Let’s talk about “bleed” when it comes to a printed product. This information will be helpful to you if you are preparing a design/document for us to print.
“Bleed” is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the completed design or document before trimming. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off. The bleed is the margin on the sides of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for the movement of the paper and design inconsistencies. Artwork and background colors should extend into the bleed area. After trimming, the bleed ensures that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document.
Files sent to us to print need to include bleed. To achieve this, the background needs to be extended 1/8″ on all four sides. We trim that excess off such that the piece ends up the correct finished size and the color/ink goes completely to the edge of the page.
If you don’t include bleed and the color just runs to the edge of the page, sometimes we can manipulate your file to make it work, or we can often print it with a small white border. Remember, it’s not the overall image that needs to extend 1/8″ past the trim line, but only the background.
We hope this information helps! Please reach out to us if you have any questions.
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