This week’s Deke’s Techniques episode explains how to create Illustrator artwork that extends all the way to the bleed.

Deke and I have been arguing (benevolently) about how to describe bleed. It’s basically the allowance you put around your image to ensure that the ink goes all the way to the edge of the page—and does so even if the printer’s registration is slightly misaligned. In other words, practically speaking, it’s the allowance you put around your image to ensure the ink goes off the edge leaving not the slightest sliver of un-inked whiteness behind.

This means you want both your purple background and your “necrowalrus’s” costume to extend out beyond any bit of potentially crop-able space:

This means that you have to extend the edges of your image to include extra stuff: background and stretchable elements of your illustration that may or may not be included in the final print. It’s an art. It’s a science. And in Illustrator, it takes a little finesse to align the relevant bits of your document to and all the way through this safety zone. If you’re creating graphics and you have any thought of ever printing them on paper, then this week’s episode is definitely worth checking out.