Setting up a Business Card for Printing
There is more to creating a business card than just designing an attractive card. There are guidelines that must be followed to create problem free, flawless business cards. This article will teach you about several different printing aspects that are important for setting your card up correctly. You will learn about safety gutters, cut lines, bleed, size, CMYK color and DPI. Let’s get started.
The blue line is the safety gutter. There should be no text or images, except the background image, beyond the blue line. Important text/content should remain within the safety gutter, otherwise it may be trimmed off. Content should be 0.125 inches away from the cut line.
The red dotted line is the cut line. The cut line is where the artwork will be trimmed to its final size.
The pink line represents the bleed area. Any artwork/image you use as a background should extend to the bleed area. Otherwise, your cards will print and be trimmed with a white border around the artwork/image. To set up for bleed. you must add 0.1 inches to each side of the card. The size of your file including the bleed will be 3.7 x 2.2 inches.
The black line indicates the final size of your printed card after the bleed has been trimmed off. The final size of your business card will be 3.5 x 2 inches.
Design files should be set up to print in CMYK color. Setting it up in RGB will not produce a close color match because it is not for print. That is the format for screens. Keep in mind that the colors will differ once they are printed.
Resolution (DPI)
For the best printing results, your file should be saved at 300 DPI.
TIP : Using images, logo or artwork at 300 DPI or in vector format helps to avoid pixelation (blurriness) within your business card design.
Before You Send Your Card to the Printer…
There are some things you need to be aware of before you send your business card off to the printer. Every business card must be set up for printing. There are certain standards and sizes that must be adhered to for printing business cards. Here is a checklist of some of the things you should make sure you have done correctly before you send your card design to the print shop.
- Proper Safety Gutter
- Design Works with Card Template
- The Image File is CMYK
- Choose Finish
- Design is Right Size
- All the Info is Correct
- Select Paper Stock
- Know Quantity
Learn More About Business Card Design
Are you new to creating business cards? That’s OK we’ve got you covered. Don’t miss our “Design the Perfect Business Card” article on our sister site Imaginary Friends Design Studios’ website.
