Business cards are printed on larger sheets of paper and then cut down to the final size. When the larger sheets run through the printing press, they move around a bit in all directions. We are talking millimeters of movement, though this movement does cause the artwork on each card to shift ever-so-slightly. After the cards are printed, they then get trimmed out and when the paper goes through the cutter, again there are millimeters of movement. Because of all this ‘movement’ printers require “Bleed” to help eliminate the possibility of getting a card with tiny slivers of white on the edges – as a result of this movement.
In order to properly print graphics that extend to the edges of a card – we need the artwork to include .125″ bleed – extended beyond the edges. If you are working in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign you can create bleed settings directly in the Document Setup.