If you set your artwork up correctly, you will be happy with the finished business cards. We have set everything in millimeters because of their ease of explaining. The finished card size is 2 1/16 x 3 1/2 inches.
The above diagram illustrates how you should make your artwork 1mm bigger all the way around to allow for bleed.
If you are new to printing then this page is very important for you to learn about 'bleed'. If you have a photo or image covering the entire background of your card, then you must pay very particular attention to how your artwork is set up to ensure that you do not get white lines around the edges of your card.
If you want something to go to the edge of your card, like a photo, a line or a logo perhaps, then you must run it over the edge of the card by an EXTRA 1mm. This is called bleed. This 1mm is trimmed off after printing ensuring that you get your image or colour all the way to the edge of your card.
Your artwork must be 91mm x 55mm in dimensions. This includes 1mm bleed all the way around which will be trimmed off after printing. Your business cards will be delivered to you 89mm x 53mm in size.
Once your artwork is uploaded to our website, it must be positioned Left -1mm and Top -1mm in order to bleed correctly. This is pre setup for you on most templates already. But if you go moving your artwork around on our site, you will know how to return it to its correct state.
Once you have uploaded your image to our website, if you need to adjust the position of your image, then go into the 'Advanced' Editing Mode. Look for the Advanced tab near the proof image of your card on screen.
Your image needs to be positioned Left -1mm and Top -1mm to over hang your business card. Then your artwork being 91mm will also overhang the right by 1mm and the height being 55mm will stretch to overhang the base by 1mm also.
This image demonstrates how we trim off the extra 1mm bleed from the edge of your card. This ensures that the colour runs all the way to the edge of your card. If your artwork does not bleed then you are very likely to get white lines around the edge as the trimming can move up to half of 1mm. Please make sure your text is in 2-3mm from the trim edge. This is 3-4mm from the artwork edge so your text doesn't look too close to your cards edge.