Bleed is defined as image area extending beyond the billboard structure's live area. The bleed contains or continues the images and elements from the live area beyond what will be visible after installation. This bleed is wrapped around the edges of panels to hide the structures edges. Proper bleed also prevents any white areas or borders from being shown on the face of the board. Including bleed in your digital files sent for production is very important. It is much easier to account for bleed in the designing process than in the prepress end. Some bleed areas are very difficult to create once a design has been flattened. Please keep this in mind when preparing art for production at Lamar Graphics.
The standard on Vinyl Bulletins is 6 inch bleed on all four sides. This equates to 54 pixels of bleed on the top, bottom, left and right of the digital files. The standard 6 inches of bleed required for production can be added to any hi-res file by just increasing your canvas size by 108 pixels in both height and width. This will provide the correct amount of bleed necessary for the product and will ensure your order will be processed in a timely manner.
The standard 1 inch bleed on this product differs from a bulletin's bleed. The 1 inch bleed on a Retro Vinyl actually tucks up in the silver trim area on the structure instead of wrapping around it like a bulletin. Size tolerances for Retro Vinyl Units are very small, so accurate art and finishing requirements are a must. It's a good idea to use one of our templates on these products.
Since poster units are applied directly to the surface of the Poster Unit, no bleed is required.