File formats we accept:

Photoshop
Illustrator
InDesign
 QuarkXpress Corel Draw
Word
Publisher
 Powerpoint
.TIF
.JPG
.PDF
.PNG
.PDF
.EPS
.AI
.PDF
.PDF
.PDF
.PDF
.PDF
.PDF

Bleeds, Trims
Trim Marks
The product will be cut on the trim mark (blue line), however the cut may shift up to 1mm (1/16 of an inch) in any direction.Full Bleed
If you wish to have colored backgrounds or images printed to the edge of the product they must continue past the trim marks to the full bleed margin. If they do not continue to the full bleed margin you most likely will end up with white strips along the edge of the product due to cutting tolerance.Safe Zone
The text or other elements you want to guarantee not to be trimmed off must be placed within the safe zone. If they are placed directly next to the trim mark and the cutting is off but within tolerance, the text will be chopped off.

BLEEDS (IMPORTANT!)

Your artwork needs to be a certain size to print correctly. Templates are available for many of our business card sizes. Part of this size is called Bleed which will be trimmed off. The bleed area is 2mm on each side.

We require a 3mm internal margin “Safe Printing Zone”. Text, logos or important graphics inside the bleed line as trimming has natural variations in accuracy.


Borders

We do NOT recommend borders for our business cards. Our business cards are bulk printed and cut in large numbers, there may be slight slipping that may cause some shifting during cutting. If you have a border it does not look good. 1mm slippage moves the right border 1mm close to the edge of the card and it also moves the the left border 1mm further in from the card, so a slight slippage during cutting can be really accentuated in appearance using a border.

Bleed Zone & Guides
Background image does not extend to bleed zone

In the following sample image, the background image only extends to the trim zone instead of the bleed zone. Due to cutting tolerances, one possible result is a business card with an unaligned while border it. If the original design had included a background which covered the all zones, the resulting card would not have this undesired background.
Design
Result

Text is not within safe zone

In the following sample image, the text of the business card extends beyond the safe zone. Objects that are not in the safe zone may be cut off and lead to undesired results.
Design
Result

Rounded Corners

If you want rounded corners on your business cards, DO NOT adjust your artwork to look like it has rounded corners. We will cut corners art they are printed. YOu still need to bleed you rartwork to the outside edge of the artwork (2mm outside where the cards will be trimmed)

Trim Marks

Our templates have trim marks but you do not need to add your own trim marks. Just make sure your bleed is 2mm all around the card and we will trim the artwork back this amount

Resolution

Resolution refers to the number of dots per inch (dpi), or the amount of detail the image has. Most documents prepared for printing should be 300 dpi at 100% of the final print size. Higher resolution means a more detailed image, and also larger file and longer upload time. If your document has fine lines save it at 300 dpi, but don’t exceed 400 dpi.

300 dpi artwork is reuqired so your printing will look crisp and good quality.

300dpi

72 dpi artwork is too low in resolution and your printing can be blurred.

72dpi

If you design your artwork at 72dpi or lower you will get poor quality slightly blurred printing. NOTE: You can not improve the quality of images already saved at 72 dpi. (If you open an image that has already been saved at 72 dpi, and increase its resolution to 300 dpi and resave it, the quailty will NOT be improved… You must start with good quality original 300 dpi images.

If you have an image that is say 180 dpi or larger you may get acceptable quality but it will not be as good as 300 dip image.

If you place a 72 dpi image in your artwork and reduce its size to 25% of the original. It will print ok.

FONTS

Fonts in your artwork must be converted to outlines or curves or flattened into a graphic. This will eliminate the chance of fonts not displaying correctly and not printing the way you intended.

Microsoft Office Fonts

If you’re using a program like Microsoft Word, you can not convert your fonts to outlines or curves. In Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, go to the menu Tools > Options > Save (and select Embed TrueTypeFonts).

Microsoft Publisher Fonts

This option is available in Microsoft Publisher under the menu Tools > Commercial Printing Tools > Fonts.

 

CMYK vs. RGB

RGB
CMYK

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) are the colors used in the printing.

RGB (Red, Green and Blue) are the colours in screen displays such as your monitor.

Colour shifts are usually not visible in colour photographs. However, rich and solid colours (like a background) can be affected by a colour conversion. Most of the time, colour shifts are minor and may not be noticeable. Here are some more prominent ones below.

JPEG files from the internet are almost always in RGB.

Always create your document in CMYK mode so that the colors that you see on the screen closely match the final printed product. If you create your document in RGB, the colors in your printed product can vary slightly. Many of the bright colours on your monitor cannot be reproduced in print.

Using the Colour BLACK

FOR SOLID BLACK BACKGROUND: Use 30% C, 30% M, 0% Y, 100% K. If you use 100% black (K) only it will result in a dull black.

 

For Large Black Text over 36 Point

Use Rich Black to prevent the colour looking gray 30% C, 30% M, 0% Y, 100% K.

Four colour text

For Black Text under 36 Point and any fine lines use 100%K

Registration of the 4 plates shift slightly during printing and paper or card also stretchs slightly. Using multiple colours for small black text and fine lines etc, can create a ghosting effect.

Using the colour Dark Blue

100% C & 100% M looks like a dark blue on your monitor, but printing this combination will produce a purple colour. For a nice dark blue, use 100% C, 80% M, 15% K.