- Printing without bleed: a white border will always be visible on the print, even if the image in your file does run to the edge.
- Printing with bleed: the image runs to the edge.
To get a bleed print, an edge must be cut off the paper. For this reason, the file must be at least 3 mm longer and wider - on all sides - than the final size of the print. We call this the bleed margin or cutting margin. To cut the print to the correct size, the PDF file should preferably also contain four cutting marks in the corners, marking the extra 3 mm space at the corners
Example:
The file for a print on A4 (210 x 297 mm) should have the following dimensions:
210 (+ 3 mm left + 3 mm right) x 297 (+ 3 mm top + 3 mm bottom) = 216 x 303 mm