Why Part of My Photo Got Cut Off: Bleed, Trim and Borders Explained

Created by: PrintForFun. Reviewed and updated by the KT Colour team, October 2026.

The short answer: two different things cut the edges off a print. The first is shape: a phone photo is 3:4 and a 5R print is 5:7, so a strip has to go from two sides. The second is trim: prints are cut from a larger sheet and the cut can land a millimetre or two either way, so anything right at the edge is at risk. Keep faces and text at least 3 mm inside the edge, match the photo's shape to the print, and never add a thin border of your own.

Reason one: the shape does not match

Every print size has a fixed shape. 4R, S8R and 12 x 18 inch are 2:3, the same as most cameras. 5R is 5:7, 8R is 4:5, A sizes are 1:1.414, squares are 1:1, and phones shoot 3:4. When the shapes differ, the lab either fills the print and crops the overflow, or fits the whole photo and leaves white bars. Most people want the print filled, which means a crop.

The cut is usually from the long sides. A group photo with people at the far left and right is the classic casualty. Our Photo Crop Calculator shows you the crop for any size before you order, and lets you choose a size that keeps everyone in.

Reason two: the trim

Prints and cards are made on a sheet larger than the final size and cut down. The cut is accurate to about a millimetre, but a millimetre is enough to show a sliver of white paper if the image stops exactly at the edge, or to clip a border that is only 1 mm wide. Three terms describe how designers deal with this:

• Trim line: the final size of the print after cutting.
• Bleed: extra image extending past the trim line, usually 3 mm (or 1/8 inch), so a slightly outside cut still shows image rather than white.
• Safety margin: the zone inside the trim line, again about 3 mm, where nothing important should sit, so a slightly inside cut does not remove it.

For a plain photo print you do not need to add bleed yourself; the photo is scaled to cover the sheet and the overflow is the bleed. You do need the safety margin: faces, text and anything you care about should sit at least 3 mm in from the edge, more on large prints.

Thin borders are the usual casualty

A 1 or 2 mm white or black border drawn around a photo in an app will come out uneven, because the trim lands a fraction off centre and one side of the border ends up thinner than the other. If you want a border, either make it generous, 8 mm or more, or order a print that is designed with one. Our retro prints and bordered squares have the white border printed as part of the format, so it is always even.

With or without a border?

Borderless prints show the whole photo and look cleaner in a frame with a mat. Bordered prints give you somewhere to hold the print without fingerprinting the image, survive handling better, and suit albums, clips and strings. For wall frames, choose borderless; for prints that will be passed around, bordered.

Setting up bleed in design software

For cards, posters and anything with a layout, set the bleed when you create the document:

• InDesign: File > Document Setup, then Bleed and Slug. Set 3 mm on all sides. Red guides appear outside the page; extend background images to them.

• Illustrator: the New Document dialog has a Bleed field. Set 3 mm all round. Add guides for the 3 mm safety margin yourself.

• Photoshop: there is no bleed setting, so make the canvas 6 mm larger in each direction than the final size (an A5 card becomes 154 x 216 mm) and use ruler guides 3 mm and 6 mm in from each edge for the trim and safety lines.