How to get a print shop to print your business card correctly

What a printer is actually asking for

Printers do not cut one card at a time. They print many cards on a large sheet and slice the sheet with a blade, and a blade is never perfectly exact. Four terms describe how the file allows for that, and you will see them on every printer's upload page.

1. 1

   Trim size is the finished card

   The size of the card after it is cut. The credit card size used by most business card presses is 85.6 by 54 mm. Some printers also offer 90 by 50 mm or 85 by 55 mm. Pick the size first, because a file built for one size gets stretched or cropped on another.

2. 2

   Bleed is artwork that runs past the cut

   Colour or a photo that reaches the edge of the card must continue about 3 mm beyond it. If the blade lands a fraction inside, there is still ink there. Without bleed, a thin white sliver shows along one edge of some cards and not others.

3. 3

   The safe area keeps text away from the blade

   Keep every word, number and logo at least 3 to 4 mm inside the trim line. A phone number 1 mm from the edge is a phone number that gets clipped on a bad day.

4. 4

   Crop marks show where to cut

   Small lines in the corners, outside the artwork, marking the trim. Some printers want them, some add their own, and some reject files that include them. Their upload page says which.

Preparing the file

1. 5

   Ask the printer for their specification before designing

   Every reputable printer publishes a template or a spec sheet. Compare it against the four terms above. If their bleed is 2 mm or their size is slightly different, follow theirs, not a general guide.

2. 6

   Export a PDF, not a screenshot

   A photo of a card on a screen is low resolution however sharp it looks. A PDF keeps text and shapes as vectors that print crisply at any size. A QR code in particular should be vector or very high resolution, because soft edges make it harder to scan.

3. 7

   Check the colour mode they expect

   Screens are RGB and presses are CMYK, and some colours, especially bright greens and electric blues, look duller after conversion. Many small shops convert RGB files themselves. Ask whether they do, and expect any very saturated colour to shift a little.

4. 8

   Make text legible at its real size

   Print the file on an office printer at 100 percent and hold it at reading distance. Anything you have to squint at on paper will be worse on a card with a glossy finish.

5. 9

   Scan the QR code from the paper

   Test the printed proof, not the screen. If it does not scan from your office printout it will not scan from the finished card. The guide on QR codes that scan when printed small covers what to change.

If you are using the print file from VCardForever

From a saved card in your dashboard you can download a print file as a PDF. It is cut to 85.6 by 54 mm with 3 mm of bleed, crop marks, and two pages: the front with your name, title, company and code, and the back with the code large and one line underneath. The QR is drawn as vector shapes, so it stays sharp at any size. Three limits are worth knowing before you send it. The colours are RGB, not CMYK, so ask your printer to convert. The text uses standard PDF fonts, so a serif design prints in a Times style rather than the font you saw on screen. And it supports Latin characters only, so a name in another script will not build, and the dashboard says so instead of producing a wrong file. We make the file. We do not print it, choose your paper or work with a particular printer.

Before you pay for the full run

1. 10

   Order a proof or a very small run first

   A digital proof checks layout. A physical proof checks colour, paper and the scan. If you are in a hurry and the printer offers only a digital proof, at least check the cut and the bleed lines on it.

2. 11

   Choose a finish that does not fight the code

   A matte, uncoated stock is the safest for scanning. A glossy lamination throws glare under shop lighting. A heavy texture breaks up the fine edges of a dense code.

3. 12

   Check every card in the first delivery

   Look at the cut on several cards, not just the top one, and scan three from different parts of the box. A problem found then is a reprint on the printer. A problem found after you hand out two hundred is on you.