What is Bleed in Print

A lot of graphic designers and even photographers who have worked with having their images printed with commercial printers are familiar with the term “bleed”. When it comes to printing, bleed is used to describe to parts of the image which will be cut from the print to ensure the print is borderless. This makes it possible to prevent accidental appearance of white margins when there shouldn’t be.

Below is an example of what a full bleed print will entail. Note the dotted red line. This symbolizes what might get cut from a print.

All borderless prints will require some level of bleed. This includes all our Kodak prints as well as borderless giclee prints on the fine art papers we offer.  If you have content close to the edge of your image and you are planning on ordering once of these options, expect anywhere up to 1/20 to 1/8 inch of the edges to be lost to account for the bleed necessary.  For that reason you never want important subject matter resting on the very edge of your image.

To provide the necessary bleed we always enlarge the print by approximately 1/10 of an inch in width and height. The image is then able to cover the entire print space once it is cut.

For prints on canvas or paper prints with borders/margins you will not have to worry about any level of bleed. Those are printed precisely at the size indicated in your order.