HELP CENTER

Crop and bleed are terms used by printers to show where a printed document will be cut.

"Crops" or "crop lines" are small lines placed in the corner of each printed document to indicate where it should be cut. Printers rarely print to standard letter or legal sized paper because it is not possible to print to the very edge of a sheet of paper. The paper used in printing is slightly larger than needed in order to allow for printing past the crop marks.

The term "bleed" is used for all objects overlapping the border of your document. Images that are intended to print to the edge of the page should included in the bleed area. Bleed width is generally 1/8 or .125 inches* and extends all around the page. So, if you have a document that will measure 8.5" x 11" when it is finished, your print-ready document will measure 8.75" x 11.25" and will be cut down after it is printed. Many printers will not accept a file that does not have proper bleeds.

Live matter, such as type and other critical info, should be placed 1/8" in from trim. The yellow "safety line" in the image below indicates the safe area.