What size bleed does an A0 poster need?
A standard A0 poster is printed with an 841 × 1189 mm trim size and needs a 3 mm bleed on every edge, which makes the artwork board 847 × 1195 mm and keeps important text and logos inside an 835 × 1183 mm safe area.
The numbers
- Trim
- 841 × 1189 mm
- Bleed box
- 847 × 1195 mm
- Safe area
- 835 × 1183 mm
- Page
- 853 × 1201 mm
- The bleed box adds the 3 mm bleed to every edge of the trim, so 841 + 3 + 3 = 847 mm wide and 1189 + 3 + 3 = 1195 mm tall, giving an 847 × 1195 mm bleed box.
- The safe area pulls the same 3 mm in from every edge of the trim, so 841 − 3 − 3 = 835 mm wide and 1189 − 3 − 3 = 1183 mm tall, giving an 835 × 1183 mm safe area.
- The page adds room for crop marks on top of the bleed, so 841 + 6 + 6 = 853 mm wide and 1189 + 6 + 6 = 1201 mm tall, giving an 853 × 1201 mm page.
- Bleed is only added once per edge, so the 3 mm bleed setting adds 6 mm to the total width and 6 mm to the total height, not 3 mm.
The most common mistake is building the artwork at exactly 841 × 1189 mm with no bleed at all, so any background colour or image stops right at the trim line and a sliver of white paper shows up along one or two edges after the poster is cut.
Large format is where a missing bleed is most visible, because a white sliver along the edge of an 841 × 1189 mm sheet is seen from across a room rather than held in the hand.
Crop marks sit outside the bleed box, so the full page comes out at 853 × 1201 mm even though the finished sheet is only 841 × 1189 mm.
Guides are placed in a PDF optional-content layer flagged not to print, so they stay visible on screen but are omitted when the file is printed.
- Bleed847 × 1195 mm
- Trim841 × 1189 mm
- Safe area835 × 1183 mm
| Box | mm | pt |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed box (make artwork this big) | 847 × 1195 mm | 2400.94 × 3387.4 pt |
| Trim (final cut size) | 841 × 1189 mm | 2383.94 × 3370.39 pt |
| Safe area (keep text inside) | 835 × 1183 mm | 2366.93 × 3353.39 pt |
| PDF page (MediaBox) | 853 × 1201 mm | 2417.95 × 3404.41 pt |
- Trim
841 × 1189 mm- Bleed box
841 + 2 × 3 = 847 mm wide, 1189 + 2 × 3 = 1195 mm tallBleed is added here, and only here. Setting your document page size to the bleed box (847 × 1195 mm) and then adding bleed again in your design software double-counts it, leaving a white gap at the crop marks.
- Safe area
841 - 2 × 3 = 835 mm wide, 1189 - 2 × 3 = 1183 mm tall- Marks
3 mm long, offset 3 mm from the trim edge- Page
841 + 2 × 6 = 853 mm wide, 1189 + 2 × 6 = 1201 mm tallThe page (853 × 1201 mm) is larger than the bleed box (847 × 1195 mm) so it has room for the crop and registration marks; the artwork itself does not need to fill the page.
PDF metadata
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The generated PDF is a correctly sized blank canvas: a page with MediaBox, TrimBox, and BleedBox set to the dimensions you specify, plus crop marks showing where to cut. It does not contain any artwork.
Colour in the PDF is plain RGB or grayscale and is not colour-managed.
Confirm the bleed value with your printer before sending final artwork.