"Bleed area" is the
extra 1/8 inch of color information beyond the finished size of
your card (3.5 x 2 inches). It allows us to print your card
oversized and cut it down to size, thereby giving the appearance
that the printing "bleeds" off the edge of the card, rather than
having white borders. Because cutting may vary ever so slightly, it
is a good idea to make sure all of your valuable information (ie.
text) is within the safe design zone. You wouldn't want to have the
last digit of your phone number trimmed off!
When creating your design file, make the page size equal to the
printed size of your card. If your design bleeds, the document size
should be 3.75 x 2.25 inches in size, with the understanding that
we will be trimming the card down to 3.5 x 2 inches. If there will
not be printed color information to the edges of your card, then
the bleed dimension is not necessary and your document size should
be 3.5 x 2 inches.
Designing with borders can be tricky. Thin borders outside the safe
design zone that are less than 1/8th inch thick may not trim evenly
and will be affected visually by cutter variance. To avoid an
"off-center" look, it is best not to have lines close to the edge
of business cards
Please provide one design per page in your layout. A 10-up or 8-up
document is not helpful and will actually slow down production of
your order. If you have a two sided card, please provide either a
two page layout, or two files.