Print Bleed & Safe Area
Trim size + bleed + safe margin → the document size to set up, the safe area and the pixel dimensions of each at your dpi, in mm and inches.
Trim, document (with bleed) and safe-area sizes in both units, their pixel sizes at the resolution you enter, the bleed and safe margins in pixels and the aspect ratio.
Example: A4 (210 × 297 mm) with 3 mm bleed and 5 mm safe at 300 dpi: set up 216 × 303 mm = 2551 × 3579 px; safe area 200 × 287 mm; bleed is 35 px.
Three rectangles:
bleed, trim, safe.
What each box is for, how the pixel sizes follow, and why the numbers come from the printer.
The three boxes
The trim is the finished size after cutting. Bleed extends artwork beyond the trim so that when the cut lands a fraction off — it always does — no white sliver shows; the document you set up is trim + 2 × bleed. The safe area sits inside the trim by the safe margin, keeping text, logos and anything that must not be clipped away from the cut. All three are given in your units and the other, with the trim's aspect ratio reduced.
Pixels
Raster artwork is placed at a resolution: pixels = inches × dpi (1 in = 25.4 mm), rounded to whole pixels for each box, and for the bleed and safe margins themselves. At 300 dpi an A4 with 3 mm bleed is 2551 × 3579 px. Vector artwork does not need this, but the page you export to raster does.
Whose numbers
Bleed, safe margin and resolution are the printer's specification for the job — many quote 3 mm or 0.125 in and 300 dpi, some differ (folded, bound or die-cut work often needs more). The page starts with no assumption beyond the geometry and notes when there is no bleed, when the safe margin is smaller than the bleed, or when the resolution is low for print. Nothing leaves the browser; the same four anonymous usage counts as the rest of the site apply.
SOURCES
- document = trim + 2 × bleed; safe = trim − 2 × safe margin; px = inches × dpi; 1 in = 25.4 mm; bleed, safe margin and resolution are the printer’s figures
Last reviewed 21 September 2026. How results are checked: How we verify.