Download a File Your Printer Will Accept First Time
The card download now produces a genuine print file rather than a screen image: full bleed, crop marks, 300 dots per inch, and both standard sizes.
The three reasons a card job gets rejected
No bleed. Printers cut through a stack, and the cut wanders by a fraction of a millimeter. If your background stops exactly at the edge of the design, some of your cards come back with a white sliver down one side. The fix is to extend the background past the trim line, and it is the single most common reason a file gets sent back.
Wrong resolution. A screen image is 72 to 96 dots per inch. Print wants 300. Scaling up a screen image does not add detail, it adds blur, and a QR code that is soft at the edges is a QR code that some phones will refuse to read.
Wrong color mode. Screens mix light, presses mix ink, and a color that is vivid on a monitor can arrive muddy. We convert and, where a color cannot be reproduced faithfully, we say so before you download rather than after you have paid.
What you get
- A print PDF with 3mm bleed and crop marks.
- Both common sizes: 85 by 55 millimeters and 3.5 by 2 inches.
- A no-bleed version for the online printers who ask for one.
- A screen version for sharing digitally.
The QR code, specifically
Printed codes fail for reasons screen codes do not. The code is generated at print resolution with a quiet margin around it, dark on light, and at a size that scans from a comfortable distance. The contrast direction is not adjustable, for the reason set out in QR business cards for actors.
Scan your own proof before you order the full run. Every time.
Paper, briefly
Matte or uncoated over gloss. Gloss reflects, and a phone camera pointed at a glossy code under a bar light is fighting the paper. Uncoated also feels better, which is a genuine consideration for an object whose whole purpose is to be handed to someone.
Order a hundred, not a thousand. Your details will change.
Related
Card layouts, scan and referral tracking, and claiming your card.
Create your free actor website before you print. The card points at it.
