Full Bleed

Most people don't realize that to print a document to the edge requires a printing term called bleed. The bleed is the area that is trimmed away from the paper stock to produce a finished piece. A business card that you've had printed won't have a bleed because it's already been trimmed to the finish size of 3 1/2" x 2".

In addition there have been times when a client has downloaded a template, and the size of each "box" is the finish size.

Creating artificial bleed is more art than science and requires cloneing the edge so that when trimmed away, it appears to have been a full bleed print.

Below is an example of what a full bleed card would look like.

The red dotted line marks the trim line. The photographic background extends past this trim line. In addition there is a safe text area within the trim area. This is to ensure that nothing is cut off during the trim process.

While the Office and Avery templates can be useful, they are typically setup for 10 business cards per sheet. These templates aren't ideally suited to a full-bleed card.

Typically, we use an 8-up template because this allows us to create one card and then duplicate it across the template without the worry of the cards bleed area overlapping each other.

Next week, we discuss Second Generation designs and how to overcome scanning issues.

Here Endeth the Lesson