Printed Cards Artwork Guidelines

Artwork Formats 

We have put together an outline of what formats we accept when it comes to artwork to help ensure it is a seamless customer experience for you.

Below you can find the accepted formats along with some details specific to each. We also accept PDF formats at print quality. Please make sure any fonts are outlines.

Adobe Creative Cloud programs including.

• Adobe Photoshop 2020
  - We accept all photoshop formats
  - Please make artwork no lower than 300dpi, convert file and colours to CMYK.
• Adobe Illustrator 2020
  - We accept EPS and AI Files
  - Please outline all font and convert all colours to CMYK.
• Adobe InDesign 2019
  - We accept all InDesign formats.
  - Please make artwork no lower than 300dpi, convert file and colours to CMYK.

If the design has a print area signature strip, personalisation locations etc then please show this information on a PDF and remove from artwork.

Cards are produced 86mm x 54mm, include 3mm bleed making overall document size 92mm x 60mm.

Dimensions.

Actual card dimensions (dependant on card size) = 86mm x 54mm credit card standard or 100 x70mm for the oversized cards.

For better finishing results, we recommend that any text is kept 3mm from the edge of the card to ensure unwanted cropping does not occur during the finishing stages when the card is punched out.

Please do not supply artwork with radius corners.

A minimum of a further 3mm needs to be added to all artwork to allow for movement when the card is cut. This will make your artwork dimensions for the card at least 92mm x 60mm which will then be cut down to the standard size of 86mmm x 54mm.

Please keep all graphics, text etc that you want to appear on the card are well within the boundaries of the actual card size.

Colour.

All files are required in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) format as we digitally print al artwork using this 4-colour process.

All pantone, spot colours etc will be converted to CMYK although please be aware that there may be colour variation.

Fonts.

Please forward all fonts that you have used in your artwork. It is referred where possible to help the process that all fonts are converted to outlines/curves. Please do not omit any fonts that are used in EPS files and all font types must be sent with your artwork.

Images.

The preferred format for any raster graphics is TIF although we can accept most standard formats such as JPG, GIF etc which should be supplied at a minimum of 300dpi to ensure maximum quality when it comes to printing the card.

Images downloaded from the internet tend to be very low resolution and will therefore results in a low-quality print. As previously mentioned, images should be in CMYK format and any vector images can be sent in their original format or as an EPS.

Embossing.

There are two standard embossing character types and please note that embossing affects graphics on the card reverse*.
OCR – Numeric only 4mm height
Simplex – Alpha Numeric 2.5mm height

*Amendments we may need to make or be requested to make may incur a further charge based on our current hourly rate. Please call for further details.