Keep text and other important detail at least 0.09" inside the cut line. If your color runs to the edge of the sticker, it should run 0.06" past the cut line. That extra color is called bleed, and we add it for you where it is needed.
The cut line
The cut line is where the blade cuts. On a custom shape we draw it around your artwork, and you see it on your proof before anything is made.
On a sticker with a border, the cut line sits a set distance out from your ink. You choose the distance:
- Thin: 0.065" from the artwork
- Standard: 0.09"
- Thick: 0.125"
That band is the white edge most people picture on a die-cut sticker. Standard suits most designs. Thin suits busy artwork, where a wide border can look like a mistake. Thick gives a bold logo more room. Sticker border options covers each one.
A sticker is measured by its cut line, not by the file it came on. A 3" sticker is 3" across the finished shape. A design sitting in the middle of a large transparent PNG still comes out at the size you ordered.
Bleed: 0.06"
Bleed is ink printed past the cut line, so the blade cuts through color instead of cutting right at the edge of it.
No cutter is perfect. If the cut lands a hair inside where the ink stops, you get a thin line of bare white vinyl along one edge, and on a dark design that line is easy to see. Bleed carries the color a little farther than the cut can reach. On stickers and sheet labels we use 0.06".
You don't usually need to add bleed yourself:
- A sticker with a white border doesn't need bleed, because the border is the margin.
- A design whose color runs right to the edge of the shape does need it. We add it, and your proof shows what will print past the line.
Safe area: 0.09"
The safe area is a margin inside the cut line. Keep anything that must not be trimmed inside it: text, a phone number, the edge of a logo, or a thin outline around the whole design.
On stickers the safe area is 0.09". It is advice, not a rule, and nothing gets refused for crossing it. It is still the difference between a phone number that prints whole and one that loses part of its last digit.
The closer something sits to the cut, the more a small shift shows. A solid block of color at the edge is fine. A thin frame line at the edge is the riskiest thing you can design, because any shift makes it look crooked.
How far the cut can move
- Stickers are cut within 1/32" of the cut line. Vinyl sheet labels are cut the same way.
- Roll labels are usually cut within 1/16", and we reprint a roll label that is off by more than 1/8". Their safe area is 1/8", and their bleed is 0.125". Safe area and bleed on labels has the details.
Bleed covers the cut landing slightly inside the ink. The safe area covers the cut landing slightly inside the design. With both in place, a normal amount of movement never reaches your artwork.
Two shapes are harder to cut cleanly, so design around them where you can:
- Very fine points at the edge. A cut follows a thin spike less closely than it follows a curve. Sharp corners and points explains why.
- Long, thin necks. Where a shape narrows to a sliver, the sticker is easy to tear when you peel it. On a die-cut sticker, we adjust the cut there so it holds.
Before you approve, look at the cut line on your proof. That line is where the blade will cut.