Q: What is bleed?

A: Usually your print job is on a printing press with six other jobs being printed at the same time. This “ganging up” of jobs bring us quality work at a reduced cost. Once printed this large sheet has to cut up and assembled into your CD job. This equipment has tolerance of + or – 1/8 of an inch. That is to say your paper may not be cut exactly as you have asked but rather within a range.  So it is important to adjust your artwork to keep important information away from the edges and extend the background out 1/8 inch beyond where we expect it to end. Submitting a job without bleed tells us that you have missed rule # 3 in the professional graphic artist handbook!