What are Crop Marks (or Tick Marks)?

Most commercial printing presses are unable to print to the very edge of a sheet of paper. To get around this problem, printing companies tend to use oversize paper which is then trimmed down to size.

Crop marks - also known as tick marks or trim marks - are small lines placed beyond the bleed area, at the edge of an image or design. They indicate the final size of a printed item and where a printed sheet should be trimmed to create the finished document.