When designing, it's crucial to be familiar with four key areas. These zones are essential for both designers and production teams, providing guidance throughout the design and production processes.
- Live Area: The safe area is where you place your final design elements. For text and critical elements, this area should be at least 5 millimeters away from the trim line.
- Trim Area: Also known as the crop or cut area, this is where the die-line is located and where the design will be cut after printing. This is an important area during the final cut.
- Bleed Area: Colors or images that extend to the edge of the design should expand from the live area to the bleed area. The bleed area is removed from the final file after trimming.
- Slug Area: This area is used for lithography purposes and contains elements such as color bars, gray patches, file names, and registration marks for the press operator.
