Can some one explain Bleeds and Bleed limits to me?

Good question, I get this a lot.

If you are designing a piece that has an image or shape that goes all the way to the edge of the paper (no margin) then you need to add a bleed. Basically a bleed is the extension of the image past the edge of the paper. When printing on a press (and sometimes copier) a project is often printed on a larger sheet of paper and then cut down to final size (for a number of reasons). If there were no bleed then when cut down you would have some pages that had a slight white border because they moved in the cutter a millimeter or so. With a bleed it is impossible to get a white border because your image overlaps the cut line.

The amount of bleed needed depends on a number of things including; page size, project type and type of printing. Usually 1/8" (.125) is good for most things but for large projects you may need more. A printer can usually reduce the amount of bleed but cannot extend it.

Hope this helps :)

Freakyclean

Another note on bleeds is that a project that can be more expensive so you may need to keep your or your client's budget in mind when choosing to design for 'full bleed' etc.

Steeldolphin is right... here's some more info though

Projects with bleeds will cost more if copied when using standard paper sizes because a special oversize sheet has to be used. Most copiers can't even do this. Copy shops order paper in standard sizes like 8.5x11 and 11x17 not like printers - see below

About 90% of the work that goes on a typical press however is printed on oversized sheets. Paper is ordered by a printer in sizes like 23x35, 19x25, 25x38, and 26x40 among others. When cut down to run size they end up like 8.75x11.5, which is cut down to 8.5x11 after printing. So if your job is 8.5x11 or 11x17 then there should be very little if any extra cost. Where I work probably close to 50% of jobs have some kind of bleed.

Exceptions:
-Some letterhead stock comes pre-cut to 8.5x11 so a bleed is impossible.
-If you have multiple pages up (like running business cards 10 up on 8.5x11) then sometimes if there is a bleed you have to go to a larger stock, increasing price.
-Large format inkjets and other plotters charge per square foot so you would be charged more for the bleed.


There, I think that I have now thoroughly beaten that to death…. onto another post :)

freakyclean

Great!

Thanks!