Here are some print terms you will need to be familiar with while working with our printing templates.

Score/Fold Line: This line represents where we will score the cards to ensure a straight, clean and sharp fold.

Bleed Area: This is the area that extends past the cut line. Anything in this area will be cut off. Make sure any images/backgrounds that you want to have printed to the edge, extend beyond the cut line and fill this area.

Trim Line: This is the actual finished size of the document. This is the dimension we will cut down your file to. Anything beyond this line will be cut off.

Margins: Margins are used to ensure that critical info such as type does not get too close to the trim line. By keeping type within this guideline you will make sure that your type and images do not look crowded or too close to the edge.

Gutters: Gutters are the margins that are between panels. For example, a tri-fold brochure has three panels therefore they would have two gutters. Gutters are set up at twice the margin length.

On our website, we have convenient templates for business cards, postcards in 6 standard sizes, greeting cards in 2 sizes and tri-fold brochures. Start by downloading the specific printing template. The templates come in a folder with versions in both Illustrator and InDesign, except the greeting cards, which also have Photoshop templates. All our templates are backwards compatible to version CS4 or later.

Once you complete your download, you will have a zipped file in either Illustrator or InDesign. It is up to you which software you would like to work with. All the templates are the same with score, bleed and margins lines. For ease I will explain how to set up the tri-fold brochure file and then simply apply these steps to whichever template you will be working with.

Tri-fold Brochure in Illustrator:

If you open the Illustrator version you will see something like this:

The blue lines are the margin lines. They are set at 0.25” from the cut line. You will want to make sure that your type is within these guides. The two sets of blue lines in the middle are your gutters. In the image below you can see that the two inside gutters are double the size of the outside gutters that go all along the page. This is to ensure that type is not on the fold lines. Keep your type within these guides like so:

You will also see arrows pointing to the red bleed lines. If you would like to make your image bleed off the edge then simply extend your image all the way to the red bleed line. For example:

When you are finished with your design please create a high-resolution pdf to send to us as your print ready file. To do so, go to the File menu and select Save as…. At the bottom of the window under Format, select “Adobe PDF” and hit save. In the “Save Adobe PDF” window that pops up, select the Marks and Bleeds option on the left, check “trim marks” and “use document bleed settings”. Select “Save PDF” at the bottom of the window.

Tri-fold Brochure in InDesign:

If you open the InDesign version you will see something like this:_­

Set up is the same as with the Illustrator template: keep type within the gutters and extending images that bleed to the bleed line. There are subtle differences such as the margin lines are purple instead of blue. However they are still set at 0.25” from the cut line. The InDesign file also has arrows pointing to the red bleed lines. If you would like to make your image bleed off the edge then simply extend your image all the way to the red bleed line.

When you are finished with your design please create a high-resolution PDF to send to us as your print ready file. To do so, go to the File menu and select Export. At the bottom of the window under Format, select “Adobe PDF (Print)” and hit save. In the “Export Adobe PDF” window that pops up, select “Press Quality” from the presets menu at the top. Select the Marks and Bleeds option on the left, check the boxes for “trim marks” and “use document bleed settings”. Click the Export button at the bottom of the window.