A 5 × 7 card with 0.125 inch bleed
Work from the finished trim outward, then keep important content inside the safe area.
Name the boundaries before calculating
Trim is the intended finished edge of a card. Bleed is artwork that extends beyond that edge so a small cutting variation does not expose a white sliver. A safe inset keeps text and logos away from the cut. Making the outer canvas larger does not move text into a safe position.
The tool uses equal bleed on all four edges and an equal safe inset inside the trim. It handles a common flat-card calculation. It does not model book interiors, binding, folding, packaging or printer-specific imposition.
| Boundary | Purpose | Changes document size? |
|---|---|---|
| Trim | Finished edge | Defines final size |
| Bleed | Artwork trimmed away | Yes, outside the trim |
| Safe inset | Protect text and logos | No, it is an inner guide |
Build the full 5 × 7 canvas
For a portrait 5 × 7 inch trim with 0.125 inch bleed on every edge, width is 5 + 0.125 + 0.125 = 5.25 inches. Height is 7 + 0.125 + 0.125 = 7.25 inches. At a 300 PPI target, the full raster canvas is 1575 × 2175 pixels.
The trim alone is 1500 × 2100 pixels at 300 PPI. That smaller file cannot contain the extra artwork. One 0.125 inch edge is 37.5 pixels at this resolution. Keep the physical page dimensions in the editor and follow the printer’s export requirements instead of rounding each edge independently.
5 × 7 in trim + 0.125 in bleed on each edge = 5.25 × 7.25 in = 1575 × 2175 px at 300 PPI.
Check what survives the trim
Enter 1575 × 2175 pixels as the source, 0.125 inch bleed and a 300 PPI target. In portrait fill mode, the 5 × 7 result matches at 300 PPI with zero crop beyond the canvas. The bleed pixels are still removed during trimming.
With a 0.125 inch safe inset, the inner rectangle is 4.75 × 6.75 inches. It is a geometric guide only. The tool does not inspect lettering, line weight, faces, logos or cutting tolerance.
Follow the print provider’s specification
- Use the print provider’s required bleed. A common 0.125 inch or 3 mm value is neither identical nor universal.
- If a printer specifies 3 mm, enter approximately 0.11811 inches in this tool, or retain exact millimetres in the production document.
- Use fill for artwork that must cover the bleed canvas. Fit can leave borders and cannot create missing background. Inspect the exported file and proof before approval.
Sources
Calculations and examples above are provided by this site. The documentation below explains the underlying print concepts.