Bleed size

Standard bleed is 3 mm in Europe and 0.125 in (one eighth of an inch) in the US, added to every edge of the finished size. A 3 mm bleed makes the artwork 6 mm wider and 6 mm taller overall, because it is added once on each of the four sides.

That single number is most of the answer. The rest of this page is what it means, the same figure in other units, and the worked numbers for the sizes people ask about most.

The same bleed in other units

Bleed	Millimetres	Centimetres	Inches	Added to each dimension
European standard	3 mm	0.3 cm	0.118 in	6 mm / 0.236 in
US standard	3.175 mm	0.3175 cm	0.125 in	6.35 mm / 0.25 in
Large format, some presses	5 mm	0.5 cm	0.197 in	10 mm / 0.394 in

The two standards are close enough that most presses accept either, but they are not identical: 0.125 in is 3.175 mm, not 3 mm. If a printer has specified one, use that one rather than converting and rounding.

What the four numbers mean

Every guide gives the same four measurements, because those are the four a print file actually needs.

Trim is the finished size — what you hold once the paper has been cut. Bleed box is the trim with the bleed added to all four edges, and it is the size your artwork board should be: any background colour or image has to run right to its edge. Safe area is the trim pulled in by that same amount, and anything you cannot afford to lose — text, logos, faces — belongs inside it, because cutting shifts by a fraction in either direction. Page is larger again, leaving room outside the bleed box for crop marks.

The mistake worth naming

Bleed is added once per edge, so a 0.125 in bleed makes the artwork 0.25 in wider overall and 0.25 in taller — not 0.125 in. Setting a document to the bleed box size and then asking for bleed on top of it counts the same margin twice, and the artwork comes back larger than the press expects. Each guide below shows that arithmetic worked through for its own size, so the numbers can be checked rather than trusted.

Bleed and crop marks are not the same thing

Bleed is extra artwork past the finished edge, so that a cut landing a fraction off still lands on your background rather than on white paper. Crop marks are thin lines outside that artwork telling the cutter where the finished edge actually is. One is image, the other is instruction, and a file can carry either without the other.

They stack rather than overlap, which is why the page ends up larger than both the trim and the bleed box: the bleed box is the trim plus bleed on every edge, and the page adds further room outside that for the marks themselves. On an A4 flyer with 3 mm bleed the trim is 210 × 297 mm, the bleed box 216 × 303 mm, and the page 222 × 309 mm.

Working the numbers out for a specific size