I finally realized my bleed settings were ruining every trim job

For like 2 years I kept sending files to the print shop with no bleed and just hoping they'd fix it. Last Tuesday I watched the guy at FedEx in Austin trim 200 business cards and every single one had a white sliver on the edge. I felt stupid because I thought bleed was just extra space, not something that actually mattered. Now I set 3mm bleed on everything and extend my background all the way out. Anyone else learn this after a batch of ruined prints?

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taylor_moore8d ago

The part where you said "white sliver" hit me hard because I had the exact same thing happen with some stickers I ordered for a garage sale. I thought bleed was just padding so the printer wouldn't crop into your design, not that it would actually leave a gap. I remember looking at a stack of 50 stickers and every single one had that same thin white line on the bottom edge. It took me way too long to realize the background needs to go past the edge of the file, not just sit inside the safe zone. Now I zoom way out and double check that my colors touch the border on every side before I send anything.