Flyers · Glossary
What is bleed?
Bleed in printing is extra artwork that extends past the line where the paper will be trimmed, usually 3 millimetres on each edge, or 0.125 inches in North America. Jobs are printed on oversized sheets and cut down, and cuts drift slightly, so bleed makes sure colour runs to the edge instead of leaving a thin white line.
Bleed is the answer to a mechanical problem: guillotines and paper both move a little, and a design that stops exactly at the trim line will sometimes show paper. It only matters when colour or images touch the edge.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
4 min read · Published · Updated
| Line | Where it sits | What goes there |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed edge | Usually 3 mm outside the trim | Background colour or image only, which is cut off |
| Trim line | The finished size, such as 210 x 297 mm for A4 | Nothing to align to exactly, since the cut drifts |
| Safe area | Usually 3 to 5 mm inside the trim | Text, logos, prices and anything that must survive the cut |
Why the cut is never exact
Printing happens on sheets larger than the finished piece, often several flyers to a sheet, and the stack is trimmed to size afterwards. Paper shifts slightly as it runs through the press and as the stack is cut, and blades wander by a fraction of a millimetre. If a background stops exactly at the trim line, some copies come back with a hairline of white along one edge, which is the most visible printing fault there is and cannot be fixed after the run. Bleed moves the edge of the artwork outward so the cut always lands inside colour.
How much bleed, and how it is set up
Three millimetres per edge is the common convention for flyers and leaflets in metric countries, and 0.125 inches in the United States and Canada; some shops ask for five millimetres on larger work. An A4 flyer with 3 mm bleed is therefore supplied at 216 by 303 millimetres, with the trim marked at 210 by 297. Layout tools handle it as a document setting: Canva, Microsoft Publisher and InDesign each add a bleed area around the page and can export it with crop marks, the thin lines outside the corners that show the cutter where to trim. The shop's own specification always wins, so check it before building the file.
The safe area is the other half
Bleed protects the edge of the artwork; the safe area protects the content. Because the cut can drift inward as well as outward, anything that must be read, text, a logo, a price, a phone number, belongs a few millimetres inside the trim, usually three to five. A design can need a safe area without needing bleed: a flyer with a white background has nothing to bleed, but a phone number printed one millimetre from the edge can still be clipped.
Bleed and this flyer builder
The flyer builder has no bleed setting, no crop marks and no CMYK conversion. Every export is RGB at exactly the canvas's proportions, and an A4 page exports at 2,480 by 3,508 pixels, which is A4 at 300 DPI with nothing beyond the trim. For a design with a clear margin inside every edge, that file prints as it is. For a design with colour to the edge, there are two routes. Ask the shop to scale the file up by about 3 percent, which covers a 3 mm bleed on A4 and trims a sliver from each side, so keep everything important well inside the edge. Or choose a design with a white or plain margin, which the choice between full bleed and no bleed printing covers in more detail.
Common mistakes
Supplying a file at exactly the trim size for a design with colour to the edge, then being surprised by white slivers. Putting text or a border right against the trim line, where any drift shows. Adding bleed by stretching the whole design rather than extending the background, which distorts circles and photographs. Forgetting that bleed is only for printed pieces: a flyer that will only ever be posted online has no trim and needs none.
Questions people ask
How much bleed is standard for a flyer?
Three millimetres on each edge is the usual convention for small format print in metric countries, and 0.125 inches in North America, though some shops ask for five millimetres. Supplying a little more than the shop wants is harmless, while supplying less than it needs can mean a reprint, so read the specification before exporting.
What are crop marks?
Thin lines drawn outside the corners of the finished area that show where to cut. They sit in the bleed region and are trimmed off with it. Some shops want them on every file; others prefer a file with bleed and no marks, because their equipment positions the cut itself. The shop's specification decides which to supply.
Do I need bleed on a digital only flyer?
No. Bleed exists because paper is cut. A flyer that will only be posted online, sent by email or shown on a screen has no trim, so there is nothing to protect against. Design it to the canvas edges and export it at the platform's size instead.
What if my design has a white background?
Then there is nothing to bleed, because a slightly off cut still leaves white against white. That is one reason a white or light background is the forgiving choice for a first print run. Keep the safe area anyway, since text near the edge can still be clipped by a cut that drifts inward.
Can a print shop add bleed for me?
Often, yes. Common approaches are scaling the whole file up slightly so the artwork overhangs the trim, or mirroring the outer few millimetres outward. Both work best when nothing important sits near the edge. Ask what the shop does before sending, and request a proof so any cropping is seen before the run.
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Create a flyer with OneCraftRelated questions
- Full bleed vs no bleed: which should a flyer use?Full bleed vs no bleed: colour to the edge of the sheet or a plain border. What each costs, how the file is set up, and why home printers keep a margin.
- What are crop marks?What are crop marks: short lines outside the corners of a print file that show where to cut. How they differ from bleed, registration marks and colour bars.
- What DPI should a flyer be?What DPI for a flyer: 300 at finished size is the standard print shops ask for, 150 is the floor for photos at arm's length. What it means in pixels for A4.
- A4 flyer size in pixels at 72, 150 and 300 DPIAn A4 flyer is 2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 DPI, 1240 x 1754 at 150 DPI and 595 x 842 at 72 DPI. A4 is 210 x 297 mm or 8.27 x 11.69 inches.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .