What is printing bleed?
Bleed is any image, object or colour that extends past the crop-line, cut-line or trim-line.
Why does my document need bleed?
Because a white line ( the paper ) is very likely to show on one or all four sides when your document is cut to the finished size. This uneven line will vary in thickness and on what side it appears through the entire job. There are several reasons why this occurs, primarily it’s due to the paper moving as the knife cuts through a stack of your printed documents and operator alignment errors. But the white line is eliminated when bleed is present.
Why do I need crop and trim marks and what are they?
They indicate to the printer the finished size of your document and where your document needs to be cut. These two lines that are generally .25pts in thickness and .25″ in length. They are present in all four corners of your document and in registration colour. Most software applications will automatically add these if you select to add them.
— The red line indicates bleed. Any image outside the trim is bleed. This will be trimmed off.
— The blue line indicates the crop-line, cut-line or trim. This is the final size of your finished project and where it will be cut.
— The green line indicates your safety. All important text and images must be inside the safety line. This is normally a minimum of .125 inches inside the cut-line.
The red, blue and green lines are for example purposes, and should not be present on any job you send to a printer.