File Supply for Plastic Cards

Gail Duncan
by Gail Duncan 2 years ago

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Plastic Card Templates

Download the appropriate InDesign Template to start your design from.

Artwork Specification

  Finished size Document size Bleed
Regular 86  × 54 mm 92 × 60 mm 3mm
Key fobs

54 x 29mm

 60 × 35 mm 3mm

Bleed and Quiet Zone

Plastic Cards require 3 mm of bleed off all edges, and we recommend a quiet zone of at least 7 mm from the page edge. You can bleed colours and images to the page edge on these products, but remember to keep all important text and objects at least 7 mm from the page edge.

The Plastic Cards have rounded corners, the radius of these can't be changed from the standard 5 mm. The templates for the Plastic Cards contain an indicator on the Trim Layer as to where the item will be die cut down to.

There is a 2mm tolerance on trimming.

Colour & Ink levels

The Plastic Cards are digitally printed onto a special plastic core material. Maximum ink is 300%.

Ink levels must be set to a maximum of 300% total ink.

All files must be supplied in CMYK. RGB, Pantones and other colour spaces are not supported and will be converted to CMYK, this could cause a colour shift so we recommed that the conversion to CMYK is done prior to upload.

The minimum tint level is 10% per CMYK channel and tints over 90% will tend to look 100% when printed.

Solid black is best supplied as 100% black (not rich black or 4-colour black).

Fonts

Your PDF file must have all fonts converted to outlines. We recommend keeping all text above 5pt size.

Images & Reproduction of details

If you are using bitmap based artwork then ensure your files have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. TIF, JPEG and PNG images are supported within your PDF.  Images must be CMYK.

The minimum stroke thickness is 0.5 pt for positive strokes and 1 pt for negative stokes (when a line is punched out of another coloured object).

Finishing options

  • Punched hole or slot
  • Numbering
  • Signature strips
    • White
    • Clear
  • Magnetic strips
    • Encoded
  • Personalisation
    • Photo
    • Name
    • Address

Plastic Card Options per Product

All Plastic cards have an option to finish as matt or gloss.

✔️ - Included as standard
O - Optional extra

Product code Product Name Print Min. Qty Hole or slot No. Sig strip Photo Name or Address
NCC1PLAS Plastic Business Card 4x4 50 O        
WMSWPLAS Plastic Membership Card 4x4 50 O O O O O
WMSWPLA2 Photo ID card 4x4 10 O O O ✔️ ✔️
WMSWPLA5 Plastic Key Fob 4x4 50 ✔️ O O    
PCBC70L Plastic Credit Cards 4x0 50          
PCBC74L Plastic Credit Cards 4x4 50          
PCBC4HL Plastic Credit Cards + Hole or Slot 4x4 50 ✔️        
PCBC0NM Plastic Credit Cards + Numbering 4x0 50   ✔️      
PCBC4NL Plastic Credit Cards + Numbering 4x4 50   ✔️      
PCBC0SM Plastic Credit Cards + Sig Strip 4x0 50     ✔️    
PCBC4SM Plastic Credit Cards + Sig Strip 4x4 50     ✔️    
PCBC0NSM Plastic Credit Cards + Numbering + Sig Strip 4x0 50   ✔️ ✔️    
PCBC4NSM Plastic Credit Cards + Numbering + Sig Strip 4x4 50   ✔️ ✔️    
PCBCF0L Plastic Transparent Credit Cards - Frosted 4x0 50        

 

 

 

Optional Extras

  1. Magnetic stripe
    Magnetic stripe with Encoding
  2. Signature panels
  3. Punched holes & slots
  4. Numbering
  5. Barcodes
  6. Personalisation
    Excel data
    Photos

1. Magnetic stripe

Indicate the magnetic stripe position on an additional PDF page, separate from the printed artwork files.

  • The magnetic stripe should be indicated in 100% black ink only.
  • The depth of the mag stripe is always 12mm.
  • Always positioned on the reverse of the card, either 4mm from the top or bottom edge.
  • Avoid placing any pertinent information (i.e. terms and conditions, phone numbers, website addresses) within 3mm of the magnetic stripe.
  • Avoid placing text directly above the magstripe if you intend to position to magstripe near the top of the card (and vice versa for positioning the magstripe near the bottom of the card).
  • Unless it is critical for background artwork/designs to run underneath the mag stripe then please follow the recommendation above.

Failing to follow these guidelines means that your artwork runs the risk of text or numbering being cut off.

Magnetic stripe with Encoding

HiCo (High Coervicity) Encoding onto a magnetic stripe can be either numbers, letters or both. To process an order for magnetic encoding, confirmation is required of the data to be programmed and the track type needed. The requirements of the track type is usually determined by the system/reader the cards are going to be used in.

 The magnetic stripe contains tracks - this is where the data is encoded onto the card.

  • Track 1 is for alphanumeric data (letters and/or numbers)
  • Track 2 is numeric only

Magnetic stripe with alphanumeric data
A ZIP file is required containing:

  • A PDF with the location of the magnetic stripe (as per instructions above)
  • An Excel data file is required for encoding data that is not sequential or not numerical e.g. codes or names. Encoding data would need to be provided in excel, in one column titled “ENCODING” (see Personalisation section below)

Magnetic stripe with numeric data

  • A PDF with the location of the magnetic stripe (as per instructions above)
  • A sequential number sequence, can be provided as a finishing note, rather than provided as an excel file. E.g. "001-500"

2. Signature panels

Indicate the signature strip position on an additional PDF page, separate from the printed artwork files.

  • The Signature panel should be indicated in 50% magenta + 100% yellow only.
  • Signature panels are normally landscape in orientation.
  • Standard dimensions are usually 75mm x 8mm.
  • The maximum possible dimensions are 82mm x 15mm but this must not bleed off the edge of the page.
  • Always positioned on the reverse of the card.

Vertical signature panel requests (on a landscape card), multiple panels or panels larger than these dimensions must be submitted as a bespoke quote request.

3. Punched holes & slots

Indicate punched hole(s) or slot(s) on an additional PDF page, separate from the printed artwork files.

  • Location should be indicated as a solid circle/slot in 50% magenta + 100% yellow ink only.
  • Punched holes or slots  must be a minimum distance of 5mm from any edge of the card.
  • The standard hole size is 5mm in diameter.
    • Holes can be positioned either in any corner of the card or centrally along the short/long edge of the card.
  • The slot dimension is 3mm x 16mm
    • Slots can be position centre long edge or short edge.

4. Numbering

Indicate the location of numbering on an additional PDF page, separate from the printed artwork files.

  • Specify any colour in CMYK
  • Any size
  • The font needs to be Arial
  • Use the starting number in the style you want
  • Sequential numbering can be alphanumeric (letters and/or numbers)
  • Provide us with the number sequence after placing your order.

5. Barcodes

Barcodes allow you to add sequential numbering that is scanned rather just printed on the card. Ideal for membership numbers.

Indicate the location and size of the barcode  on an additional PDF page, separate from the main artwork files.

  • Provide us with the number sequence after placing your order.

Choosing which type of barcode

Code 128 barcodes have a very high data density and Code 39 barcodes have a low data density, therefore very small goods should be labeled with Code 128 barcodes where possible.

Most barcode scanners can read both Code 128 barcodes and Code 39 barcode images easily, but you should confirm this with your client based on the scanner and system being used.

6. Personalisation

You can include any number of personalised fields on one side of the card.

Indicate any extra personalisation elements (names, numbering, addresses & photos) by placing them on an additional PDF page, separate from the printed artwork files. Using your first example of information from your spreadsheet.

  • A sample of the data / photo size / location should be indicated in 100% magenta ink only, using the exact font type and size required.
  • A ZIP file is required containing:

Excel Data

The first row should contain the field headers and the columns below should contain your data, see the example below.

File supply for Photos

  • The folder containing photos must be accurately referenced in the data file, the exact name matching including the file extension e.g. A. Armstrong.tif
  • The preferred image format is TIFF (JPEGs will also be accepted)
  • Supplied at a minimum of 300 dpi
  • CMYK format.