How do you check bleed specs in a pdf?

Hello @Aimee Derrah

I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out.

To add to what our product community expert shared, Acrobat Reader does not support the inspection of bleed boxes. It is a viewing tool and does not have advanced print production features like Acrobat. 

Use Acrobat Pro’s Print Production Tools

To inspect bleed specs, use Acrobat Pro and follow these steps:

• Open the PDF in Acrobat Pro.
• Go to All Tools > Print Production > Output Preview.
• In the Output Preview, check the TrimBox and BleedBox dimensions.
• Alternatively, use the Preflight tool:
  • Go to All Tools > Print Production > Preflight.
  • Run a profile that checks for bleed and trim boxes. See this article for more details: https://adobe.ly/47GkdnY

Use Advanced Print Setup for Printer Marks

When printing, you can add printer marks to visualize bleed and trim boundaries:

• Go to File > Print > Advanced Print Setup.
• In the Marks and Bleeds panel, enable printer marks. See this article for more details: https://adobe.ly/3HFKwjF

Note: Preflight tools in Acrobat (Pro) do not automatically detect whether design content extends into the bleed area. They analyze technical attributes (colors, resolution, etc.), but not bleed integrity. See this community discussion for more details, where Dov Isaacs (former Adobe Principal Scientist) explained more details: https://adobe.ly/4lClobu

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

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