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DESIGN YOUR
CARD WITH BLEED
When you print a color card on white stock you
don't want the card to have a white edge if your
business card has an image or background that
goes to the edge of your card. In order for us
to print you a card that is 2x3.5 or 4x6 etc.
You need to design your card larger than it will
be when it is cut down. A 2x3.5 card should be
set up at 2.125x3.625 with the image or color
extending to fill that entire space. Add .062
inches all the way around your card for bleed.
If you don't do this and you leave a white border
or black border for bleed, when your card is cut
down it will have an edge of white or whatever
color you put in there. If you have a photograph
some of the image HAS to get cut off so you don't
get a white edge. Accept that and design accordingly.
If you want to leave a border make sure it's a
1/4 inch thick otherwise it will not look even
when it is cut down. See our templates for detailed
instructions.
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KEEP YOUR
TYPE AWAY FROM THE EDGES
Your type should be in an 1/8th of an inch from
the edge of the finished size. A 2x3.5 card will
have a file size of 2.125x3.625 and type shouldn't
extend past 1.75 x 3.25. This is very important
because it make for a professional card and there
is no danger of your type getting cut off. The
blade of our cutter is 1/16th of an inch thick
so type not an 1/8th of an inch from the edge
may get trimmed slightly. Don't try to cram stuff
in, a card will look poorly designed if it's too
close to the edges. When we write correspondence
we leave margins, cards also require breathing
space. See our templates for examples.
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DESIGN IN
CMYK COLORS
Don't leave your file in RGB or pantone colors
convert to CMYK so you can see if there is a color
shift. We only print CMYK colors. We suggest you
design in CMYK so there will be no color shift.
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PLEASE INCLUDE
FONTS OR OUTLINE THEM
One of the biggest reasons customers cards are
delayed is they don't submit their fonts. Please
include your fonts with your file. Compress the
fonts into a file like a sit file or zip file.
If you are working in Illustrator or CorelDraw
outline your fonts. In Illustrator on a mac you
go Apple+A for select all then Apple+Shift+O to
outline the fonts. On a PC its CTRL+A to select
all then CTRL+SHIFT+O to outline the fonts. The
fonts will look chunkier BUT THEY WILL PRINT SMOOTHLY.
It makes it chunkier so you can tell it's been
outlined it doesn't change the font. If you outline
the fonts you won't have to send the fonts.
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PLEASE INCLUDE
THE PICTURES
Another reason customer cards are delayed is
they don't submit the pictures. Please include
all the pictures used in your document. Quark
will not automatically embed them. In Illustrator
you can choose to embed your pictures instead
of link them. You go to View-Show Links then you
click on the picture with your mouse on the side
of the box is an arrow you click on the arrow
and say embed image. That way you won't have to
include the pictures separately. Before embedding
your pictures Select All and convert the colors
to CMYK.
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SAVE YOUR
PICTURES HIGH RES
Many customers send us pictures at 72 dpi which
is a common resolution for websites. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE
FOR PRINTING. Please scan your images at 300 dpi
at the size you will be using the pictures, e.g.
business cards 2.125x3.625 if the picture fills
the entire background. Don't save it at 300 dpi
at 1x1 and then increase the size in Quark. That
will reduce the quality of your image making it
look blurry, chunky, unclear.
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COMMON QUARK
ERRORS
Don't reduce pictures below 25% in Quark they
may not print. Edit the size in your Image editing
program and place them in Quark at no lower than
30%. Don't increase the size of the picture in
Quark if you saved it at 300 dpi it will give
you a lower resolution.
Don't place Tiffs with a fill of none. Quark
will try to put a clipping path on it for you
and may clip out important type and parts of images.
Put a clipping path around it yourself or fill
the picture box with the color of the background.
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COMMON COLOR
MISTAKES
For a rich black for use in backgrounds and
big areas only, you can't use 100% Black and expect
a rich black, you will get a grey color instead
of black. Use 100% Black, 80 Cyan, 80 Magenta,
80 Yellow. FOR TYPE USE ONLY 100% Black because
we cannot register the four colors on small type,
it will make it look blurry.
For Blue. Don't use too much magenta or you
will get a purple. Even if your card came out
blue one time it could come out purple the next
time. Use 60% Magenta and 100% Cyan for blue and
too darken it add black.
For Purple: don't use too much cyan or you will
get a blue. Even if your card came out purple
one time it could come out blue the next time.
Use 100% Magenta and 60% Cyan for blue and too
darken it add black.
DON'T PICK COLORS THAT ARE ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER
COLOR because with gang printing colors can fluctuate
5-10%. Use a CMYK color book that shows you color
mixes. Then pick a color that there won't be a
significant color change to if it goes 5% in any
direction. Cards can come out one color one time
and a different color another time because we
print pleasing color. Pick colors that will compensate
for the printing process so that there is not
a visible difference if the color shifts slightly.
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FILE
SIZE
When submitting files by email make sure they
are not bigger than 2 megs or they will often
go into cyberspace and we will have no idea you
ever sent us a file. Send files over 2 megs through
our FTP site. Before submitting files PLEASE COMPRESS
THEM using ZIP or Stuffit or a similar program.
This way if there is an error in transmission
we will be notified when we uncompress it. Otherwise
there may be a line through your card etc. that
we won't see but that will have resulted from
an error during transmission.
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NAME
YOUR FILES PROPERLY
Name your files with the first four letters
of the company name that your order form was filled
out under e.g. karnfrontbc.qxd If you name the
files under the customers name we will assume
the files came from your customer. If we don't
receive an order form telling us different we
may contact the customer. The name of the file
lets us know what company name we're looking for
on the order form.
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