All About Bleeds
January 19, 2011
When creating a print file that has color or images which the designer intends to have fall off the edge of the printed piece, they need to include extra color, image, etc... to cut through after it’s been printed. If no bleed was included, and we were to print and cut the piece, there would be some pieces that end up with an unsightly white strip where the image / color should be.
Because paper shifts as it is cut, there are some minimum requirements needed for bleeds. Industry standard is to include an extra 1/8” (.125”) for each side of the piece that will bleed. For example, if someone sends us a postcard that is to finish at 4.25”x5.5” and includes .125” of bleed on all 4 sides, your file would measure 4.5”x5.75”, because an extra .125” was added to each side of the card, which means the overall gain would be .25” as shown in the diagram below.
As a rule, we prefer customers send us files that include crop marks, as shown above. These allow us to know where we’re going to cut and what the finished edge is. There are designers out there who are insistent they are not necessary, and therefore don’t send them. As long as their file includes bleed, that’s fine.
If you are not the designer and are sending a file to us, here are a few different ways to determine if your file has bleeds included on it, but in all cases, you need to know the final, finished size the card is intended to be. Without that, you’re guessing in the dark.
1) Does the file have crop marks? If yes, is there color outside the “crop” area where we’re going to cut? Yes? Fabulous! It’s got bleeds! If not, that’s a problem, so call whoever set that file up and let them know we need bleed.
2) No crops? No problem, just bust out the calculator! Assuming this is a PDF, roll your cursor over the lower left corner of the PDF, and magically, the size of the PDF should appear. Write that down. Now, what is the finished size this piece should be when we’re done printing and cutting it? If the size of the PDF is larger than the finished size, you’ve got bleeds. If it’s a small amount, that could potentially be a problem, so ask the designer to add full 1/8” bleeds to all sides of the card.
3) No color reaching the edge of the printed piece? Wonderful! No need to bleed at all!
A few simple steps at the beginning of an order can save you from added expense and delay in your order. Of course, if all else fails, contact a member of the CSR Team and we will be glad to help!
