Artwork

Why do I need to make sure my artwork has a bleed around the edge?

As the manufacturing process can vary depending on the product having a bleed area around your artwork will help to ensure that you will not have a white edge on your item. Items such as shirts and towels can be sewn with variation in size sometimes up to 1/2 inch. When designing your artwork you will need to have 3 areas in mind, the SAFE AREA, or the area that will be printed on all items no matter the size variations due to manufacturing. Then there is a cut/trim area which would be either the paper edge or the garment/item edge. You should have ink/art that goes past this point as the size could vary from item to item, even in the same batch. Then the third area is the bleed area. The art should extend out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch past the item size to make sure that the entire item has full ink coverage. The bleed area also allows for slight alignment issues when pressing as each item is unique and may be slightly off center depending on how the paper/item are placed together.