Resources
Templates, and what a print-ready file needs.
Every template we print from, and the handful of things that decide whether a file goes straight to press or comes back to you.
Start with the template
Every product that takes your artwork has a template, and building on it is the single easiest way to avoid a file problem. Each one carries the trim, the bleed and the safe area already marked, so you are not converting inches in your head at eleven at night. They are also on each product page under the Templates tab.
- Business cards, 2″ × 3.5″ — standard, painted edge, black edge and deluxe: horizontal, vertical
- Invite cards, 2.5″ square: template
- Connection cards and guest info cards, 3.5″ × 8.5″: horizontal, vertical
- Bookmarks, 2″ × 7″, drilled for a tassel: template
- Door hangers, 4.25″ × 11″ — standard, arch and starburst die cuts: template
- Postcards: 3 × 4, 4 × 6, 4 × 9, 6 × 9
- Giving envelopes, 3.625″ × 6.5″: short flap, long flap
What a print-ready file needs
Bleed and safe area. Anything that runs to the edge has to keep running for an eighth of an inch past the trim, because a stack of card does not cut to the exact same line every time. Keep type and logos at least an eighth of an inch inside the trim for the same reason. The template has both lines on it.
300 dpi at final size. Not 300 dpi at some other size. A logo pulled off a website is usually 72 dpi, which looks fine on a screen and prints like a photocopy of a photocopy. If the only copy you have is small, ask whoever made it for the original.
CMYK, not RGB. The press prints in CMYK. A file built in RGB gets converted, and the conversion moves colours, most noticeably in bright blues and oranges. Convert it yourself and you get to see what happens before it is printed on a thousand cards.
Fonts embedded or outlined, and the file flattened. A font that is not embedded gets substituted, and the substitute is never the one you picked.
Borders are risky. A thin border parallel to the trim shows every fraction of a millimetre the cut moves, so it can end up thicker on one side than the other. It is not a defect when it happens, it is what borders do.
Send only what you want printed. No proof pages, no instruction sheets, no second version. If it is in the file it can end up on the card.
What the file check catches, and what it does not
Every artwork product runs an automatic check when you upload. It looks at the size, the bleed and the resolution, and it tells you before you pay rather than after. What it cannot do is read. It does not know that the service time is last year’s, that the phone number is missing a digit, or that the guest speaker’s name is spelled two ways on the same card. Print it out at actual size and get somebody who has not seen it to read it before you upload.
Envelopes are their own thing
A giving envelope is printed flat on a die-cut blank and then folded and glued, so its template is built around the die rather than a rectangle. Use the template for the flap style you are ordering, and leave the glue area at the top of the inside flap clear of artwork. When you order envelopes, you confirm your file is built on our template for the flap style you chose.
If you would rather not do any of this
That is what our design and print products are for. Choose Design and print on a card, a banner or a flag, and we design it, you get two rounds of changes, and the file that goes to press is one we built. For anything not in the store, ask for a quote and tell us what it is for.