Artwork Image and Design Guides

The artwork we need for your card design will vary depending on who is creating your card design.

If you want Access Plastic Cards to create your card design

We can create your card design using graphics and images that you provide
You should let us know if you have any colour scheme or font preferences

If you have an idea about the layout for your card design it would help if you supply a mock-up to show us
This can be done using a word processor, graphics software or a scanned image of a sketch

If you're not sure about sizes and image formats, just send what you think is appropriate and we can advise you from there
Usually it's best to send a larger image that we can reduce in size rather than a smaller image that needs to be enlarged
If you are creating your own artwork for your card design

You can supply the artwork for your card design as an image that covers the entire card
Or you can supply just the individual images & graphics required then we can arrange these to make your card design

The plastic cards we print on are 85.6mm x 54mm and we print at 300dpi
Your artwork should be supplied at 89.6mm x 58mm at 300dpi (or 1058 x 685 pixels) - this allows for 2mm bleed on all sides.
If you are supplying print ready card images

You can supply print ready card images complete with all images, photos and variable data
These should not require any modification or conversion

When supplying print ready images, they need to be supplied at the size and format that we print from
They should be supplied as JPG images using the highest quality option
The images should be 89.6mm x 58mm at 300dpi (or 1058 x 685 pixels) (portrait or landscape orientation) - This allows for a 2mm bleed on all sides

Recommended image formats for setting up artwork are JPG, PDF documents, PSD or PNG images.
Print ready images should be in JPG format.
JPG images should be saved at the best quality option.

 

Colour options for your card design:

  • Colour print on one side with no print on the other side
  • Colour print on both sides
  • Colour print on one side with black print on the other

Printing black on the card back uses pure black with the white coming from the white card.  That means there is no grey available to provide anti-aliasing.  This can cause images to lose detail and can cause curves & lines to appear jagged.  Not all images convert well to black and white, especially if they have several colours, curves or fine detail.  In most cases text and simple graphics print well in black and white.