Pixels, Ink & That Mysterious .125” Bleed

If you’ve ever submitted a graphic only to have it sent back with notes about bleeds, color modes, or pixelated logos, you’re not alone. These three specs aren’t arbitrary hurdles—they’re fundamentals of professional print.

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Raster vs. Vector

A raster image (JPEG, PNG, PSD) is made of pixels. It’s perfect for photos, but the moment you enlarge it past 100%, it blurs. A vector (AI, EPS, SVG) is math—lines and curves that stay razor sharp at any size. Logos and type should always be vector. That soft-edged logo you pulled off a website? That’s raster. It will print poorly.

CMYK vs. RGB

Your screen glows in RGB—Red, Green, Blue. It’s vibrant, but ink doesn’t glow. Print uses CMYK—Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. Convert your file before you design. RGB blues turn muddy in CMYK. What looked electric on screen can arrive looking bruised.

The .125” Bleed

Printers don’t cut with laser precision. A bleed is a .125” buffer of artwork that extends past

the final trim edge. If you give us a perfect 8.5” x 11” PDF with no bleed, a shift of 1/64” during cutting will leave a sliver of unprinted white paper along the edge. That’s why we ask for bleeds—to give ourselves room to trim cleanly.

Bottom line:

Vectors keep you sharp.

CMYK keeps you accurate.

Bleed keeps you from looking like you forgot something.