when do you bleed?
June 27th, 2007 at 10:07 am (print design)
Bleed refers to the type of printing that goes right upto the edge of the paper.
In order to ensure that the layout gets printed edge to edge, you need to leave a bleed margin of about .25″ above the total size on both dimensions (if you are working in mm, about 3mm on each side should suffice). That means that if your actual size is 7″ x 5″, your bleed size needs to be 7.25″ x 5.25″. (actual size: 130mm x 250mm - bleed size should be 136mm x 256 mm ) Set guidelines at your actual size. this will mark what will be printed and seen after the bleed area is cropped post printing.
You can normally get the bleed size from the printer along with the actual size. but incase you dont have the bleed size, make sure that you put the cut marks on all sides demarcating the actual area and bleed margin area
make sure that any text, logo and design element essential to the layout are well within the guidelines else they too shall get cut in the process
