If your document contains images or colors that extend to the edge of the page, it is considered a document with bleeds.

To understand bleeds you need to know a little about the printing process. When paper moves through a press it shifts a little from side to side. The movement is very slight and in most cases not noticeable. It does start to become apparent when you are printing a document that has a design element that prints all the way up to the edge of the document.

Lets use a 2” x 3.5” business card with a blue background for an example. If you are printing your card at 2” x 3.5” and the paper shifts 1/64” of an inch to the right during printing, then you will have 1/64” of white on the left. If you card moves 1/64” to the bottom you will have 1/64” of white on the top.

Over the years the printing industry has a trick to compensate for the movement of the paper. The trick is to extend your background color past the cut edge of your document. When this is done you have enough color so the white is cut off. This extra color that extends past the cut edge of your document is what is known as a bleed in the printing industry.

Example - Lets say you are printing the same 2” x 3.5” business cards with a blue background, however this time your card is set up at the size of 2.25” x 3.75”. You have extended your blue color .125” past the edge of your business card. Now when your card shifts 1/64” to the left there is enough bleed on the right to cover the shift. If your cards shifts 1/64” to the bottom then there is enough color to cover the top. Once the printing is done, we cut your 2.25” x 3.75” business cards down to 2” x 3.5”. The end result is you have a stack of 2” x 3.5” business cards and no white spaces around the outside.

We ask that customers provide a 1/8” or .125” bleed on documents that bleed. This .125” bleed will make your file size .25” larger than the final size of your document. Lets say you are printing an 8.5” x 11” Product Sheet that bleeds. If you add .125” bleed to the left and .125” bleed to the right and then do the same top and bottom, the end result is document that is 8.75” x 11.25”.

We ask that customers provide a safe area of .125” on all products (though we can quite often work with half that if needed for your design).

Example – If you are printing a 2” x 3.5” business card that does not bleed, you should contain your design elements to 1.75” x 3.25”. This will leave a blank space of .125” on all sides of your business card. This will help hide the fact that the paper shifted and will keep parts of your design from being cut off.

To understand Critical Folds you need to know a little about the printing process. When paper moves through a press it shifts a little from side to side. The movement is very slight and in most cases not noticeable. It does start to become apparent when you have a design element that is too close to a fold.

To help hide the fact that the paper has shifted we ask that you keep all of your elements a pre-determined distance away from the fold. The pre-determined distance is what we call a gutter.

We ask that customers provide a gutter of .125”. The .125” gutter needs to be on both sides of the fold. It is OK to extend a background image or color across a fold as long as the background image does not start or stop within .125” of the fold.

If you have a document to print that has design elements that start and stop on a fold OR are closer than .125” to a fold then it is considered a document with Critical Folds. We will make every effort to maintain your folds as you have requested, however we do not guarantee critical folds.

Gate and Double Gate Folds - Please be aware that there needs to be a minimum of .125" space where the two inside folds meet. We will do our best to line up all folds, but do not guarantee them. Not having this buffer will cause the paper to buckle and dogear in the fold.

In the past, certain objects were set to overprint to avoid the need for trapping and avoid gaps between touching colors. However, our automated system accounts for these issues and makes it unnecessary to set objects to overprint. We recommend that all overprinting objects are turned off before you submit your files. We will not be held responsible for errors occurring due to overprinting objects.

Most often, you won't even notice when proofing your pdf proof. If using standard Acrobat settings, your proof will look accurate and the printed product will not. When reviewing your proof, be sure that your Acrobat Overprint Preview setting is enabled and that you're using the most current version of Acrobat.

Enabling Overprint Preview:
Mac Instructions - With the PDF open, choose Advanced > Print Production > Overprint Preview.
PC Instructions - With the PDF open, choose View > Overprint Preview.

See the samples below:

Pdf Proof WITHOUT Overprint Preview		Pdf Proof WITH Overprint Preview		Printed Product

A lot of printers are discouraging the use of transparency effects in your files. We have addressed all concerns regarding this issue and have no problems receiving these files. This is another step we've taken to meet your needs.