Bleed and where it applies
Bleed adds 0.125" beyond the trim so ink runs off the cut edge, and applies to outer edges only.
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What bleed is for
Printers cannot cut exactly on a line. If an image is meant to run to the edge of a page, the artwork has to extend past the trim so that a cut slightly to the outside still lands on ink rather than white paper. That extension is the bleed, and for KDP it is 0.125".
Which edges get bleed
Only the edges that are cut. On an interior page that is the top, the bottom and the outside edge. The inside edge is bound into the spine, not cut, so it gets no bleed. A bleed interior page is therefore 0.125" wider and 0.25" taller than the trim size.
A cover has bleed on all four outer edges of the flat artboard. The folds at the spine are not cut and get none.
When you need it, and when you do not
A text-only novel or a lined journal with a white border needs no bleed at all. A cookbook with full-page photographs, a colouring book whose artwork runs to the edge, or a planner with a coloured band across the top does.
Choosing bleed changes the interior's outside margin from 0.25" to 0.375" for text, so decide before you lay the book out. Bleed is a setting for the whole file: every page must be the bleed size, even those whose artwork stops short of the edge.
The most common bleed mistake
Setting up the page at bleed size but stopping the artwork at the trim line. The file is the right size, passes a size check, and still prints with a thin white sliver along any edge where the cut drifts outward. Extend backgrounds all the way to the bleed edge.
Setting up bleed in common tools
In InDesign and Affinity Publisher, bleed is a document setting: keep the page at the trim size, enter the bleed on the top, bottom and outside edges, and export with “use document bleed settings” switched on. In Word there is no bleed setting, so the page itself has to be made larger by the bleed allowance and the margins increased to match — which is why full-bleed books are rarely laid out in a word processor.
Whatever the tool, open the exported PDF and confirm the page size is the trim plus bleed before uploading.
What to do
- Use bleed only when artwork is meant to reach the page edge. Text-only interiors do not need it.
- Bleed never applies to the gutter edge; the inside of the page is bound, not cut.
- If you use bleed, artwork must actually extend into it. Stopping at the trim line leaves a white sliver after cutting.
Generate with bleed — the tool in this app that settles it.