What are bleeds, and do I need them?

The term bleed is used for all objects overlapping the border of your document. If your printed design contains graphics, images or colors that go right to the edge of the page, your design must include a bleed.

When you are creating your graphics for print you have to keep in mind that when your product is printed it has to be cropped and cut. If you do not include bleeds then your printed item may have sections of white border around the edges. The way to be sure to avoid this problem is to create your graphics and when you submit them include some extra room around the edges.  When you submit your graphics the size should be larger than what the final document size will be. It is recommended that you leave 1/4 of an inch around the edge of your design for bleeds.  Any colors that would be on the border of the image should extend to the edges so that when cropped, the edges will look clean.

Color FX has templates online that can be downloaded and show the bleed lines for products you are designing for print.  Templates offered on the Color FX website can be downloaded in 3 formats: Adobe Illustrator EPS, Adobe Reader PDF or as a JPEG Image. Any questions you may have regarding bleeds can be answered in the Knowledge Base on offered on the website as well.

One thought on “What are bleeds, and do I need them?”

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