Bleed Instructions

Crop marks are essential in terms of positioning an ad on a page. They indicate the trimmed size of the ad, or the size that the ad will be on the page. Crop marks help to position a full-page ad in the middle of a page. Crop marks also help to place half-page and smaller ads in the space desired by the advertiser.

Crop marks must be included in all corners on an ad.

Crop marks can be automatically included in an ad by selecting them in the ad design software when creating the PDF.

When the ad has white edges, the crop marks must be at the trim line indicating the final ad size. This ensures that the ad will be positioned correctly and each edge will have a margin in the proportion desired by the advertiser (although trimming may cause shifting).

The width of the margin should take into account 5 mm bleeds in both directions. So the margin should be at least 5 mm. If the crop marks are attached to the image area and not the edge of the ad area or there are no marks at all, it is impossible to know when positioning the ad whether the ad is supposed to have white margins or whether the ad is perhaps too small and lacking bleeds.

The bleed is an overlap that ensures that the ad extends over its edges in case there is movement in the trimming process. Without a bleed, slightly inaccurate trimming would cause a strip of white at the edge of the ad.

The recommended bleed is 5 mm.

Bleeds must be included on all edges of an ad. This ensures that the ad can be placed on either the right- and the left-hand page, or a half-page ad can be positioned at the top or bottom of a page.

Text and logos should not be positioned too close to the edge of an ad (trim edge). This is to avoid text and logos from getting cut off in case of shifting in the trimming process of pages.

Text, logos and other essential elements should not be positioned 5 mm closer to the trim edge. If possible, up to 10 mm of space should be left around the edges.

Lines and frames should likewise not be positioned at the trim edge or close to the edge. Thin frames may get cut off, and in the case of thicker frames, the frame on the other side may be visibly thicker or thinner than on the other side due to shifting in trimming.