How do I correct bleed?

Have you ever finished your newest wine tag, rack card, or door hanger design, only to realize that your bleeds aren’t set up correctly? Sometimes the bleed on your file can be accidentally changed without you noticing, or perhaps it never got set up in the first place. Don’t worry! Bleed is easy to adjust!

How do I adjust bleed in Illustrator?

You can adjust bleed in Adobe Illustrator by opening the “Document Setup” window, found in the “File” group on your top menu bar. In the Document Setup window, check that you are on the “General” page. This should be the default page it opens to. On this page, find the section labeled “Bleed”. Adjust all values to be 0.125 inches. Click “OK” at the bottom of the menu.

When you return to your document, your bleed should now be 0.125” on all sides of your document. You can now adjust your design so that all backgrounds and images that touch the edge of your design extend to the new bleed line.

How do I adjust bleed in InDesign?

You can adjust bleed in Adobe InDesign by opening the “Document Setup” window, found in the “File” group on your top menu bar. In the Document Setup window, open the section labeled “Bleed and Slug”. Find the line labeled “Bleed”. Adjust all values to be 0.125 inches. Click “OK” at the bottom of the menu.

When you return to your document, your bleed should now be 0.125” on all sides of your document. You can now adjust your design so that all backgrounds and images that touch the edge of your design extend to the new bleed line.

How do I adjust bleed in Photoshop?

There are no specific bleed settings in Photoshop. However, you can add bleed by adjusting the image size and adding 0.125 inches to all four sides. To do this, open the “Canvas Size” window, found in the “Image” group on your top menu bar. In the Canvas Size window, find the lines labeled “Width” and “Height”. Add 0.25” (0.125” for each side) to both values. Click “OK” on the side of the menu.

When you return to your document, your image should now include an extra 0.125” on all sides. You can now adjust your design so that all backgrounds and images that touch the edge of your design extend to the new bleed line.

The image below shows what the values would be for a 4” x 6” final printed document size. Adding the 0.125” bleed to each side of the image brings the document size to 4.25” x 6.25” in Photoshop.