What size bleed does an A2 poster need?
A standard A2 poster is printed with a 420 × 594 mm trim size and needs a 3 mm bleed on every edge, which makes the artwork board 426 × 600 mm and keeps important text and logos inside a 414 × 588 mm safe area.
The numbers
- Trim
- 420 × 594 mm
- Bleed box
- 426 × 600 mm
- Safe area
- 414 × 588 mm
- Page
- 432 × 606 mm
- The bleed box adds the 3 mm bleed to every edge of the trim, so 420 + 3 + 3 = 426 mm wide and 594 + 3 + 3 = 600 mm tall, giving a 426 × 600 mm bleed box.
- The safe area pulls the same 3 mm in from every edge of the trim, so 420 − 3 − 3 = 414 mm wide and 594 − 3 − 3 = 588 mm tall, giving a 414 × 588 mm safe area.
- The page adds room for crop marks on top of the bleed, so 420 + 6 + 6 = 432 mm wide and 594 + 6 + 6 = 606 mm tall, giving a 432 × 606 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 420 × 594 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 420 × 594 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 432 × 606 mm even though the finished sheet is only 420 × 594 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.
- Bleed426 × 600 mm
- Trim420 × 594 mm
- Safe area414 × 588 mm
| Box | mm | pt |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed box (make artwork this big) | 426 × 600 mm | 1207.56 × 1700.79 pt |
| Trim (final cut size) | 420 × 594 mm | 1190.55 × 1683.78 pt |
| Safe area (keep text inside) | 414 × 588 mm | 1173.54 × 1666.77 pt |
| PDF page (MediaBox) | 432 × 606 mm | 1224.57 × 1717.8 pt |
- Trim
420 × 594 mm- Bleed box
420 + 2 × 3 = 426 mm wide, 594 + 2 × 3 = 600 mm tallBleed is added here, and only here. Setting your document page size to the bleed box (426 × 600 mm) and then adding bleed again in your design software double-counts it, leaving a white gap at the crop marks.
- Safe area
420 - 2 × 3 = 414 mm wide, 594 - 2 × 3 = 588 mm tall- Marks
3 mm long, offset 3 mm from the trim edge- Page
420 + 2 × 6 = 432 mm wide, 594 + 2 × 6 = 606 mm tallThe page (432 × 606 mm) is larger than the bleed box (426 × 600 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.