Did you know that bleed is a crucial element of printing? This might sound a little morbid, but bleed is actually the portion of the paper or substrate that will be trimmed off when cut to the final size.

Printing to the edge of a sheet of paper or substrate with precision is extremely difficult, and nearly impossible, which makes it necessary to print a larger area than needed, and then trim down the paper to match the necessary size.

Bleed ensures that the printer and the cutter don’t leave any unwanted white space, meaning that any color, design or image will be continued to the edge of the printed item.

In order to complete a print order, projects have to be submitted in a certain format, with certain specifications. One of those specifications is bleed, but some are unfamiliar with this term. When customers submit their projects without bleed, sometimes we have to add it, and that slows the pre-press process and ultimately, product delivery.

Knowing how to handle bleed will help you get a higher quality job done faster. Our pre-press team asks that you build your press-ready digital files by adding 0.125-inch dimensions for every project that requires bleed. We automatically trim 0.0625-of-an-inch off each edge, which will result in the desired trim size.

But, depending on the project, you may need to adjust the bleed. In most cases you can simply add 0.125-inch to the overall dimension of your digital layout. For example, a 5-by-7-inch item would have a bleed size of 5.25 by 7.25-inches.

If you have any questions about how much bleed to add to your digital print files, we’re happy to help. Give us a call at (801) 224-8666 or fill out our online contact form.