Bleed, trim and safe zone: how to stop white edges on your prints

You designed something beautiful. You printed it, cut it out, and there it is: a thin white line along one edge, or a logo that's been sliced in half. This is the most common packaging print problem, and it comes down to three terms.

The three terms

• Trim line: the line where your piece is meant to be cut. This is your finished size.
• Bleed: artwork that extends past the trim line, usually about 3 mm (1/8 inch). If you cut slightly off, the colour is still there instead of bare paper.
• Safe zone: an area inside the trim line, again about 3 mm, where you keep all important text and logos. Anything inside it is safe from trimming.

Picture it as three nested rectangles: bleed on the outside, the trim line in the middle and the safe zone inside.

The three rules

1. Backgrounds go all the way to the bleed edge. Not just to the trim line. Turning on bleed in your design tool doesn't do this for you. You have to extend the colour, photo or pattern yourself.
2. Text and logos stay inside the safe zone. Keep them away from the cut edge and from fold lines.
3. Export with bleed and crop marks. In Canva, for example, choose the print PDF option and tick the crop marks and bleed box before downloading.

Home printers add a wrinkle

Most home printers can't print right to the edge of the paper, so you often print on a larger sheet and then cut down. That makes bleed even more useful, because it gives you room for cutting errors.

Also print at actual size (not "fit to page"), because scaling shifts every measurement and your trim line no longer matches.

A quick checklist

• Background extends 3 mm past the trim line on all sides.
• Text and logos sit at least 3 mm inside the trim line.
• Nothing important is on a fold line.
• You printed a test on plain paper first.
• Printed at 100% / actual size.

Where Pack&Pattern fits

Pack&Pattern is being built to add bleed, safe zones and crop marks automatically for every format, so you don't have to remember any of this. It isn't open yet. Join the waiting list below for early access and a founders rate.