Print Resources

What is bleed?

Bleed is the outer area of a print piece that is cut off after printing to ensure that the print extends all the way off the edge of the page. This area should contain anything you want to bleed off of the edge of the page. To ensure important content (i.e. text and logos) is not cut off, those elelments should remain within the live/safety area.

What is live/safe area?

This area is used to ensure important content (i.e. text and logos) is not cut off, those elelments should remain within the live/safety area. Usually the live/safety area is at least .125” (1/8 inch) inside of all four sides of the trim.

What is resolution or DPI?

Industry standard recommends a resolution of 300 dpi for all raster based images. DPI stands for dots (or pixels) per sq. inch. The more dots per inch, the better the quality or resolution. Web files use 72 dpi and are not recommended for printing. Print files should be 300 dpi at final print size to ensure a very sharp and clean photographic image.

What is a vector file?

Vector art is made from a series of mathematical curves it will print very crisply even when resized. For instance, one can print a vector logo on a small sheet of copy paper, and then enlarge the same vector logo to billboard size and keep the same crisp quality. Vector files are typically created using Adobe Illustrator. Typical file formats for Vector files are .ai, .eps, or .pdf.

Note: if you save a .eps or .ai file out of a raster based program like Adobe Photoshop it will not retain the proper vector information.