Realized my bleed settings were off for like 2 years straight

I got a batch of business cards back from the printer last month and every single one had a thin white line on the left edge. My logo was cutoff on some of them too. I was blaming the print shop at first. Then I opened my Illustrator file and saw I had been setting the bleed to 0.125 inches instead of the standard 0.125 inch outside the artboard - turns out my document was just barely too small. That was after about 30 orders I had already sent out. Anyone else have a moment where a client's 5 second look at the proof caught something you missed for months?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_taylor14d ago

Huh, honestly I don't see the big deal. If nobody complained for two years, your clients probably didn't notice or care, and you saved time not triple-checking everything. Sometimes good enough is just good enough.

the_ben13d ago

Wait, you really think nobody noticed a thin white line on EVERY business card? A white line on every single card looks unprofessional. Your clients might not have complained, but that doesn't mean they didn't notice. Business cards are often handed out at meetings or networking events. People look at them closely, even if just for a second. If the logo is cut off, that makes you look careless. Also, you might have missed bigger issues too. The 30 orders you sent out earlier could have had the same problem, and you just didn't catch it. The fact that it took a client's quick look to find it means you should probably check your file settings more often. Bleed margins are a basic thing to mess up, and fixing them now would be smart before you send out another batch that's wrong.