How to add bleed for print and general info for submitting PDF files.

The most common problem we encounter is artworks being supplied without bleed, so firstly, why do printers need bleed? Well we need bleed for leaflets, booklets, business cards and most other forms of printed matter so that we can achieve a clean professional finish to your work, it's quite simple and the accompanying picture should help to explain. If you have photos or a coloured background running off the edge of your design then it needs to extend across the trim line by 3mm. This extra 3mm is then cut off at the finishing stage to give a clean finish. If the coloured background was to stop at the trim line you would end up with an untidy finish with slithers of white on some of the edges. The only exceptions are 10mm bleed for banners, and 30mm for bespoke flags, display and backlit polyester. To account for the required bleed when creating your design document we recommend that you add the bleed to the canvas size that you create, so as follows

A1+ bleed canvas size 600mm x 847mm and trim size 594 x 841mm.

A2 + bleed canvas size 426mm x 600mm and trim size 420 x 594mm.

A3 + bleed canvas size 303mm x 426mm and trim size 297 x 420mm.

A4 + bleed canvas size 216mm x 303mm and trim size 210 x 297mm.

A5 + bleed canvas size 154mm x 216mm and trim size 148 x 210mm.

A6 + bleed canvas size 111mm x 154mm and trim size 105 x 148mm.

A7 + bleed canvas size 80mm x 111mm and trim size 74 x 105mm.

Files supplied should be 300dpi high resolution CMYK print ready PDF's

It's a good idea to take into account when looking at your finished artwork to visualise how it will look once we have cut off the 3mm bleed area. Remember to keep a 4mm safe zone within the trim area so that no logo's or text will be left too close to the edge once trimmed as that gives an unprofessional appearance to the finished product. Finally we don't need trim marks and to be honest on banners and large format then we definitely don't want them, all we need is bleed!

I hope this helps and for any further info just get in touch with one of our team who will be happy to help.