What size bleed does an A1 poster need?
A standard A1 poster is printed with a 594 × 841 mm trim size and needs a 3 mm bleed on every edge, which makes the artwork board 600 × 847 mm and keeps important text and logos inside a 588 × 835 mm safe area.
The numbers
- Trim
- 594 × 841 mm
- Bleed box
- 600 × 847 mm
- Safe area
- 588 × 835 mm
- Page
- 606 × 853 mm
- The bleed box adds the 3 mm bleed to every edge of the trim, so 594 + 3 + 3 = 600 mm wide and 841 + 3 + 3 = 847 mm tall, giving a 600 × 847 mm bleed box.
- The safe area pulls the same 3 mm in from every edge of the trim, so 594 − 3 − 3 = 588 mm wide and 841 − 3 − 3 = 835 mm tall, giving a 588 × 835 mm safe area.
- The page adds room for crop marks on top of the bleed, so 594 + 6 + 6 = 606 mm wide and 841 + 6 + 6 = 853 mm tall, giving a 606 × 853 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 594 × 841 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 a 594 × 841 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 606 × 853 mm even though the finished sheet is only 594 × 841 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.
- Bleed600 × 847 mm
- Trim594 × 841 mm
- Safe area588 × 835 mm
| Box | mm | pt |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed box (make artwork this big) | 600 × 847 mm | 1700.79 × 2400.94 pt |
| Trim (final cut size) | 594 × 841 mm | 1683.78 × 2383.94 pt |
| Safe area (keep text inside) | 588 × 835 mm | 1666.77 × 2366.93 pt |
| PDF page (MediaBox) | 606 × 853 mm | 1717.8 × 2417.95 pt |
- Trim
594 × 841 mm- Bleed box
594 + 2 × 3 = 600 mm wide, 841 + 2 × 3 = 847 mm tallBleed is added here, and only here. Setting your document page size to the bleed box (600 × 847 mm) and then adding bleed again in your design software double-counts it, leaving a white gap at the crop marks.
- Safe area
594 - 2 × 3 = 588 mm wide, 841 - 2 × 3 = 835 mm tall- Marks
3 mm long, offset 3 mm from the trim edge- Page
594 + 2 × 6 = 606 mm wide, 841 + 2 × 6 = 853 mm tallThe page (606 × 853 mm) is larger than the bleed box (600 × 847 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.