is cut the ink will cover the entire edge of the paper.

If there is no bleed, it is possible a small margin on the edge of the paper will not have the desired ink coverage.

Make sure everything that is supposed to bleed is extended beyond the page border at least 1/16". If you are going to supply an image file or PDF instead of the native program, you must prepare the file to preserve the bleed. Either supply the image with crop marks or enlarge the page size 1/8" proportionally on all sides. (Example: If the final size is 8.5"x11", send the image or PDF at 8.75"x11.25" allowing a 1/8" bleed around all sides.) If you enlarge the page size our pre-press department will center it on the actual size and add crop marks for cutting.