The bleed refers to the margin that extends beyond the final format of the printed product. It serves as a safety margin and is removed by the cutting machine after printing.

The final format including the bleed is called the data format.

To ensure that images, texts and other design elements are not cut, it is important to maintain an additional safety margin to each edge of the final format.

Correct artwork:

Left image: artwork including 2 mm bleed and 4 mm safety margin

Right image: printed business cards – cleanly cut and with an ideal safety margin

Why do you need the bleed?

Cutting to the final format may result in deviations of up to one millimetre. To ensure that the printed product can nevertheless be neatly cut to the corresponding data format, a bleed must be added to the artwork. This serves as tolerance for possible later trimming differences.

Artwork view: The background design fills the bleed up to the edge of the data format.