Guide to Bleed and Crop Marks
If you’re new to printing, you may be wondering what all the new terminology means. This guide explains some of the basic terms to help you get the best out of your print jobs.
What is Bleed?
Printing presses cannot print to the very edge of a page. If your design goes to the edge, we need bleed. Bleed is where you extend your artwork beyond the finished page size by about 5mm. We then print on oversized paper and trim to size, giving you a nice clean edge.
What are Crop Marks?
Crop Marks are the printer marks in the corner of the printed sheet. This lets the printer know where the sheet should be cut, folded or perforated.
What is the MARGIN?
The Margin is the area between the edge of the page and about 10mm in (all around). It is better, both visually and practically, to move anything you want seen on the page (text, photos, graphs, etc.) inside this area.
How do I include Bleed and Crop Marks?
The software you use to create your artwork will determine how you can allow for bleed and crop marks. When using software such as InDesign or Illustrator, just set the document size to the required size of the finished job and simply extend the elements that need to bleed over the edge of the page. When saving as a PDF, make sure to include crop marks and bleed information when the PDF dialog creation box pops up.
What if I’m using Word or Powerpoint which does not allow for Bleed & Crop Marks?
If you are using a programme which does not allow for bleed or crop marks, make your margins 10-15mm all around. This will allow us enough room to give you a nice clean finish.
Remember: Send us your artwork SAVED as a PDF
If you have questions, contact Print Bureau at 01 4733567 or sales@printbureau.ie
If you’re still a little lost, don’t forget we have an in house graphic designer who can do the job for you. Give us a call and talk us through your ideas and we’ll handle everything from design to print.
