How do you prepare your Business Card for Press Print?
Very often, people try to design their business cards on their own, to avoid paying a professional graphic designer who actually knows what is required when it comes to Business Cards Printing.
Designing the Business Card itself is nothing complicated, really; unless there is a lot of styling involved. The problem is that most of the time, the basic requirements for printing are not respected.
Error No.1: Business Cards Printing Size
A regular Business Card size is 3.5 inches x 2 inches. This is the Final size after printing and cutting. However, did you know that in order to cut the Business Card to this size, your file MUST have a security bleed all around it?
The requirements varies from one place to the other; but in general, you need to extend your design to 1/8 inch (0.125 inch) outside the cutting borders or (0.0625 inches on each side).
Therefore, if your Business Card Final cut size is 3.5 inches x 2 inches, the file you send to the printer MUST be 3.625 inches x 2.125 inches. Always keep all text and important information at least 1/8 inch from the cutting border as well, to avoid cutting important information.
The best way to respect all this, is to use a Business Card Template
Error No.2: Business Cards Printing Colors
You should always start and finish your designs in CMYK color mode. If you send us an RGB file, there is a chance that a color shift may occur and you may not be satisfied with your job.
RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue, that are used in monitors, television screens, digital cameras and scanners.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) is the color space for printed materials.
Certain RGB colors that you can see on your monitor cannot be replicated with standard CMYK inks.
Commercial printing presses print with cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) ink, called process printing, instead of RGB light, and therefore produce a different range of color, they are said to be “out of the CMYK color gamut”.