"Does your file have bleed?"
One of the major things we look for when preparing a design for printing is if the file has a bleed. It's one of the top things that we end up having to send artwork back to the designer for. When your artwork is meant to go right to the edge of the page, it's just got to have a bleed. So what's the big deal with bleed? Why can't the printer just... print to the edge of the page?
Here's the thing about printing. When you hit go, the paper has to move through the press on a system of rollers that pushes and pulls the substrate through the print heads that deposit the ink onto each sheet in the specific dot pattern that creates your image. Those rollers need to be able to grip the paper as it moves through, creating a small white margin around the edge of the page. Therefore, when printing a piece that has color right to the edge, the artwork is printed on oversized sheets of paper and cut down to the actual finished size. Because paper may shift in the cutting machines, the ink needs to extend beyond the finish size so that when the blade comes down, it cuts into the color. This prevents hairline white margins or imperfections from appearing on the edge of your finished piece. Bleed is very important for the production team - without it, we simply can't produce pieces with artwork that goes to the edge of the page.
So what needs to bleed off the page?
Anything that touches the very edge of the page. This is usually background colors or photos. You'll need a 1/8" bleed on most pieces (that is .125" in decimal form), but bleed can be as large as 1" for a larger format item, like an outdoor banner. Everything else needs to stay within the centered "live space" of your design document. This live space represents the portion of the design that won't end up cut off. Generally, it's good to set up a margin to be sure your elements don't creep too close to the edge of the page while designing with bleed - especially when designing business cards, which are small and can very easily shift when cutting.
Many design programs - like Adobe InDesign or Quark - will include an option when setting up your document for the bleed. Simply input the size of the bleed you would like to incorporate onto your piece and the document will set up to include bleed and live space markers. On these programs, you can use the display options to change how the program displays your artwork - by switching to the preview option, you can see what your finished design will look like once the bleed has been trimmed.
Don't see a bleed setting on your program?
No fear, there's an easy trick to setting up your document without an "official" bleed option. Adobe Photoshop is actually one of the many programs that doesn't offer a bleed (this is because as a general rule of thumb Photoshop should only be used for editing photo elements and InDesign would be used for setting up the layout). If you need to create a design with bleed in a program without the option, simply set your document size to the full size, including bleed. For example, if your finished size is 5x7", you'll want to set up a document at 5.25x7.25" - that's your finish size, plus 1/8" for each side of the document. You'll need to bare in mind where the live space lies in relation to the full canvas, but this will at least help you set up the document to include the bleed space.
Once you've got your document created with bleed, it's important to be sure that it's included in the file you send to us. If you designed in Photoshop or one of the other programs where you manually set the canvas size to include bleed, it should import with the piece naturally. However, if you've created it using InDesign or Illustrator, be sure to include the document's bleed settings on the PDF options window when exporting. This option can be found on the "Marks and Bleeds" tab of the PDF options window. Check "include trim marks" and "use document's bleed settings" before saving. Now when you open the PDF and hover in the bottom left corner for the document size, you'll see the finished size will include the 1/8" bleed as well as white margins for printing use. There will be tiny black lines at the corners of your piece that indicate where we will crop the page to create the finished piece.
Bleed can add a lot to a design piece - making the background graphics striking and interesting by considering how they will appear when they are trimmed can really command a viewer's attention. In fact, you may even say it will give your finished piece an "edge"!