What size bleed does an A4 flyer need?
A standard A4 flyer is printed portrait with a 210 × 297 mm trim size and needs a 3 mm bleed on every edge, which makes the artwork board 216 × 303 mm and keeps important text and logos inside a 204 × 291 mm safe area.
The numbers
- Trim
- 210 × 297 mm
- Bleed box
- 216 × 303 mm
- Safe area
- 204 × 291 mm
- Page
- 222 × 309 mm
- The bleed box adds the 3 mm bleed to every edge of the trim, so 210 + 3 + 3 = 216 mm wide and 297 + 3 + 3 = 303 mm tall, giving a 216 × 303 mm bleed box.
- The safe area pulls the same 3 mm in from every edge of the trim, so 210 − 3 − 3 = 204 mm wide and 297 − 3 − 3 = 291 mm tall, giving a 204 × 291 mm safe area.
- The page adds room for crop marks on top of the bleed, so 210 + 6 + 6 = 222 mm wide and 297 + 6 + 6 = 309 mm tall, giving a 222 × 309 mm page.
- Bleed is only added once per edge, so the 3 mm bleed setting adds 6 mm to the total width and 6 mm to the total height, not 3 mm.
The most common mistake is building the artwork at exactly 210 × 297 mm with no bleed at all, so any background colour or image stops right at the trim line and a sliver of white paper shows up along one or two edges after the flyer is cut.
Crop marks sit outside the bleed box, which is why the full page ends up at 222 × 309 mm even though the finished flyer is only 210 × 297 mm.
Keep the safe area margin in mind for anything you do not want trimmed off, since cutting during production can shift by a fraction of a millimetre in either direction.
Guides are placed in a PDF optional-content layer flagged not to print, so they stay visible on screen but are omitted when the file is printed.
- Bleed216 × 303 mm
- Trim210 × 297 mm
- Safe area204 × 291 mm
| Box | mm | pt |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed box (make artwork this big) | 216 × 303 mm | 612.28 × 858.9 pt |
| Trim (final cut size) | 210 × 297 mm | 595.28 × 841.89 pt |
| Safe area (keep text inside) | 204 × 291 mm | 578.27 × 824.88 pt |
| PDF page (MediaBox) | 222 × 309 mm | 629.29 × 875.91 pt |
- Trim
210 × 297 mm- Bleed box
210 + 2 × 3 = 216 mm wide, 297 + 2 × 3 = 303 mm tallBleed is added here, and only here. Setting your document page size to the bleed box (216 × 303 mm) and then adding bleed again in your design software double-counts it, leaving a white gap at the crop marks.
- Safe area
210 - 2 × 3 = 204 mm wide, 297 - 2 × 3 = 291 mm tall- Marks
3 mm long, offset 3 mm from the trim edge- Page
210 + 2 × 6 = 222 mm wide, 297 + 2 × 6 = 309 mm tallThe page (222 × 309 mm) is larger than the bleed box (216 × 303 mm) so it has room for the crop and registration marks; the artwork itself does not need to fill the page.
The generated PDF is a correctly sized blank canvas: a page with MediaBox, TrimBox, and BleedBox set to the dimensions you specify, plus crop marks showing where to cut. It does not contain any artwork.
Colour in the PDF is plain RGB or grayscale and is not colour-managed.
Confirm the bleed value with your printer before sending final artwork.