General Design Help

There are a few key things to remember when designing your artwork for print. To make sure our customers get the best quality from their print we have prepared this quick help guide. For a breakdown on each step make sure to check out our YouTube page at youtube.com/expresscardsprinting

Setup the document in the relevant size.

Each of our products has a specific size requirement, you can find this in the relevant template for the product underneath it’s banner. Each template includes an .EPS file containing guides for both the bleed and safe area for text. The templates also include a more detailed .PDF with various guidelines on designing and outputting your artwork.

Template Location

Work in CMYK

Make sure that your document is set up in CMYK and not RGB as your art will be converted and vibrant colours might come out looking flat.

Include bleed and safe areas

Most of our products require at least 2mm of bleed around each so that your print does not end up with white borders after it has been trimmed. When trimming the guillotine blade can move 3mm either way which is why we reccomend keeping all text and important design elements 3mm away from the trim line.

Turn off Overprint

Overprint is a hidden setting that can drastically change artwork without being visible on screen. Colours will mix and white or bright elements will disappear completely.

Overprint Example

Ink Density

Don’t set your ink density too high or else the ink can puddle or smudge, for darker colours we reccomend keeping your density below 300% (for example C: 40 M: 60 Y: 80 K: 90 = 270%)

Convert fonts to Outlines

Make sure that your fonts have either been converted to outlines or are embedded correctly. This will make sure that your font does not default to another if we do not have your font installed. It will also stop more complicated fonts from crashing and skewing.

Exporting

Your files should be exported as a high resolution press ready file, we recommend a .PDF but accept other high quality filetypes. If you are submitting multiple sides of artwork make sure they are on seperate pages.

For a more detailed explanation check out our series of videos

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBSbJSqHDb8]

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