Business card format?

[machineman]

What's the best format to save for a business card? eps, pdf, gif, bitmap, ect... need to save the details. doing it in black and white. thank's

[Chung Dha]

standard size is 85x55mm but some like to play with plus 1 mm either side very odd, also not all companies make nice cuts. Also need 3mm bleed to your wont get odd white edges if you card is full colored. Mostly provide them or indesign files or pdf. Some companies ask 1 pdf with just one card with crop marks, some ask for a whole sheet full because they still work with old machines. You need to ask your printer the specifications they want.

[machineman]

Thank's, good advice. ~ I was asking about file format, pdf, gif, bitmap, eps... ect..
This person is asking for a bitmap file, I tried that with Illustrator CS2, but I lost a lot of detail. any suggestions? I really apreciate your time and knowledge thank's again friends.

[Karvis]

Hi,
It's really strange, that this person is asking for .bmp. Bmp normaly do not support CMYK colors, that is needed for press. Maybe you can try to save in .tiff then (CMYK, 300-500 dpi), he should accept it, tiff compresion and quality is almost the same as .bmp. But, as was mentioned, you need few mm bleed, you can do it in illustrator with crop tool.

Sorry for my English

[jack.sinai]

Where i work we prefer to get our files as pdf, psd or eps.

We also give an option to design the card online and then the card can be uploaded as jpeg.

If you need any help you can contact me

Jack

[Chung Dha]

BMP? Uhm that is not an usual file format that is use anymore. Also it is not a file format for printing, its a file format more for games, however lately also replaced with other formats. Either it is someone who just started a company and never worked with a designer before and never seen photoshop but only MS Paint and think that the only design program in the world, or he has mistaken and switched it.

You should explain to him about the formats and ask your or his printed for details.

[aeolus]

Bleed Size: 3.759 × 2.25 in (1⁄8 in bleeds) (95.25 × 57.15 mm)
Cut Size: 3.57 × 2 in (89 × 51 mm) (Depend on typography request)

but there are alotta Standard and ISOs in different contries.

[DanielDesign]

I find that pdf files are generally the safest to send to print. Bmp is definitely not common nor best suited for that. If you have to bmp it (which you shouldn't) do it in photoshop as apposed to illustrator

[machineman]

thank's everyone I got more info from the person about the formats needed. I appreciate the feedback, very helpful.

I find that pdf files are generally the safest to send to print. Bmp is definitely not common nor best suited for that. If you have to bmp it (which you shouldn't) do it in photoshop as apposed to illustrator

[machineman]

I saved it as a tiff with 300 dpi. look right to you?

By machinemanart at 2009-01-28

By machinemanart at 2009-01-28

[LPC]

I usually do my samples in 480 x 310 pixels, that way it is very clear on what the design looks like then I resize it to the clients needs when necessary.

I also agree with this:

I find that pdf files are generally the safest to send to print. Bmp is definitely not common nor best suited for that. If you have to bmp it (which you shouldn't) do it in photoshop as apposed to illustrator

[blackbelt135]

If possible, I'd recommend keeping something like a business card in a vector format, like .ai or .eps. You may also save those files to .pdf's w/out any compression loss. (Pdf's are probably most printer friendly too)

[jack.sinai]

I agree that a most preferable format is pdf.

Those cards turned out real good !

[LoShu]

At my work we did some tests on our digital printers (Xeikon and Xerox) and came to the conclusion EPS files are best to use. TIFF files had a lot less detail. Never use BMP. PDF are often okay too. But it is always important to get the right specs from your print provider.