Simply put, Bleed means a design feature where the ink "runs off" the edge of the paper leaving no white border. Most all high quality design of documents incorporates bleed, however the concept of proper set-up of bleed is often misunderstood.
The concept is the same regardless of designing a brochure, flyer, poster, booklet, catalog, post card, banner, business card, or display and regardless of digital printing or offset printing. Variable data printing, business printing, and personalized printing will use the same bleed techniques if featured in the design of the printed piece.
From a printing production standpoint, the document designed with bleed must be printed on an oversized paper size and then trimmed back to the intended size of the document after printing. It is only with the trimming and removal of the bleed area that it can be ensured that there will be no white or unprinted areas whatsoever exposed on the finished document. Bleeds are almost always set at 1/8" on all sides.
As an example, suppose the intent is a full bleed 8.5" x 11" document. To create the proper bleed, the document including bleed area would actually be set up as 8.75" x 11.25. Those dimensions are simply the 8.5" x 11" plus 1/8" (.125) added to each side of the document accomplishing the 8.75" x 11.25" desired result. Crop marks would then be placed in the bleed area and outside live print area of each corner of the document.
This 8.75" x 11.25" document including crop marks would then be printed on an oversize sheet size by NextGeneration Printing, 9" x 12" for example, and then trimming and disposing of bleed area and excess paper resulting in a perfect full bleed 8.5" x 11" document.
It goes without saying that in proper graphic design all text, copy and other elements other than the intended images which bleed would be laid out with appropriate margin areas from the trimmed edges for a desirable and pleasing graphic design look.
NextGeneration Printing offers numerous free downloadable templates of many different common sized documents on this website under the "Help Center" tab or by following this shortcut link: http://www.orlandoprinter.com/help/resources.php These templates can be used as guideline layers to design your document with bleed, trim area and live areas clearly shown. After you have developed your document on top of one of these template layers, you can either delete the template layer or set it to not print.
Following are some simple instructions for setting bleeds and then exporting to high quality for print PDF files in a few popular applications:
InDesign:
File > New Document > More Options. Enter bleed dimensions of .125 (1/8") in all 4 areas of document (top, bottom, inside, outside) and click "Okay"
Design your document with your images and copy designed for bleed all the way out to the bleed area displayed on your new blank document. After your design is complete and saved you can export to PDF and preserve your bleeds and add crop marks as follows:
File > Export > Save as file type pulldown = Adobe PDF and click "Save". (1) Select "High Quality for Printing" from the Preset pulldown at the top of the window which appears, (2) Click on the "Marks and Bleeds" option appearing on the left hand side of this same window and then select "Crop Marks" from the Marks options, (3) Select "Use Document Bleed Settings" from the Bleed and Slug options, and the (4) click "Export."
Your new high resolution for printing PDF file will be automatically created with bleeds intact and crop marks in place.
Alternatively, use one of NextGeneration Printing’s free downloadable templates as a guide as described above. http://www.orlandoprinter.com/help/resources.php
Illustrator:
Unfortunately, Illustrator does not offer the automatic features like InDesign. Regardless, the concept of creating bleeds remains the same.
In Illustrator, you simply need to create an oversize document including the size of the intended bleed area (e.g. an intended full bleed 8.5" x 11" full bleed document would be set up as 8.75" x 11.25"). Drag in guidelines for the bleed areas and the margins and design your document. Alternatively, use one of NextGeneration Printing’s free downloadable templates as a guide as described above. http://www.orlandoprinter.com/help/resources.php
Manually add crop marks outside the live print areas in all 4 corners. Export this completed new document to high resolution for printing PDF file and save.
When in doubt, you can always go to the source - in this case Adobe.com for help on setting bleeds in Illustrator:
Alternatively, check out this informative free video tutorial on setting up crop marks and bleeds in Illustrator from creativebits.org:
http://www.freeillustratortutorials.com/2008/09/setting-crop-marks-and-bleeds-in-adobe-illustrator/
It is always wise to then review your newly created PDF file to be certain it is created properly, and that bleeds and crop marks are indeed preserved prior to submitting for printing.
Photoshop:
Photoshop setup of a full bleed document is identical to Illustrator. However, we would never recommend using Photoshop as a page layout application particularly including type since Photoshop creates raster images of all elements. Always use the right application for the job at hand.
Rubber Spark offers some very helpful information including screen shots regarding bleeds in Photoshop. Check it out:
Planet Photoshop offers the following:
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/bleeds-and-crop-marks-from-photoshop.html
It is always wise to review your newly created PDF file to be certain it is created properly, and that bleeds and crop marks are indeed preserved prior to submitting for printing.
Publisher and Other Applications:
While NextGeneration Printing does not support applications other than Adobe Creative Suite applications, it is possible to set up bleeds in those applications in a similar fashion to Illustrator and PhotoShop. That is, set up your document to a size 1/8" greater on each of the four sides (inside, outside, top, and bottom) and then drag in guides to delineate the bleed areas and margin areas. Add crop marks outside the live print area of the document.
Microsoft offers the following instructions on creating bleeds in Publisher:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HP101208091033.aspx
There isn't a lot out there on CorelDraw and bleeds, but we did run across a printer named Best Printing with a pretty good explanation of bleeds in CorelDraw:
http://www.bestprintingonline.com/coreldraw.htm
One of the best sources we have run across regarding crop marks and bleeds is from Spoon Graphics in the UK. Although Mr. Spooner works in the metric system, his concepts and illustrations apply worldwide. His explanations are simple and fun and even include screen shots. Enjoy and have a poke around Spoon Graphics' very informative and creative site:
http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/designing-for-print-setting-up-crops-and-bleed
For additional information on Bleeds, you might want to see what Wikipedia has to say at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleed_(printing)
or, About.com
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/glossary/g/bleed.htm
or, Associated Content
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/247731/guide_to_printing_bleeds_and_graphic.html?cat=59