Printing of a logo and text on business cards, paper, etc.

Question

Dear reader(s),
Let me introduce myself; my name is Matthew Hennessy from the Netherlands and I mostly PhotoShop, Illustrate for a hobby (for the last 5 years).
In the past 5 years I have learned a lot when it comes to designing, but this isn't enough. A few weeks ago my boss asked me to design a new logo and new text, with the intention of using it on business cards, brief paper and envelopes.
Now here comes the part you have seen coming, I really need to know a few things about the printing process, and the settings necessary to make a 'print ready' file. I have already done some research, but still some things are very unclear to me. If any answers could be given to the following questions, that would be more than appreciated!
Questions:
1. Crop marks - I have seen a lot of tutorials on the internet where people refer to 'crop marks', why are these necessary? What are they? What are they used for? How can I set the preferences and how can I see if I use the 'crop marks' correctly?
2. Trim marks - I have seen a few people talking about this. Are 'trim marks' the same as 'crop marks'?
3. Bleeding - this is something I really try to figure out, and already did my best but I'm not getting any wiser! Example given of my problem:
I'm planning to (when this comes to an end), order business cards, brief paper and envelopes on Vistaprint (Dutch site). The preferred size is 1. 90mm x 52mm (complete document) or 2. 87mm x 49mm (cut off).
What is the difference between these two sizes? I suppose this has something to do with the bleeding, but what?
Now this is what confuses me, and I don't think I'm the only one:
3.1. I made a new document in Illustrator CS5, with the 'complete document' measurements 90mm x 52mm (300DPI, CMYK). Do I need to input bleeding before I push ok?
3.2. I made a new document in Illustrator CS5, with the 'cut off document' measurements 87mm x 49mm (300DPI, CMYK). Do I need to input bleeding before I push ok?
4. Is there a checklist or anything to do this perfectly? As you can imagine I don't want to mess this up.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, e-mail contact would be great too: [email protected]
Thank you for reading, I will be around to look for replies! Thanks again!
- Matthew

Answer 1

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1. Crop marks - I have seen a lot of tutorials on the internet where people refer to 'crop marks', why are these necessary? What are they? What are they used for? How can I set the preferences and how can I see if I use the 'crop marks' correctly?
Forget so-called "Crop Marks." Crop Marks and Crop Region are Illustrator-specific terms. It's an Illustrator feature that creates a set of (grossly oversized) printable marks on the Artboard for the printing house to use as trim indicators and/or (depending on version) to define a region for output when you export the file in certain formats. Other programs in Illustrator's genre don't even have this feature because it's really not necessary. Historically, it was Illustrator's workaround for its lack of a proper bleed feature and single-page limitation. I never even use Illustrator's Crop Marks. If I want trim marks to print, I simply draw my own.
Trim marks is an industry term. Trim marks are short hairlines which align to the edges at which you want the paper to be trimmed after printing, but are placed outside the actual trim rectangular area so that they get trimmed away. In most projects destined for offset printing, it's a good practice to draw proper trim marks in the bleed area of the page. The print dialog also provides a Printer Marks feature that will cause trim marks (among other things) to print outside the Artboard. (You don't need to worry about that in this scenario.)
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2. Trim marks - I have seen a few people talking about this. Are 'trim marks' the same as 'crop marks'?
So as explained above, Illustrator Crop Marks is an Illustrator feature commonly used to draw trim marks. I don't use that feature. It wastes space.
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3. Bleeding - this is something I really try to figure out, and already did my best but I'm not getting any wiser! Example given of my problem:
Bleed is an industry term that simply means you want ink to print "right to the edge of the paper." That's not actually possible on a commercial offset press. So if the design requires "right to the edge of the paper" printing, you cheat: You print on a larger-than-final-size sheet, put trim marks to indicate the final size of the piece, and design so that anything that is supposed to "print to the edge" actually extends beyond those trim marks. Theoretically, if the physical processes of commercial printing were perfect, you could draw your design "just to" the trim. But paper expands and shrinks with humidity changes, Press sheets jog around a bit as they get picked up by the suction lifts and grippers and shoved and squished between the rollers. (It's a mechanical miracle that the process works at all, and has for over a century. A full-size CMYK offset sheetfed press is a marvelous piece of engineering.) After printing and drying the sheet is trimmed at the trim marks, and the artwork that extends beyond the trim marks is chopped off.
Typically in commercial offset printing, 1/8 inch of "extra artwork" beyond the trim is sufficient to allow for the inaccuracies of the process.
Now here's the thing: If you are working in the traditonal manner with a commercial printing house, you know the press size and sheet size that will be used for the project. You can do all kinds of things at the design stage to minimize unnecessary work at the printing house by "designing for the press sheet." For example, in the press houses with which I work, I would never deliver a business card project output file as a single-card image on a single-card-sized page. No conventional offset printer is going print business cards one-card-at-a-time on 3.5 x 2 inch sheets. They are going to "gang" (step & repeat) multiple images of the card on one press sheet.
Typically, I would know in advance the press sheet size that is going to be used and the necessary space for gripper and press sheet margins. I would set up the software page to the size of the press sheet and arrange multiple instances of the card in that space. I would draw my own trim marks for each card in the array. If the sheet size is such that it will result in alot of paper just going in the waste bin, I may design some other piece in the otherwise unused area (a bookmark or hangtag, for example) and thereby get an "almost free" second document out of the press run. If the cards is designed to be printed on both sides, I will often arrange the page to accommodate "work and turn" printing, wherein both sides of the card gets printing on one side of the sheet, the sheets are simply flopped over and run through the press again. That avoids the need for a second press setup.
But since everybody and his third cousin's nephew is now a "designer," many printing houses have set up "click & drag" printing solutions on the web. Such solutions make it "quick & easy" (not necessarily cheaper) for the neophyte and "idiot proof" for the printer by removing the above-described flexibility and designing "one size fits all" workflows. That's what you're chasing with the Vistaprint vendor.
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I'm planning to (when this comes to an end), order business cards, brief paper and envelopes on Vistaprint (Dutch site). The preferred size is 1. 90mm x 52mm (complete document) or 2. 87mm x 49mm (cut off).
What is the difference between these two sizes? I suppose this has something to do with the bleeding, but what?
In the Vistaprint .ai template for design-your-own business cards I just downloaded to see what you're talking about, they have the artboard set to accommodate a design with bleed. You don't have to design bleeding elements, but the space is there if you do.
The AI Artboard (page) is 90 x 52 mm. Think of that as your bleed area. If there are elements in your design that you want to "print to the edge" of the finished card, draw them all the way to the edges of the Artboard. The printer is, in effect, telling you that if you do that, then you will be providing enough "extra" artwork to accommodate the inherent variances in the printing/triming process.
The (grossly overthick) 87 x 49mm red rectangle is the trim. So it effectively is the "trim marks". It represents the final card after it is trimmed down to final size. That's the size your cards will be when delivered. That roughly coresponds to the 3.5 x 2 inch dimensions that are considered the norm in the US. I don't know about what's the convention in Europe, but assuming it is the same as in the US, that's the size you want the cards to be. Business cards that are even slightly oversized usually end up in the trash can because they often don't fit pockets in card-carriers or plastic sleeves.
The (grossly overthick) blue rectangle is the so-called "safe area". That's nothing more than a suggested "safe design margin" between your artwork and the trim. The idea is that you are supposed to keep any elements of the design that you don't want to risk getting "too close" to the edges of the final piece--or even getting chopped off by the trim--within that rectangle. Magazines and newspapers are also fond of providing "safe area" in their add space specs. I ignore them. I know what kind of visual "margins" I want in my designs and I know when I am risking getting too close to the trim. But an amateur designer may think it brilliant to "make a title as big as possible" and actually crowd text almost right up against the trim (in other words, poor design). Then he gets upset when the normal variance in the printing/trimming process causes the text to actually get cut on some of the finished pieces. By providing that rectangle, the printer is telling you "Don't blame us if some of your artwork is too close to the trimmed edge if you place that artwork beyond this rectangle."
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3.1. I made a new document in Illustrator CS5, with the 'complete document' measurements 90mm x 52mm (300DPI, CMYK). Do I need to input bleeding before I push ok?
3.2. I made a new document in Illustrator CS5, with the 'cut off document' measurements 87mm x 49mm (300DPI, CMYK). Do I need to input bleeding before I push ok?
In the "idiot proof" template that Vistaprint has provided, they are treating the Artboard size as the bleed, and the red rectangle as the trim. So there is no need for you to include trim or bleed marks in your design.
Just set up your AI document exactly as the template that Vistaprint provided. Better, actually use their document file and paste your artwork into it on the Layer named "Your Design". When arranging your artwork, leave the (poorly named) "Guides" Layer visible, but locked. Make any art elements (background fills, etc.) that you want to "print to the edge" of the finished card extend all the way to the Artboard edge. Keep all other design elements within the "safe margin" blue rectangle.
All this is explained, by the way, in the See Accepted File Types link on the Vistaprint site.
When done, delete the Layer named "Gudies." Deliver the file to the printer. I would not deliver the .ai file; I would deliver a PDF. If you insist on delivering as an .ai file, convert all text to paths (a practice I despise). If you deliver as PDF, simply choose File>Save A Copy... in Illustrator. In the resulting dialog, select Adobe PDF as the file type. In the next dialog, leave the top menu set to Illustrator Defaults, but set the compatibility popup to Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3). That should be fine.
JET