How to Add Bleed and Crop Marks in Photoshop

To consistently produce quality photos using Adobe’s Photoshop, you will have to become familiar with the program’s Bleed and Crop Mark functions. This tutorial will show you how to use these functions.

To consistently produce quality photos using Adobe’s Photoshop, you will have to become familiar with the program’s Bleed and Crop Mark functions. This tutorial will show you how to use these functions.

Terms

First, you have to know what “bleed� and “crop marks� mean in terms of your Photoshop design.

The crop marks are simply lines on the screen that show you where the page will be cut after printing. In other words, anything outside of the crop marks will not show up on the page. If a portion of the artwork does not extend all the way to the crop mark, then there will be a white “gap� on the page.

The bleed function is often used to make sure that artwork that should extend all the way to the end of the page does indeed extend all the way to the end of the page. The bleed function ensures that there are no unseemly white gaps where there should not be. In short, the bleed extends ink beyond the crop marks.

The Process

First of all, you have to think ahead. Let’s say you are designing a project that is going to be 5 inches by 7 inches. In order to have a bleed area, you must have a working area slightly bigger than 5 inches by 7 inches. Your commercial printer will tell you how big your bleed area should be. A common size is 0.125 inches. We will assume you are going to have a bleed area of 0.125 inches.

In order to get a bleed area that size, you will have to make your working area (or canvas) 0.25 inches taller and wider than your project, which in this case would mean your canvas would be 5.25 inches by 7.25 inches. In Photoshop, you can use guides to show you where the crop marks are, and where your bleed area ends.

To get a visual idea of your bleed area, go to Photoshop’s File menu. Click on the “Print with Preview� command. Now, check the box that says “Show More Options�. Finally, check the “Corner Crop Marks� box, and click the Bleed button. Specify what size you want the bleed area to be (in this case 0.125 inches) and now your bleed area will show up on your canvas.

Now, if you want a bleed area bigger than 0.125 inches, you will have to go about this a bit differently, because Photoshop doesn’t allow you to do that with the Print with Preview option. To do this, manually select a square section in a corner of your canvas, with the upper line and the side line being the points where you want your bleed area to be. Then go to Edit >> Stroke. You will now have lines extending across the canvas, indicating your bleed area.



Kaitlyn Miller is a copywriter for http://www.printplace.com, a printing company based in Arlington, Texas.

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