Trim is the intended finished edge. Bleed extends background artwork beyond that edge so normal cutting tolerance does not leave an unintended white line. A safe margin keeps important text, logos, icons, and rules away from the cut, fold, score, or glue area.
Use the production dieline as the authority
The required bleed and safe area depend on the component, equipment, material, construction, and finishing process. Adobe notes that 0.125 inch or 3 mm is a common bleed value, but it also tells designers to verify the print provider's requirement. Follow the current Jinayon dieline and written specification for the exact part.
Check each component differently
- Cards: extend backgrounds past every trim edge and protect corner-radius areas.
- Boards and punchboards: keep text clear of cut paths, folds, scores, and punch outlines.
- Boxes and cartons: protect copy from folds, seams, glue zones, turn-ins, and lid transitions.
- Booklets: confirm page size, bleed, binding allowance, page order, and inside margins.
- Finishing layers: keep foil, varnish, emboss, white ink, and cut paths on named layers with the required tolerance.
Run a final edge check
- View the artwork with dieline guides visible, then hide them and inspect the intended print result.
- Confirm every full-bleed image reaches the bleed boundary.
- Check small text, icons, barcodes, and legal markings against the safe area.
- Inspect adjacent panels for artwork that must align across folds or wrapped edges.
- Export bleed settings and printer marks only as requested by the production team.
What to send for prepress review
Send the approved dieline, final artwork PDF, source files when requested, linked assets, font information, color and finish notes, component manifest, and the name of the proof approver. If a dimension or guide is unclear, stop and resolve it before using the file across other components.