The first and last business cards (with the white background) would need bleed set up on the left edge only; the second and third need bleed on all edges.

How To Guide: Creating Bleed

To create the look of print extending to the edge, commercial printers like Holland Litho print slightly beyond the trim line and then trim the sheet down to the required final size. Images, background images, blends, and fills that you want to extend to the edge of the page must be set up to extend outside the trim line. In printing, this is known as bleed, or the part of the original sheet that will be trimmed off to create your piece's final size.

The reason for bleed is for possible variances in bindery — trimming, folding, etc. Cutters can have a little "knife draw" when cutting 3-4" at a time which could show a sliver of white on some copies if there is no bleed. Saddle stitch jobs, for example, go straight from the press to the folder to the binder where all the final trims are done, and bleed is essential.

More specifically, bleed is printing that extends 1/8" beyond the trim. Building in bleed to your layouts ensures that there is enough image when trimming to have the ink extend right up to the edge of the finished piece.

This sample of an untrimmed Holland Litho business card shows how the color extends beyond the trim line.

Your image (bleed) should extend 1/8" beyond your trim. If your page size is 8.5" x 11", your document size should also be 8.5" x 11" but your background image window would be 8.75" x 11.25" if you have a full bleed background image.

We strongly recommend you design with Adobe InDesign. InDesign will let you extend image 1/8" past your document edge.

Some word processing and consumer desktop publishing programs don't support the creation of bleed; if you create your layout in Photoshop you will face the same issue. These applications require a different approach. Make your page 1/4" larger; both length and width to allow 1/8" more image on each side. Then be sure to keep any critical type or images with plenty of clearance from the trim. Once again though, we recommend you create your final files using InDesign and saving them as a PDF.

When creating images that will bleed off the edge of the page, you need to increase their size to accommodate the bleed. As a rule of thumb, use the following guide depending upon the resolution of your image.

Your document page size is the same as the final size of your project, also known as your trim size.

Text box size adjustments in InDesign or Quark:

If one edge is bleeding:

• Make the text box: inches: 1/8" or picas: .75 picas or points: 9 points larger
• For left and/or top bleed, start the box at: -1/8" -.75 picas -9 points
• For right and/or bottom bleed, position the box where you want it on the trimmed page so that it extends 1/8" beyond the edge of the page

If opposing edges are both bleeding:

• Make the text box: 1/4" 1.5 picas 18 points larger
• For horizontal and/or vertical full bleed, start the box at: -1/8" -.75 picas -9 points
• If your box is the right size, it should extend 1/8" beyond the bottom/right of the page

Project examples:

1. 9" x 6" postcard with 300 PPI images and full-bleed background:

• Create your page size in InDesign: 9" x 6"
• Create your background image box:
  • left: -.125" or -.75 picas or -0p9 picas/points;
  • top: -.125" or -.75 picas or -0p9 picas/points;
  • width: 9.25" or 55p6 picas/points;
  • depth: 6.25" or 37p6 picas/points
• Create your image in Photoshop:
  • width: 9.25" inches wide at 300 PPI or 2775 pixels;
  • height: 6.25" inches at 300 PPI or 1875 pixels

2. 8.5" x 11" flyer with 300 PPI images and full-bleed background:

• Create your page size in InDesign: 8.5" x 11"
• Create your background image box:
  • left: -.125" or -.75 picas or -0p9 picas/points;
  • top: -.125" or -.75 picas or -0p9 picas/points;
  • width: 8.75" or 52p6 picas/points;
  • depth: 11.25" or 67p6 picas/points
• Create your image in Photoshop:
  • width: 8.75" inches wide at 300 PPI or 2625 pixels;
  • height: 11.25" inches at 300 PPI or 3375 pixels

Finally, when using InDesign make sure you create your PDF with the HLPS job options file. You can get the file to load into InDesign along with the instructions on how to load it in this article.

One side of the final PDF (with crop marks) for a project we recently printed.