Business Postcard Printing Guidelines

How to prepare your files for printing

**Skip these steps if WE are designing your postcard

Follow these printing specification guides to ensure the best quality for your postcard printing.

Minimum Artwork Resolution and Colors

In the printing world, resolution is everything. In order to ensure that your postcards don’t end up blurry, pixilated or unreadable, it is important that the files you send be saved at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi to ensure sharp image and text. It’s also important that the file be converted to CMYK mode before it is sent. Unlike RGB mode (which is really designed for on screen viewing only) CMYK is the standard for all our postcard printing because it assures that the final product will remain true to your original color scheme. With both the minimum resolution and correct CMYK mode, you can rest assured there will be no nasty surprises.

Postard Size and “Bleed”

The final size of your business postcard is 4” x 6” (5 1/2” x 8 1/2”) if choosing our larger format postcards. Your artwork however should be 4 1/4“ x 6 1/4”. This extra 1/4” is referred to as the “bleed”. "Bleed" is the term used to indicate the area that will be cut off after your postcard has been printed and cut to the final size. It is mandatory to create this 1/8“ bleed on all four sides of your postcard. With this in mind, always make sure that all pertinent information on your postcard is at least 1/8” within the standard postcard template in order to avoid it being chopped off in the final cut.

If you are using Photoshop to create your postcard design, below is an image of what the settings should like when opening a new document. You can download a Photoshop postcard template here.

Business Postcard Printing - Accepted File Formats:

These are the file formats we accept for printing:

jpg (at least 300 dpi resolution); tif; eps; bmp; psd; ai

Please remember to "rasterize" your font layers. If you are designing in Adobe Illustrator, you will have to “create outlines” from your text.

Once this is complete, you can send us compressed files using WinZip or StuffIt Expander.
With Logo Business Cards, you can be sure your postcard printing will be of the highest professional quality. Not convinced yet, order our sample kit today to assess our many printing products and finishes.

Looking for something with more impact?

If you’re looking for cards that add a little more punch to your promotional material, then check out our
plastic business cards for more ideas!