This article explains the concept of 'bleed' in printing, its importance, and how to identify it in your designs. Understanding bleed ensures your prints look their best with no unwanted white borders.

In printing, 'bleed' refers to the extra space around your design that extends beyond the intended cut line. This area is crucial because it gets trimmed off after printing. By extending your design into the bleed area, you ensure that the ink reaches the very edge of the paper even if there are slight cutting variations during production. This results in a polished look with no unsightly white edges.

Bleed is essential to achieve a professional finish for your printed products. Without bleed, even a slight misalignment during trimming can leave a thin white border around your design. This can significantly impact the visual appeal, especially for products like photos, postcards, or business cards where a clean edge-to-edge print is desired.

Gelato's user-friendly design editor makes it easy to incorporate bleed into your designs. The editor visually indicates the bleed area, typically marked by lines or a shaded region, so you can ensure your background images or colors extend to the very edge.