Click2Mail offers a full bleed on all of our EDDM, brochure and postcard products except the 3.5" x 5". Bleed is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of crop marks indicating where paper should be trimmed. The bleed compensates for paper, cutting and design inconsistencies.
The image below shows four different postcards merged into one file. The lines you see on the image are crop marks that indicate where the paper will be cut to separate this sheet into 4 different mail pieces. Cutting machines hit crop marks with a 1/8" inch error. This means the actual trim could occur 1/8" inch to the left, right, top or bottom of the crop marks.
The card in the upper left hand corner that says "Your Postcard Template" is a 4.25 x 6 inch card with no bleed. The card has a .25" margin, which is required for postcards with no bleed.
The card in the upper right hand corner is a 4.25" x 6" card with no bleed. The designer of this card did not leave a .25" margin. Because of that, if the crop occurs exactly on the line or 1/8" inch to the right, a small portion of the characters may be trimmed off, resulting in a card with an unpleasing appearance.
The card in the lower right hand corner is a 4.25"" x 6"" card with no bleed. The card has a .25"" margin.
The card in the lower left hand corner is a 4.25" x 6" card with a full bleed. To use full bleed correctly, your card should be designed with color stretching up to .25" past the finished card size. This full bleed card's finished dimension was 4.75" x 6.5". It will be cropped to 4.25" x 6". If color does not stretch beyond the finished document size, a full bleed is not possible because there is nothing to bleed.
Carly Brown
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