Crop Marks & Bleed

What are crop marks, bleeds and quiet zones?

Crop marks are to indicate where your job is to be trimmed to, and the bleed is what is trimmed off your print. This is needed when images or colours run to the very edge of a page. Without the bleed there is a chance your colours will stop 0.5-1mm from the edge of the sheet, showing the white of the paper when trimmed. Don’t forget the basic quiet zone rule, which is an area usually 5mm around the edge of the artwork that should not contain text.