[duoikari]

Hi guys just a quick one, how do you make a transparent background on a print document in illustrator, as i have created some business cards and need to have a transparent bleed around the edge for the printers.

[andi*pandi]

Does not compute.

You need bleed? Extend your colors etc off the edge of the artboard .125" or so.

Is the design complex?

[duoikari]

No it's more the printers that is doing them!. They need a bleed of 3 mm on the business card, but it needs to be transparent and when I try and do it on Illustrator it makes the bleed white which they can't use.

[Thorzdad]

I think I get what they want...Try this...Create a new business card document at the correct size (3.5 x 2) and include 3mm of bleed in the setup. Then, simply put your art in the live area. Now, save the file as a PDF and make sure you use the document bleed setting. You should now have a file that has 3mm of transparent bleed.

Honestly, though, as far as printing is concerned, white IS transparent, unless they're printing white on a colored stock. This is a really weird requirement. Is this one of those "20,000 cards for $10" places?

[andi*pandi]

It's the "transparent" that threw me, if it's just a regular bleed.

<heads back to dreamweaver land>

[Thorzdad]

Yeah, me too. Even if the bleed was actually filled with a white object, it shouldn't matter to the printer or RIP. I'm guessing the guys at the print shop are not exactly pros.

Duoikari...Are you sending them a PDF or the raw .ai file? Hopefully, it's the PDF.

[duoikari]

Just to update you guys I have cancelled my order with these guys as they seemed retarded, conversation as follows

[Printer's]
The request requires the following actions to be carried out in order for us to process the order:

Please reupload with the required bleed

[Me]
Hi,
I am trying to add the transparent bleed to my artwork but I and finding it almost impossible when using illustrator and photoshop, everytime i save the image it comes up with a white bleed.

Can you advise me on how to do this?

[Printer's]
Image > Canvas size > set document + 6mm height & width = 3mm bleed area.
Make sure the background colour extends to the edges of the document.


So it wasn't actually a bleed at all, I asked for them to cancel the order after they sent me a pixelated version of my final that they said they were going to print. So I was wondering if anyone knew of online place that would print doubled sided black and white business cards, with a spot UV on one side for less then 100 quid. Doesn't matter if they're american company and quantity doesn't really matter.

[andi*pandi]

Sounds like he wanted the bleed built into the file size, odd.

There's a good thread in here somewhere that talks about business card printers, but off the top of my head there's vistaprint.com and 4by6.com. Haven't used either though.

[Doc HM]

I can recommend Moo cards. They just rattled off 200 cards for me. Most awesomley the cards had 20 different back designs which they printed at no extra costs. And the quality was brilliant. Love them. Sorry this sounds like spam but I'm impressed.
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