What is Bleed?

Some documents print with a white border.
This is called "no bleed".

Other documents print with a colored background or image that goes right up to the edge of the paper.
This is called "bleed".

Since most printing equipment does not print right up to the edge of the paper, documents that "bleed" must be printed slightly larger than the intended size on larger paper and then trimmed down to the intended size.

Care must be taken not to put text or critical graphics too close to the "bleed" area that will be trimmed away.