{"id":42,"date":"2011-03-03T19:26:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T19:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/copyexpressold\/?p=4"},"modified":"2020-04-02T02:50:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T02:50:18","slug":"bleed-and-safe-zones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/bleed-and-safe-zones\/","title":{"rendered":"Bleed & Safe Zones"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/del>When designing your print job it is important to set it up correctly to get the best results. \u00a0All printing has limitations, and designing for those limitations will make a job much easier to print and get better results.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because it is not possible print to the edge of a page, and we cannot guarantee a precise cut at the edge of a printed image with no content loss, designing your file with bleeds and \u201csafe zone\u201d is very important if you want the appearance of edge-to-edge printing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"If your printed design contains graphics, images or colors that go right to the edge of the page, your design must include a bleed. \u201cBleed\u201d is a term used in printing for images or graphics that extend beyond the edge of the paper that gets trimmed off. In other words, these graphic elements \u201cbleed off the page\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want an A4 image (210 x 297mm) printed \u201cfull bleed\u201d (that is, right to the edges), you should add 5mm to each edge that will be cut off.\u00a0 This will make your actual image size 220 x 307mm.\u00a0 When this is printed and cut down you will receive an A4 sheet of 210 x 297 mm.\u00a0 For image sizes of A5 and more we recommend 5mm of bleed.\u00a0 For smaller sizes (DL, A6 & Business Cards) we recommend 3mm of bleed on all edges.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Page Type<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nCut Size<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nSize with Bleeds<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Business Cards<\/span><\/td>\n90 x 55m<\/span><\/td>\n96 x 61mm (3mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A6<\/span><\/td>\n105 x 148mm<\/span><\/td>\n111 x 154mm (3mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DL<\/span><\/td>\n99 x 210mm<\/span><\/td>\n105 x 216mm (3mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A5<\/span><\/td>\n148 x 210mm<\/span><\/td>\n158 x 220mm (5mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A4<\/span><\/td>\n210 x 297mm<\/span><\/td>\n220 x 307mm (5mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A3<\/span><\/td>\n297 x 420mm<\/span><\/td>\n307 x 430mm (5mm bleed)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Many applications will allow you to design in the target size and automatically handle bleed (Adobe Illustrator and InDesign allow you to specify the bleed size and will add this to the image when printing the final file; Microsoft Publisher will allow you to put images beyond the page edge and will give a 3mm bleed if you ask for it in the Advanced Print settings). If your application does not have this option then you may need to create a custom page size to handle it.\u00a0 Recommended page sizes are shown in the table to the right:<\/p>\n

A safe zone <\/strong>(also known as a content zone, quiet zone, text zone or safety margins, etc) is an area of the printed page close to the intended cut line. While there can be background images and colour in the safe zone there should not be any text or critical images within the safe zone.\u00a0 Your safe zone should be at least<\/strong> 3mm from all edges.\u00a0 The reason for this is that all printers and guillotines have a 1mm drift tolerance.\u00a0 While it\u2019s not normal to happen all at once it is possible that the page could drift by 1mm in the printer, and a further 1mm in the guillotine, and (if the page is double sided) a further 1mm in the front-to-back alignment, causing up to a total of 3mm.\u00a0 This is a normal part of printing and is largely unavoidable (we do alignment checks regularly to help minimize this.)\u00a0 To avoid the chance that anything critical is inadvertently cut you should leave a generous safe zone – at least 3mm. If you supply an image that appears to be full bleed but does NOT have adequate bleed, we will do one of the following:<\/p>\n