Discussion Point: Elise Bouchard

Bleed

Although I have used ‘bleed’ in the past I have never fully understood how it works or how to use it correctly so I have researched this process of file preparation in further detail. I have come to learn that bleed is required when a print project needs to print to the edge of the page and no white boarder is wanted. It is difficult or near impossible to print all the way to the edge of paper, so in order to ensure that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document bleed is necessary. To conquer this problem bleed creates a boarder slightly larger than the trim line giving the document a bleed. The designer must then extend all content they want printed to the edge of the page to this bleed line to ensure once the document has been printed and trimmed down to the required size they aren’t left with any blank edges. As the bleed area will be trimmed off it is important to note that no text or other important information is placed in the bleed area. The most typical bleed size is 3mm on all sides. This setting must be done by the designer before sending off the final artwork for print and can be set up easily by selecting the desired bleed size in the documents setup.

References:

Bargain Printing, 2007, ‘File Preparations: Bleed’, http://www.bargainprinting.com/body_bleeds.php

Printer National, 2012, ‘What Is Bleed’, http://www.printernational.org/what-is-bleed.php