If you’re new to the world of print, then you may not understand what full bleed printing is. To prevent your printed product from having unsightly white lines around the border, you must set your document up with bleeds. Bleed refers to an extra 1/8” (.125 in) of image or background color that extends beyond the trim area of your printing piece. The project is printed on an oversized sheet that is then cut down to size with the appearance that the image is “bleeding” off the edge of the paper..

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It is best practice to set up your bleeds at the very beginning of your project so you don’t have to adjust at the end. There are a few extra terms you must understand along with bleed are trim, safety, and borders.

• Trim Line: The final size of the document after the last cut is made

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• Safety: The safe area or inner margin in which to keep all important elements (such as logos and page numbers) within to prevent them from being trimmed off. This margin should be at least 1/8” inside the edge of the trim line.

• Borders: All Framed Borders must be at least ¼” from the trim line or 3/8” from the bleed line.