So your business is having a sale and you’d like to create some flyers to distribute. You are in talks with the designer and they ask if you need bleed and crops… um what?
Let’s take a step back and explain what that means! Below is a diagram to help!
A bleed area on a document is an excess area of usually about 3mm (but differs for each project) that goes beyond the finished size of the document. Why would we do this? Well, printers generally cannot print edge to edge, so that beautiful image that is used on your flyers would likely end up with a big white border and not have the desired effect if printed to the normal size with no bleed.
Crop marks are small marks that sit on the outer edge of the finished document and show printers where to trim with a guillotine.
When files are provided with bleed and crop marks they are called ‘print ready files’. These can be sent to professional printers who are able to print and trim the document to final size, maintaining the desired effect of images or colour edge to edge.
Not only is this important for consistent branding but also ensures your business is conveyed in a professional, refined manner.
So why wouldn’t all files be designed and provided with bleed?
Sometimes simple documents such as a resume or report don’t necessarily have any colour that ‘bleed’ off the edge and therefore, bleed isn’t required.
There are also some instances where businesses choose to print their own documents in house with a basic printer as opposed to a professional printer. In these cases, documents should be designed with this in mind and colour edge to edge is avoided if possible. Below is an example of each.
The letterhead document did not require bleed as no colour runs off the edge of the page.
The second example shows what happens when a poorly designed document with bleed areas is printed in-house on a standard A4 printer, resulting in the forced white border and unprofessional look.
At Paliant Design we pride ourselves in designing professional business documents to suit your needs and can accomodate any requirements or limitations.