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Add a real bleed to a sticker, with the cut line at its true edge, free

Free and in your browser, with nothing uploaded: add a sticker PNG with a see-through background and get a bleed in its own edge colours, at full strength, with a separate cut line at the true edge or just inside it. As a print PNG, an SVG or DXF cut line, a print shop PDF, or a page of copies.

Faster with the free Chrome extension: right-click any picture on a website and send it straight to the sticker bleed tool. Add to Chrome · what it does

A bleed that matches the sticker

Print and cut never lines up perfectly, so a sticker needs colour that carries on past the cut, a bleed, or a drift shows a white edge. The bleed many programs make stretches the very edge of the picture, which is half see-through, and it prints pale. This tool carries the solid colour of your art outward instead, and keeps the cut line where the art really ends.

What you get

  • The print file: your sticker with a 1 to 3 mm bleed, fully opaque, as a PNG at its real size and resolution.
  • The cut line on its own, as SVG or DXF, the same size as the print file, so they line up.
  • A print shop PDF: the print file with the cut line on top as a CutContour spot colour.
  • A page of copies on Letter or A4, with its matching cut file.

How to use it

  1. Add your sticker PNG (see-through background), or try the sample.
  2. Set the width at the cut line and the bleed, and the cut a little inside the edge if you like.
  3. Download the files for your route: Silhouette, a print shop, or your own cutter.
  4. Print at 100% (actual size), never fit to page, and cut a test sticker first.

What it does not do

  • It does not remove a background: a sticker on white needs that first, with the background remover.
  • It does not add a white border: Print then cut stickers does that.
  • It does not promise how Cricut Design Space places a separate cut line.

Questions

Why does the usual bleed come out washed out?

The edge of a sticker picture is anti-aliased: the last pixel or two are part art and part see-through, so the edge looks smooth on screen. A bleed that stretches those outermost pixels stretches half-see-through colour, and on white paper that prints pale. Here every bleed pixel takes the colour of the nearest fully solid pixel of your art, and the soft edge is laid over that colour instead of over white, so the colour runs on at full strength.

Where is the cut line?

On the true edge of your art, where it is half see-through, smoothed into curves. You can move it a little inside the edge, 0.2 to 0.5 mm, so a cut that drifts shows a sliver more art rather than white. The bleed is measured from the true edge, not from the cut line.

Which file do I use?
  • Silhouette: Silhouette Studio prints its registration marks in fixed places on the page. Use the page of stickers: the page PNG and the page cut file are both the size of the paper, so line both up with the page's top-left corner. The free edition of Studio opens DXF; the paid editions open SVG too.
  • A print shop: the PDF has the picture with its bleed and the cut line on top as a spot colour named CutContour, set to overprint, which is a name many shops use for the die line. Ask your shop which name and bleed it wants.
  • Your own cutter or laser: the PNG and the cut line SVG or DXF are the same size with the same corner, so place both at the same origin.
Does it work with Cricut Design Space?

Design Space adds its own marks around what it prints and makes its own bleed, so a cut line brought in as a separate shape can land a little off the print. We can't promise how Design Space places it, and we don't claim a fix for it. The page of stickers and the PDF are made for Silhouette, print shops and your own setup.

What about holes inside the art?

By default a hole, like the middle of an O, is printed as part of the sticker and only the outside is cut. Tick Cut the holes and each hole gets its own cut line and bleed into it. Art in separate pieces gets one cut line per piece; for one outline round them all, give it a border instead with Print then cut stickers.

How big can I make it?

As big as your picture allows. The tool tells you the resolution at the size you set: under 150 dpi prints soft, and 300 dpi is what most printers want. The file keeps its resolution, so it prints at the size you set when printed at 100%.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Your picture is read and the files are made in your browser, on your device.