What size bleed does a square postcard need?
A square postcard has a 5 × 5 in trim size and needs a 0.125 in bleed on every edge, which makes the artwork board 5.25 × 5.25 in and keeps important text and logos inside a 4.75 × 4.75 in safe area.
The numbers
- Trim
- 5 × 5 in
- Bleed box
- 5.25 × 5.25 in
- Safe area
- 4.75 × 4.75 in
- Page
- 5.5 × 5.5 in
- The bleed box adds the 0.125 in bleed to every edge of the trim, so 5 + 0.125 + 0.125 = 5.25 in wide and 5 + 0.125 + 0.125 = 5.25 in tall, giving a 5.25 × 5.25 in bleed box.
- The safe area pulls the same 0.125 in in from every edge of the trim, so 5 − 0.125 − 0.125 = 4.75 in wide and 5 − 0.125 − 0.125 = 4.75 in tall, giving a 4.75 × 4.75 in safe area.
- The page adds room for crop marks on top of the bleed, so 5 + 0.25 + 0.25 = 5.5 in wide and 5 + 0.25 + 0.25 = 5.5 in tall, giving a 5.5 × 5.5 in page.
- Bleed is only added once per edge, so the 0.125 in bleed setting adds 0.25 in to the total width and 0.25 in to the total height, not 0.125 in.
The most common mistake is building the artwork at exactly 5 × 5 in 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 more edges after the card is cut.
Crop marks sit outside the bleed box, which is why the full page ends up at 5.5 × 5.5 in even though the finished postcard is only 5 × 5 in.
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 an inch in either direction.
Because the card is square, the same 0.125 in bleed and safe area figures apply identically to both width and height, so there is only one number to remember instead of two.
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.
- Bleed5.25 × 5.25 in
- Trim5 × 5 in
- Safe area4.75 × 4.75 in
| Box | in | pt |
|---|---|---|
| Bleed box (make artwork this big) | 5.25 × 5.25 in | 378 × 378 pt |
| Trim (final cut size) | 5 × 5 in | 360 × 360 pt |
| Safe area (keep text inside) | 4.75 × 4.75 in | 342 × 342 pt |
| PDF page (MediaBox) | 5.5 × 5.5 in | 396 × 396 pt |
- Trim
5 × 5 in- Bleed box
5 + 2 × 0.125 = 5.25 in wide, 5 + 2 × 0.125 = 5.25 in tallBleed is added here, and only here. Setting your document page size to the bleed box (5.25 × 5.25 in) and then adding bleed again in your design software double-counts it, leaving a white gap at the crop marks.
- Safe area
5 - 2 × 0.125 = 4.75 in wide, 5 - 2 × 0.125 = 4.75 in tall- Marks
0.125 in long, offset 0.125 in from the trim edge- Page
5 + 2 × 0.25 = 5.5 in wide, 5 + 2 × 0.25 = 5.5 in tallThe page (5.5 × 5.5 in) is larger than the bleed box (5.25 × 5.25 in) 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.