The bleed limit is typically 0.125 to 0.25 inches.
Understanding Bleed in Printing
Bleed refers to the portion of a design that extends beyond the final trim edge of a printed piece. It's crucial for ensuring that the artwork reaches the very edge of the paper after it's cut. Without bleed, you might end up with unwanted white borders along the edges of your printed materials.
Why a Bleed Limit Matters
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Preventing White Borders: The primary purpose of bleed is to eliminate white borders due to slight misalignments during the cutting process.
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Optimizing Memory Use: Using excessive bleed (beyond the standard limit) can unnecessarily increase file sizes and strain system resources.
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Avoiding Printing Issues: Overly large bleeds can cause problems when printing multiple pages with bleeds on a single sheet, potentially leading to ink smudging or other imperfections.
Recommended Bleed Range: 0.125 - 0.25 Inches
A bleed allowance of 0.125 inches (1/8 inch) is generally considered sufficient for most printing projects. Some projects might benefit from a larger bleed of 0.25 inches (1/4 inch), especially when dealing with complex designs or large print runs.
Setting Bleed in Design Software
Most professional design software (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress) allows you to specify the bleed amount during document setup. Make sure to extend all elements that should reach the edge of the paper beyond the document's trim size by the specified bleed amount.
Checking Bleed in Print Settings
When preparing to print, double-check your print settings to ensure that bleed is enabled. In Adobe products, you can typically find bleed options within the "Marks and Bleed" section of the print dialog box.
Example
Imagine you are designing a business card with a solid background color that you want to extend to the very edge of the card. If the final size of the business card is 3.5 x 2 inches, you would create a document that is slightly larger (e.g., 3.75 x 2.25 inches if using a 0.125-inch bleed). You would then extend the background color to fill the entire document area, including the extra 0.125 inches on each side. This ensures that when the card is trimmed to its final size, the background color will reach the edge without any white borders.
