What is a bleed zone and how do you set it up?

Two of the most common questions we are asked is “How to set up a bleed zone?” or “What is a bleed zone?”. Terms like safety area, bleed, and cutting tolerance may sound complicated at first but it's really quite simple. In this short article I'll do my best to help you understand how to properly set up a bleed zone on your artwork in order to avoid any unforeseen issues when printing.

When do I need a bleed zone?

When your artwork background goes all the way to the edge of the page, this is called full bleed printing. One thing that is very important to remember is that a bleed zone is essential for all full bleed printing projects and you will most likely see undesirable results if you fail to set this up correctly.

Why do I need a bleed zone?

Digital and offset print jobs are printed on large sheets or rolls of material before they are cut to the final size. During the cutting process the stack can shift very slightly in any direction which will make the cut line move. This is called cutting tolerance and our cutting tolerance for digital or offset print jobs is 1/16 of an inch. So if the cut line can shift up to 1/16” in any direction you can see why you need a bleed zone unless you want a random white line showing up on some edges of your artwork.

What is a bleed zone in printing?

On every print template there are three lines to assist you with setting up the bleed and safety zone. The bleed zone is the extra area on the edge that will be trimmed off during cutting, the bleed zone is the space between the intended cut line and the edge of your artwork. So if you have a 3.5x2" business card design, it should actually be set up at 3.625x2.125". This extra 0.0625" added to each edge is called the bleed.

What is a safety zone in printing?

The safety zone is the cutting tolerance area on the inside of the intended cut line. It's important to keep important content such as text or logos out of this area as the blade may shift into this area and cut it off, like if you shifted a cookie cutter 1/16" of an inch.

The background should go to the very edge of the artwork and cover the entire bleed and safety zones, while any imporatant content you do not want to be trimmed off must be moved out of this area.

Correct bleed zone setup: