You can download our pre-formatted start file

Or create your own file from scratch

For business cards, create a new file 91 mm x 61 mm at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Colour mode should be CMYK. For postcards the size should be 151.5 x 108 mm.

Page sizes for other products can be found here.

Trim and text area

For business cards create guides 3mm and 6mm from each edge, and for postcards create guides 1.5mm and 4.5mm from each edge.

Now click in the ruler at the top and drag down a guide to 3mm into the page, and let go. Do this again at 6mm down, 55mm down and 58mm down. Click in the side ruler and drag to 3mm, 6mm, 85mm and 88mm across.

Your document should now look like this. (This is a business card.)

You are now ready to create your design within this template.

Please note, nothing should extend to the outer edge of the document other than items that extend right to the edge of your cards, like a background colour or all-over image for example. For more information on "bleed", please refer to our file preparation tutorial.

The first guide lines (3mm for business cards or 1.5mm for postcards) show where the cards will be cut. The inner guides (6mm for business cards and 4.5mm for postcards) show the 'safe' area for your design. You should try to keep your all your text and images within the inner guides to avoid the possibility of anything on your cards being 'clipped' when we cut them.

Avoid scaling up images. If an imported image is too small, scaling up will reduce the resolution and therefore the quality.

Very fine text, rules and keylines should be avoided.

Saving your artwork

When you are happy with your design, save the file as an Adobe Photoshop (.psd) file. This is your back up in case you need to make alterations at any time in the future. This file cannot be uploaded.

Flatten any layers you may have (Layer > Flatten Image).

Select File > Save As and Choose JPEG.

Quality should be set to 12, Maximum, and Format should be Baseline 'Standard'. The Preview box should be unchecked.