Artwork for a specific piece
Business Card Artwork
We lay out and engineer a business card so the finish lands where it should and nothing falls off the trim.
What you get
- Front and back artwork
- Finish separated on its own layer
- Bleed, trim and safety held to our floors
- Print-ready PDF plus working file
- Spec sheet
How it runs
Step 1
Send what you have
Your mark, your copy, and the piece it is going on.
Step 2
Layout
We lay it to the trim, the die and the finish, and flag anything that will not hold.
Step 3
Engineer
Separations, bleed, safety and tolerances set to our press floors.
Step 4
Hand over
Print-ready files and a spec sheet naming every tolerance.
What changes the price
These are the variables that move the number. There is no calculator — we read the file and quote it.
- How many finishes are on the card
- Whether the mark arrives press-ready or needs a redraw first
- Duplex or single stock
- Whether a die or painted edge is involved
- How many name variants are needed
The press standards that apply
Hairlines under 0.5 pt
A foil line finer than 0.5 pt either fills in or flakes off the sheet. We redraw thin strokes up to the floor rather than let them disappear.
Counters under 1.5 mm
The hole in an 'a' or an 'e' closes under pressure. Below 1.5 mm at final size it prints as a solid blob, so we open the counter or change the size.
Colours that touch
Two inks butted edge to edge show white at the join when registration moves. We pull them apart by 0.3 mm or trap them deliberately.
Gradients on foil or metal
Foil is one flat tone — it cannot fade. A gradient is redrawn as flat facets, or the foil is dropped and the fade printed in ink.
Islands in a laser cut
Any cut that fully encircles an area drops the middle out. We bridge it at 0.6 mm so the counter stays attached, or we do not cut it.
Inverted mono versions
A mark reversed out of a solid is not the same drawing — strokes gain weight and counters close. The mono version is drawn, not inverted.
More on the processes themselves: foil and metallics, emboss and letterpress and die-cut shapes.
Questions
What bleed do you need on a business card?
3 mm bleed on every edge, with all critical content held 3 mm inside the trim. Foil and emboss sit a further 2 mm in, because registration moves under pressure.
Can you set up my card for foil?
Yes. The foil sits on its own layer at 100% of a single spot, with a minimum line weight of 0.5 pt. We separate it and name the tolerance on the spec sheet.
Also in this family
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Card, letterhead and envelope laid out as one system so the mark sits the same on all three.
from $650
Wedding Suite Artwork
An invitation, RSVP, details card and envelope drawn as one suite and engineered for the finish.
from $950
Label Artwork
One SKU laid out to the die, with the finish separated and the varnish-free zones marked.
from $450