This guide explain what "bleed" is and why it is necessary in the artwork and printing process. Here we will provide examples on how to add bleed to your artwork and provides some common mistake that artwork is not done correctly.
When your artwork background extend all the way to the edge of the paper, you need bleed. This is because when we print into large sheet of paper which will cut to your requested artwork size, it is impossible to cut precisely down to the milimetre. Our standard margin for cutting error is 3mm. This is the bleed area.
3 important areas : Bleed Area | Trim Area | Safe Area
Background color and artwork must extend to the edge of this area to avoid white strips appearing at edge of prints. The trim line is where the artwork will be trimmed, and the bleed must be outside of thos trim marks.
This is the final size of the printing. It is indicated on your artwork proof.
Eveything within this area will appear on finished print product. All wordings, logo must not exceed this area.
Please try to avoid border for your artwork especially if it double sided. It is obvious to see the border is uneven even if it trim less 1mm.
3mm bleed on each edge of artwork and safe zone 3mm inside the artwork edge. This means that your artwork file should have 6mm extra in total for width and height above the size of artwork that you wish to print. If you have a finished size A4 (210mm x 297mm), when you create A4 size flyer, you need to have 3mm bleed all round making the supplied artwork size will be 216mm x 303mm. Safe area is an additional 3mm inside the trim line, no text, or important details should be there as anything within the 3mm safe zone area will have risk of getting cut off.
1) No Bleeding Area - White lines will appear at edges of printing product , appearing messy and unprofessional.
2) Text inside the bleed area - Any text outside trim area will be cut off.
3) Bleed area is different color from the rest of the design - Unsightly contrasting color will appear at edge of finished print product.
The following table gives dimensions for preparing artwork with 3mm bleed area for common artwork sizes.
| Product | Size in mm (without bleed) | Size in mm (With bleed) |
| Business Card | 90mm x 54mm | 96mm x 60mm |
| DL | 99mm x 210mm | 105mm x 216mm |
| A6 | 105mm x 148mm | 111mm x 154mm |
| A5 | 148mm x 210mm | 154mm x 216mm |
| A4 | 210mm x 297mm | 216mm x 303mm |
| A3 | 297mm x 420mm | 303mm x 426mm |
| A2 | 420mm x 594mm | 426mm x 600mm |
| A1 | 594mm x 841mm | 600mm x 847mm |
| A0 | 841mm x 1189mm | 847mm x 1195mm |
