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 the artwork and layout for your card design:

We can make a card design using your graphics and images, like a company logo.
A company logo is often all we need to create a basic card design.

It is preferable that you supply relevant images and logos but we can also source these from your website.
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.

We will create a sample card design that can be used as a starting point for your final card design.  You are free to modify, add or discard any part of the sample design.

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 86mm x 54.6mm and we print at 300dpi.
The image dimensions needed to print an entire card from edge to edge is 1022 x 650 pixels. This allows for a 10 pixel bleed on all sides and can be in portrait or landscape orientation.
Example Photoshop images are available for download (to the right) that are created at the correct size with guides to aid in design.
If you are supplying print ready card images:

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 1022 x 650 pixels (portrait or landscape orientation).  This allows for a 10 pixel bleed on all sides.
Print ready images are not necessarily for setting up initial artwork.  This is intended for orders where we print batches of images that are already pre-formatted card images, ie. id cards complete with photo and name.
These should not require any modification or conversion.

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.