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What is bleed in print? How many mm, and how to set it up

A guillotine never cuts exactly on the line; the blade drifts by a millimetre or so every time. Bleed is the insurance against that drift: background colour or images are extended past the trim line, so wherever the cut lands, no white sliver shows at the edge. Here is how much to give, how to set it in the file, and what happens to it in imposition.

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What does bleed mean?

Every job has two sizes: the trim size (the finished size the customer holds) and the bleed size (what's printed before cutting). The difference is the bleed. Anything that runs to the edge — a background colour, a photo, a rule — doesn't stop at the trim size; it carries on to the end of the bleed.

A job on white stock where nothing touches the edge needs no bleed. But if even one element touches the edge of the paper, bleed is a must.

How many mm?

Most printers ask for 3 mm on every side (about 1/8 inch); it's the common value for offset and digital. Some jobs use different values — asking your own printer is always the safest:

  • Business cards, flyers, leaflets, catalogues: 3 mm per side. An 85 × 55 mm card becomes 91 × 61 mm with bleed.
  • Boxes and packaging: often 3–5 mm, extended past the dieline.
  • Hardcover books and case wraps: the cover wraps around board, so the bleed is much wider; take the size from the bindery.
  • Large format (posters, banners): varies from shop to shop; sometimes a hem allowance is asked for instead of bleed.

Bleed and the safe area are different things

Bleed goes outward; the safe area goes inward. Text, logos and anything important should sit at least 3–5 mm inside the trim line, so that when the blade cuts a millimetre in, no letters get clipped. In short: backgrounds bleed out, text stays in.

How to add bleed to your file

Setting bleed at the start of a design is far easier than adding it later. In common programs the path is roughly this (menu names can change between versions):

  • InDesign: File → Document Setup → Bleed and Slug → 3 mm on each side. When exporting the PDF, under Marks and Bleeds, tick "Use Document Bleed Settings" and turn on crop marks.
  • Illustrator: File → Document Setup → Bleed 3 mm. Choose the same setting when saving the PDF.
  • Photoshop: make the canvas 3 mm bigger on every side, 6 mm in total; mark the trim line with guides.
  • Canva and similar tools: switch on an option like "Show print bleed", and choose PDF Print with "crop marks and bleed" when downloading.

Bleed in imposition: how much gap between pieces?

Once several pieces sit on one sheet, bleed becomes an imposition question too. There are two approaches:

  • Double cut: each piece keeps its own bleed, and there's a gap of two bleeds (3 + 3 = 6 mm) between pieces. The blade cuts each piece separately, and the edges come out clean whatever the colour.
  • Single cut (shared edge): pieces butt together on the trim line and one cut separates two pieces. It saves paper, but it's only safe when the edges share the same colour or nothing touches them.
  • Crop marks go outside the bleed; if they overlap the bleed, they show up as lines on the edge of the piece.

When a file arrives without bleed

A PDF that arrives at trim size, with no bleed, is one of the most common things a print shop deals with. The options:

  • Ask the designer for a file with bleed: the cleanest, but it takes time.
  • If the background is a flat colour, extend the colour past the edge.
  • If there's an image at the edge, repeat or mirror its last few millimetres outward.
  • Scale the job up slightly: it looks easy, but it changes the size and proportions and shrinks the safe area — the last resort.

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