We all want to know what we are talking about especially when it comes to communicating with a professional vendor. Today starts our Print Speak: One Word a Day Brain Booster series. Today’s commercial printing term is “bleed”- we are not talking bleed in the medical sense but bleed as it applies to commercial printing.
Bleed: In a nutshell any text or images beyond the bleed line is the portion of a print piece that will be cut off and discarded.
Bleed- used to describe a document which has elements that touch the edge of the page, beyond the trim edge and leaving no margin. The piece is printed on a larger piece of paper and is trimmed down to its final size.
Anytime you do not want a margin or border on your finished product it must be designed with a bleed. All pertinent information and text must be placed at least 0.25” inside the bleed line so it does not end up in the recycle bin. Of course there are always a few exceptions- large and grand format printers, print edge to edge and do not require a bleed.
Below is a list of some standard product sizes and bleed specifications:
