Simple Ways How to add bleed in Illustrator

How can you add bleed in Illustrator? This post will help you understand how to design a document for printing. Bleed and crop marks can sound like graphic design jargon, but these concepts are easier than you may think.

Last week, I was tasked with designing a funeral program booklet. We will use it in this guide to explain different concepts.

Bleed area refers to any design beyond your trim area edge on a printed page. Extending your artwork beyond the actual cut area makes sure that no unprinted edges appear after you cut.

If you do not include bleed area in your work, you might encounter errors like white margins on the page edges. Below is an example.

At the top of the page on the left, you notice an unwanted white line. This is caused by failure to include the bleed area. To avoid this, I extended all solid colors at the edge of the page 3 mm beyond the paper.

You do not have to do it for white pages since they are all the same color as the paper. For regular stationery printing, we recommend a 3mm bleed. This is ideal for business cards, booklets, and flyers or similar. If you are creating a hardcover notebook or desk calendar, we recommend a 20 mm bleed area.

The crop marks are guides embedded in the PDF and printed document to guide the person cutting the final print. They are represented by small lines on the printed paper’s peripheral area. Unless the edges are white, always leave a bleed area.

Steps How to add bleed to any document

Step 1: Open or create a document by going to Control or N. Artboard options come up. If the artboard is already created, go to File > Document Setup or Control+ALT+P. A pop-up menu comes up.

Step 2: You can set a custom bleed size. Usually 3 mm. You can change the units from pixels to mm or inches as per your preference.

Step 4: If you set a certain figure on the first side and then click the circled chain-like icon, it automatically fills the other boxes or sides with the same-sized bleed value.

How to add bleed and Crop marks in Adobe Illustrator

1. Go to File> Document Set Up.

2. A menu dialogue will pop up; under Bleed and Slug, set the bleed amount you need. This may vary from document to document. For example, a 3 mm bleed is perfect for a business card but not for a hardcover book cover.
3. Click OK. You will notice a red border added outside the artboard size. This is the bleed area.

4. If you can not see the red border, go to View > Show Guides.
5. After introducing the bleed to the document, you need to add it to your design. Set your document artboard size. 

6. Any solid color coming up to the edge should run up to the red bleed line border. When saving the document, make sure to include the bleed area and crop marks in the final output.

How to add crop marks in Illustrator

To add crop marks in Illustrator, start by selecting the artwork you want to mark. Then go to the Object menu and choose Create Trim Marks.

Illustrator will automatically place crop marks around the selected object. These marks help show where the design will be trimmed but won’t account for bleed by default.

For more precise control, especially when preparing a file for print, it’s better to use the Print or PDF export method. Open the Print dialog from the File menu, then go to Marks & Bleed and check the box for Trim Marks. You can also check Use Document Bleed Settings if your artwork includes a bleed.

When exporting as a PDF, choose Save a Copy and select PDF as the format. In the export dialog, go to Marks and Bleeds, enable Trim Marks, and also enable Use Document Bleed Settings to ensure your file is print-ready. This approach ensures the final output includes all necessary marks for accurate trimming.

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