Bleed and Borders

Can I print artwork with borders?

Our printing and trimming services are very precise and can accommodate designs with borders. However, there are a few additional steps you need to take with your design to ensure an even, beautiful border.

All of our printed products have a trimming tolerance of 0.125” on either side of the designated trim line. This trim allowance lets us produce your high-quality printed goods in a timely manner. While our trimming is rarely that far off of the trim line, borders can appear uneven, even when trimmed within this tolerance. Smaller products like business cards and hang tags will show uneven borders more. We recommend using thicker borders of at least 0.25” to reduce the appearance of any uneven borders. It is also important that you extend your border out 0.125” from the edge of your product for bleed. This can also help reduce the look of uneven borders.

What is Bleed?

In commercial printing, most products are printed on large sheets of paper and trimmed down to the correct size. During the limitations of trimming technology, sometimes the cuts are not made exactly on the trim line. Because of this, we have a trimming tolerance of 0.125”. We use bleed to make sure your printed products still look great, as long as the trimming is within our tolerance.

Bleed is a small extension of your design that is printed past the edge of your document. It extends colors and images past the edge of your document to hide any small, unavoidable shifts in trimming. Without bleed, there is a high chance of unsightly white lines appearing along the edge of your printed product.

The goal of bleed is to be cut completely off, so no important information should be placed there.

What size should my document’s bleed be?

We require a bleed of 0.125” on all sides on all documents. This means that all colors, backgrounds, and images that meet the edge of your document should be extended 0.125” past the edge. Please do not extend text or important information past the edge as this will likely get trimmed off.

Document size should be equal to the size of the trim plus 0.125" bleed on all sides, as shown in the flyer layout shown above.

You can verify these settings in an existing InDesign or Illustrator document by selecting File --> Document Setup.

Does Bleed Need to be Included on Non-Rectangular Products?

Yes! Bleed needs to be included on all designs, even on non-rectangular printed products including die cut stickers, packaging sleeves, and cards. As shown by the green line in the image below, bleed should extend at least 0.125” past all edges, even curved ones. Bleed can be larger than 0.125”.

Is the bleed correct in these examples?

How do I set up bleed in Adobe Illustrator and Indesign?

In both Illustrator and InDesign, you can set up bleed as you set up your new document before starting your design. In the New Document pop-up window, expand the Bleed and Slug section if not already open. Adjust the numbers so your document has 0.125 in on each side. Create your document and start designing. Make sure that all colors, backgrounds, and images that meet the edge of your document extend to the red bleed line.

How do I set up bleed in Adobe Photoshop?

Photoshop does not include specific bleed options. To ensure that your Photoshop file has proper bleeds, please add 0.125” to the size of your document in the New Document pop-up window. Make sure that all colors, backgrounds, and images that should meet the edge of your document extend to this expanded edge. In the example below, the final document will be 8.5 x 11 inches, but it is set up in Photoshop as 8.75 x 11.25 inches to include proper bleed.