Work out the size to design at, with bleed and a safe area
Anything printed to the edge of the paper needs bleed: artwork that runs a few millimetres past the cut line, so a slightly off cut never leaves a white sliver. This print bleed calculator tells you the exact document size to set up before you design — the trim size plus bleed on every side — along with the safe area where text and logos belong, and the pixel size at 300 dpi or any resolution you choose.
Pick a product — business card, A4 or US Letter flyer, postcard, poster or a KDP paperback interior — or type your own trim size in millimetres or inches. It works in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Once your PDF is exported, check it with the PDF bleed checker.
How to use the bleed calculator
- Choose a product, or enter the trim width and height of your finished piece.
- Set the bleed your printer asks for (3 mm or 0.125 in is usual) and a safety margin for text.
- For a book interior on Amazon KDP, choose Book interior (KDP) and enter the page count to get the gutter.
- Read the document size with bleed, the image size in pixels and the safe area, and copy the result into your design app’s new-document dialog.
Print Bleed Calculator features
Product presets
A-sizes, DL, US Letter, business cards, postcards, greeting cards, posters and KDP trims.
Millimetres or inches
Switch units at any time; values convert automatically.
Pixels at any dpi
Image size for Photoshop, Canva or GIMP at 300 dpi or another resolution.
KDP interior rules
Bleed on the top, bottom and outside edge only, minimum margins and the gutter by page count.
Layout drawing
Bleed, trim and safe area drawn to scale.
The bleed formula
Document width = trim width + 2 × bleed and document height = trim height + 2 × bleed. The safe area is the trim minus the safety margin on each side: trim − 2 × margin. Pixels are inches × dpi, rounded.
Examples: an A4 flyer (210 × 297 mm) with 3 mm bleed is set up at 216 × 303 mm — 2,551 × 3,579 pixels at 300 dpi — and with a 5 mm margin the safe area is 200 × 287 mm. A US business card (3.5 × 2 in) with 0.125 in bleed becomes 3.75 × 2.25 in, or 1,125 × 675 pixels at 300 dpi.
Bleed calculator for KDP book interiors
Amazon KDP trims paperback pages only on the top, bottom and outside edge — the inside edge is bound into the spine. So, according to KDP’s help page on trim size, bleed and margins (read 24 October 2026), the page size with bleed is trim width + 0.125 in by trim height + 0.25 in: a 6 × 9 in book is set up at 6.125 × 9.25 in. Outside, top and bottom margins must be at least 0.375 in with bleed (0.25 in without), and the inside (gutter) margin grows with the page count: 0.375 in for 24–150 pages, 0.5 in for 151–300, 0.625 in for 301–500, 0.75 in for 501–700 and 0.875 in for 701–828.
For the cover — back, spine and front in one image with 0.125 in bleed all round — use the book spine width calculator.
Typical bleed and safe margins
These are common printer conventions, not a standard — always use your printer’s template when it gives one. For pixel and print-size conversions see the DPI calculator and the paper size converter.
| Product | Usual bleed | Usual safety margin |
|---|---|---|
| Business cards | 3 mm or 0.125 in | 3 mm or 0.125 in |
| Flyers and leaflets (A4, A5, DL, Letter) | 3 mm or 0.125 in | 5 mm or 0.25 in |
| Posters | 3–5 mm or 0.125 in | 10 mm or 0.5 in |
| KDP paperback interior | 0.125 in (top, bottom, outside) | 0.375 in + gutter |
Print Bleed Calculator FAQ
How much bleed do I need?
Usually 3 mm in the UK, Europe and India and 0.125 in (3.175 mm) in the US. Large posters sometimes need 5 mm. Your printer’s specification wins.
What size is A4 with 3 mm bleed?
216 × 303 mm, which is 2,551 × 3,579 pixels at 300 dpi.
What size is a business card with bleed?
A US card (3.5 × 2 in) with 0.125 in bleed is 3.75 × 2.25 in; a European card (85 × 55 mm) with 3 mm bleed is 91 × 61 mm.
How do I calculate bleed for KDP?
Add 0.125 in to the width and 0.25 in to the height of the trim size: 6 × 9 in becomes 6.125 × 9.25 in.
What is the safe area?
The part of the page far enough from the cut that nothing important is trimmed off. Keep text, logos and page numbers inside it.