Illustrator — How to set up a Christmas or greeting card file for a commercial printing company

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This page assists you in setting up a greeting card or christmas card file in the Adobe Illustrator program. The images relate to Apple-Mac computers, but the principle is the same on PCs.

• How to set up a greeting card or Christmas card file on Adobe illustrator.
• How to outline text in an Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file.
• How to convert an Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file into a PDF.

 

How to set up a greeting card or Christmas card file on Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is possibly the best program to use if you want to create a greeting card or Christmas card file, and Adobe Illustrator is great for one simple reason: if you make a mistake, you can correct it at almost any stage of the process.

Anyway, start by choosing File > New.

 

Your screen should change to the below New Document dialogue box, where you will:

1. Name you file.
   • Commercial printing companies use the name of the file to determine for whom the card is being printed, and the type of job that is being printed. Therefore, you should take care to give your job a meaningful name.
   • A meaningful job name will have two parts:
     • The person for whom the job is being printed. In our example, the job is for the Book Grocer.
     • The type of job being printed. In our example, the job is a DL Christmas Card (we could have used DL Greeting Card, and the name would have been just as good).
   • So, use your name (or your customer's name), and tell us what size card is being made.
2. Enter the correct Width and Height measurements.
   • A7 — Width 148mm and Height 105mm — the A7 mini greeting card will become 74mm wide x 105mm high (or one-eighth the size of a standard business letter) when it is folded.
   • A6 — Width 210mm and Height 148mm — the A6 standard greeting card will become 105mm wide x 148mm high (or one-quarter the size of a standard business letter) when it is folded.
   • A5 — Width 297mm and Height 210mm — the A5 large greeting card will become 148mm wide x 210mm high (or one-half the size of a standard business letter) when it is folded.
   • DL — Width 198mm and Height 210mm — the DL slim greeting card will become 99mm wide x 210mm high (or one-third the size of a standard business letter) when it is folded.
3. Select CMYK as the Color Mode.
4. Select High (300ppi) as the Raster Effects.

Once the above has been entered into the New Document dialogue box, click the OK button.

 

Your screen should look similar to the below screen shot. Don't start designing your greeting or Christmas card just yet. Ihere are a couple of things that you need to do to make sure your design is 100% perfect. 

Choose: View > Show Rulers.

Your screen should now have a ruler at the top, and another ruler on the left-hand side (see below).  

 

You now need to put in the Bleed lines, the Safety Margin lines, the Gutter and the Fold line (we explain what these are for later), and these lines are shown in the below image.

 

Bleed lines are placed 3mm outside the black box.

• Place you mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse down until it is 3mm above the top of the black box (you measure the 3mm from the left-hand ruler) — this is the top Bleed line.
• Place you mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse down until it is 3mm below the bottom of the black box (you measure the 3mm from the left-hand ruler) — this is the bottom Bleed line.
• Place you mouse in the left-hand ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse across until it is 3mm to the outside (to the left) the left-hand side of the black box (you measure the 3mm from the top ruler) — this is the left-hand Bleed line.
• Place you mouse in the left-hand ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse across until it is 3mm to the outside (to the right) the right-hand side of the black box (you measure the 3mm from the top ruler) — this is the right-hand Bleed line.

Safety Margin  lines are placed 5mm inside the black box.

• Place you mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse down until it is 5mm under the top of the black box (you measure the 5mm from the left-hand ruler) — this is the top Safety Margin line.
• Place you mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse down until it is 5mm above the bottom of the black box (you measure the 5mm from the left-hand ruler) — this is the bottom Safety Margin line.
• Place you mouse in the left-hand ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse across until it is 5mm to the inside (to the right) the left-hand side of the black box (you measure the 5mm from the top ruler) — this is the left-hand Safety Margin line.
• Place you mouse in the left-hand ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse across until it is 5mm to the intside (to the left) the right-hand side of the black box (you measure the 5mm from the top ruler) — this is the right-hand Safety Margin line.

The Fold line is placed in the exact centre of the the black box. Place you mouse in the left-hand ruler, hold down the mouse, and drag the mouse across until it is at the exact centre of the card — this is the left-hand Safety Margin line. The exact centre can be read on the top ruler, and the measurement should be:

• A7 mini greeting and Christmas cards — 74mm (as seen on the top ruler of your file).
• A6 standard greeting and Christmas cards — 105mm (as seen on the top ruler of your file).
• A5 largei greeting and Christmas cards — 148mm (as seen on the top ruler of your file).
• DL slim greeting and Christmas cards — 99mm (as seen on the top ruler of your file).

The Gutter is placed 5mm each side of the Fold line.

 

You now have one file that us ready. Given your greeting or Christmas card will be double-sided (i.e.: the outside cover and the inside pages), TheOnlinePrinter suggests you save a second copy of the file. The outside of the card can be XXX XX Greeting Card Outside.ai, and the inside of the card can be XXX XX Greeting Card Inside.ai.

 

You can now start using your Adobe Illustrator program to create your greeting card or Christmas card file. When you do, make sure that:

• If an image or background colour is going to print to the very edge of the page, then your MUST continue that image or background colour right through to the bleed line. In the below image you will see that:
  • ALMOST ALL of the background colours continue past the trim line, and finish at the Bleed line.
  • The top and bootom of the dark green does NOT continue all the way to the Bleed line — this is wrong.
• If you are going to have a border on your card, then make sure that the border takes up all the space between the Saftey Margin line and:
  • the Bleed line. If you look at the right-hand side of the dark greem box, you will see that there is a two-coloured border (yellow and light green) and those colours take up all the space between the Saftey Margin line and the Bleed line; and/or
  • the Gutter and the Fold line. If you look at the left-hand side of the dark greem box, you will see that there is a two-coloured border (yellow and light green) and those colours take up all the space between the Gutter and the Fold line.
• All text MUST remain inside the Saftey Margin lines and stay clear of the Gutter. In the below image you will see that the:
  • Compliments of the Season 2009 is clearly inside the right-hand Saftey Margin line and the Gutter (just to the left of the text).
  • www.BookGrocer.com is JUST inside the left-hand side and bottom Saftey Margin lines, and JUST inside the Gutter (just on the right of the text)

 

When you have finished designing your greeting or Christmas card, save the file, and you can send your Adobe Illustrator files (both the ourside and inside files) to your commercial printing company. However, just before you do send your Adobe Illustrator greeting or Christmas card file, we suggest you consider the following:

• Your printing company might not have the fonts that you use, or might not be licensed to use those fonts. this can be a particularly significant problem when yourprinting company uses its own in-house software to make your file press-ready. However, if you outline the text in your Adobe Illustrator file, then the whole issue of fonts is 100% solved.
• Adobe Illustrator normally travels well over the Internet. However, sometimes Adobe Illustrator  become damaged. In contrast, PDFs almost never become damaged when travelling over the Internet. So, TheOnlinePrinter suggests that you should convert your Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file into a PDF.
• Adobe Illustrator files can be large, and large files are hard to e-mail, or slow to upload. In contrast, PDFs are always much smaller than Adobe Illustrator files, and this makes PDFs easier to e-mail and upload. Therefeore, TheOnlinePrinter suggests that you should convert your Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file into a PDF.

 

How to outline text in an Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file

Outlining text in Adobe Illustrator is easy. Choose Select > All.

Everything on the file will be outlined in a light blue (see below). 

Now choose: Type > Create Outlines.

The text will now be 'traced' by a blue 'mashy' line (see below). This means the text has been outlined.

Save your file.

 

How to convert an Adobe Illustrator greeting card or Christmas card file into a PDF

Converting Adobe Illustrator greeting card and Christmas card files into a PDF is a simple process.

Choose: File > Save As.

You will be presented with the Save As dialogue box (see below).

•  Make sure that the Format drop-down menu is set on Adobe PDF (see red arrows in the below image).
• Then click the Save button.

 

Your screen will change to the Save Adobe PDF dialogue box (see below), and the General tab should be shaded light blue (see the upper red arrow below).

1. Make sure the Adobe PDF Present drop-down menu is set on Press Quality.
2. Click once on the Compression tab (see the lower red arrow below).

 

 

The Save Adobe PDF dialogue box will alter, and the Compression tab should be shaded light blue (see the upper red arrow below).

1. Ensure that the Color Bitmap Images details are set at Bicubic Downsampling to 300 ppi for images above 450 ppi.
2. Ensure that the Greyscale Bitmap Images details are set at Bicubic Downsampling to 300 ppi for images above 450 ppi.
3. Ensure that the Monochrome Bitmap Images details are set at Bicubic Downsampling to 1200 ppi for images above 1800 ppi
4. Click once on the Marks and Bleeds tab.

 

The Save Adobe PDF dialogue box will alter, and the Markes and Bleeds tab should be shaded light blue (see the red arrow below).

1. Ensure that the Trim Marks box is the only box ticked in the Marks section.
2. Ensure that every Bleed box is set at 3mm.
3. Click the Save PDF button.

 

Your file is now a press-ready PDF. Send it to your printing company, and your job should proceed with ease.