Illustrator CS6 - Adding Bleed

[Justin]

I have a number of customer designs that need to be print & cut. They don't want a white edge so I need to expand the images to allow the cutter to cut within the coloured edge.

I know little about Illustrator and all files are .ai so I guess it would be easier to do this in Illustrator.

Anyone tell me if this is straight forward please? I've been playing with the stroke feature and this seems to work but wondering if there's a better way?

I guess I could drag into CDraw and just add a thicker outline.

[socialgiraffe]

Personally I would do exactly as you suggest....

Import in to Corel, add a thicker outline, or use the contour tool if its suitable, and then export as an EPS for Versaworks. Having said that, the main reason I would do that is because I know Corel inside out and feel very very comfortable working within that software.

When I have had to use Illustrator I tend to find it not as straight forward (due to my lack of knowledge), but, I think the stroke feature is probably the best solution as it is the same tool/feature as the outline tool in Corel.