Category: General discussion
Later topic: Old Versus New
Earlier topic: Miehle Manual

Bleed on greeting cards

I am going to be doing a greeting card, and the customer wants a bleed. The only problem is I can’t figure out how to do the bleed so it won’t be on the back of the card. The only thing I can think of is pre folding it and doing it that way, but I don’t think it would look that great. Any other suggestions?

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You need to bleed three sides of the image, aligning the one side with the fold, but allowing 1/16” or so extra on the image sides that bleed off the sheet. After printing, cut down to the correct size, cutting off the extra image width on the three sides.

  • inky
  • on 27 Apr 12 (01:48)

jhenry is a good printer and gives good advice. He knows what he is doing. You want to make sure you do before you start. I would suggest that you have about 1/16” extra of the printed form that you will cut away plus an extra 1/16” of blank space out beyond that.

All you want to do is to let the image cross over the fold of the card enough so it isn’t seen when looking at the front of the card. I would say about 1/16” should cover it, if you are scoring accurately.

In truth when you cross over a fold this isn’t actually a bleed, but you just give the impression of it when the card is folded closed.

Also, I would tend to bleed with 1/8” off the sides of the cards just to make sure you have the flexibility.

Thank you for all the info. I figured this was what we would have to do, but being new to letterpress I figured I would ask if there was another way. Thanks again :-)