Bleed is the small area around the outer edge of a printed product that allows for slight variations during manufacturing.
Understanding how bleed works will help you create a design that looks fantastic when printed and avoid any unpleasant surprises when your mat arrives.
When you're designing a custom playmat or desk mat, one of the most common questions we receive is:
"Why doesn't my design print exactly to the edge?"
The answer is something called bleed.
Understanding how bleed works will help you create a design that looks fantastic when printed and avoid any unpleasant surprises when your mat arrives.
Bleed is the small area around the outer edge of a printed product that allows for slight variations during manufacturing.
Every custom mat is individually printed, cut, pressed, and stitched. While production is highly accurate, there can be tiny variations of a few millimetres during these processes.
To account for this, the outer edge of your design is considered a bleed area.
This means that artwork placed right at the edge of the mat may be:
This is completely normal across the printing industry and applies to everything from business cards to posters and custom gaming mats.
If there's only one thing to remember when creating your artwork, it's this:
Keep important design elements at least 2cm away from the edge of the mat.
This includes:
By keeping these elements inside the safe area, you ensure they'll remain clearly visible regardless of minor production tolerances.
Background elements, or basically anything that creates texture rather than being visually essential, are perfect candidates for the bleed area.
Things like:
These elements can continue all the way to the edge without causing any issues.
In fact, extending your background beyond the safe area often creates the most professional looking result.
A fantasy character centred on the mat with plenty of background surrounding them.
A gaming logo positioned well inside the artwork.
A landscape image that naturally extends beyond the visible area.
A character's face touching the edge of the mat.
Text placed against the border.
A logo positioned in the corner.
Card zones printed directly against the stitched edge.
Our production process is designed to achieve excellent consistency, but custom mats are physical products, not digital files.
The combination of printing, cutting, pressing, and stitched edging means that the very outer edge of every mat is the area most likely to experience small variations.
A 2cm safety margin gives your design plenty of breathing room and ensures the final product looks exactly how you intended.
Don't stress if you're not sure whether your design is safe for printing.
Every order at Tako Mats includes basic artwork review and preparation. If we spot a potential issue with bleed, positioning, or image quality, we'll let you know before production begins.
Our goal is simple:
To help you create a custom playmat or desk mat that looks incredible both on screen and in real life.
Ready to create your own custom mat?
Upload your artwork today and we'll help make sure it's print ready.