Topic: Artwork Guidelines

What does the term ‘bleed’ mean?

When a colour, pattern or image prints right to the edge of a sticker the artwork must have 2mm extending past the cut line for trimming. This little extra is called bleed and stops your sticker from getting nasty white edges.

In the illustration below, the cut line of a circular sticker is highlighted with a dotted line. In the first example no bleed has been added to the blue background. When this sticker is cut a tollerance of 2mm can result in white edges. The second example shows how 2mm of ‘bleed’ is provided on the artwork to compensate for the cutting tolerance.

Also note; critical content printed on the sticker should be placed at least 2mm inside the cut line to avoid being trimmed off.