What is a Bleed and How Does it Affect My Printing Costs?

A bleed is any printed element on the page that extends beyond the edge of the sheet. A full bleed means the printed elements extend beyond all four edges of the sheet.

Even though it may look like we have printed to the edge of a sheet, we actually have trimmed away the paper and an extra one-eighth inch on the image so it looks like we printed to the edge of the sheet. This process is called trimming to the bleed.

To include a bleed in your design, the image must be extended by one-eighth of an inch (o.125) past the trim line, and the press sheet must be larger than the finished size of the printed piece. Depending on the finished size of the piece, this may mean we get fewer finished pieces out of a standard press sheet. If you would like to include a bleed as a design element, let us know and we can advise you how.