What is a bleed?

A bleed in printing is where your design extends beyond the trim area, allowing your final piece to have color all the way to the edge after trimming. See graphic below. The blue line represents where the design extends beyond the trim marks (pink). The edges of the final size are represented by the black dotted lines.

How do I add a bleed?

Most jobs require a 0.125 inch bleed. That is the standard bleed for print jobs including posters, mailers, business cards, etc.

HOW TO ADD A BLEED TO AN EXISTING ADOBE INDESIGN DOCUMENT

Open the document.
Click: File > Document setup
Click on “Bleed and Slug”
- In the first box next to “Bleed” type in 0.125 then hit “tab” on your keyboard. The other boxes will auto-populate.
Click “OK”

The red line around your document shows the bleed has been added. Adjust your document’s elements to go up to the red line if needed.

HOW TO EXPORT AN INDESIGN FILE WITH BLEEDS

To export an InDesign file with bleeds, you need to create and export a PDF.

To do so, go to: File > Export
Type the file’s name and select where it should be saved to.
Make sure the “Format” is set to “Adobe PDF (Print)”
Click “Save”
Click on “Marks and Bleeds” in the side menu
Under the “Marks” section, only click “Crop Marks”
Under the “Bleed and Slug” section click the box next to “Use Document Bleed Settings”
Click “Export”