This is wrong.
They would not have done it this way - it’s a double cut and will causing more trimming to be done.
You can see the 2 lines at the top and bottom of the page that will act as the marker for the guillotine operator (just a marker) they will input the width of the card.
Think of actually cutting along this line with a large blade - you have to do it in two locations.
The goal is do to as few cuts as possible.
The correct way to impose these cards would be rotate the left column, then both red ends match other.
Your cards can’t do this due to the gradient.
The gradient wouldn’t match like a solid block of colour - so a dead split (1 cut) could cause some gradient from card on the left to be cut inaccurately (even by .01mm) and would appear on Card on the right.
Then you have 8 cards in that row - and a stack of 200 pages (that’s 1600 cards) with the .01mm of a gradient that doesn’t match.
It’s minimal.
But for this reason - they would need to go the route of cutting it with 2 cuts - rather than 1.
And the more cuts - the more room for error.
Remember this is a mechanical process - driven by humans.
I’ve noticed that many new designers who are used to the precision of their digital tools fail to fully consider that the analog world of printing deals in tangible physical things where approximations, margins of error, and tolerances can only be minimized and planned for but not eliminated.
Speaking as someone who works in the printing world, even digital printers aren’t perfect, I can tell you that almost everyday I am adjusting and fighting with my printers to get as close to a perfect print/cut as I can and still get some movement. It isn’t really possible or shouldn’t be to believed to be possible that every print will be right on. If you or anyone else believes that it’s possible, I would suggest you go talk to your local printshop and see if you can give a hand at trying to do the job and see how impractical what you are asking is. As for the border everyone is talking about, I always recommend against having them, it’s an added nuisance that shows if there is any shift in the print/cut, however as I mentioned, nothing is ever perfect. But I think we’ve gone off topic from the original subject. I would recommend printing off a test on your home or office desktop printer and see how the lines show, although the quality will be far less than what the printshop will produce, it will give you guidance as to if you need to enlarge your lines or not.
Just to add to the crap shoot, you also have to bear in mind where, within the 16pp sections, a page falls, as this can make a difference to what is ‘lost’ and what isn’t.
I’m not a printer–I run a props design and fabrication shop–but I will add that a huge part of doing good design involves understanding and designing to the tolerances of your production capabilities/processes.
If it is an established fact (as it seems to be) that a one mm shift can occur when cutting thousands of cards (which results in a 2mm difference in the border widths, left and right), as a good designer, you design away from getting hurt by that, i.e., stay away from narrow borders. If your goal is to make nice cards (or spaceships, or giant foam trees, or vinyls…) you learn to design and work in the world that IS, not the one you think it ought to be.
Of course. I’ve worked with CNC machinery before doing CAD design. It really doesn’t get more precise than that. And there are still tolerances to work within. I guess I should’ve rephrased everything. I’m baffled by how something as simple as cutting paper couldn’t be a much more precise process. With CNCs, we’re talking architectural, engineering applications. Comparatively trimming/cutting paper is a joke. Especially when the tolerances are in the thousandths of inches, and materials ranging from wood to steel are involved.
But I get what you’re saying. Still, though. I would like to see more of a guarantee with something like printing and cutting business cards. But if it is what it is, then I still have a new issue . Don’t know if I should make the border larger. Or remove it altogether. It’s a design decision at this point.
And going back to what this discussion was about, though. I may just print off some on my black/white, unimpressive home printer. Just change the lines pure white and see what they look like, just for reference.
But @Just-B It’s good to know what I can expect with gradients and uncoated vs coated paper. Guess i’m going Coated then. . That is, if I ever decide to print them.
Try working with a local printers. And try it with the border you want. See how it turns out. It would be relatively low cost.
You could even send one with no border, thin border, medium border, thick border and ask for samples.
Then when you get them ask about the trimming issues for the border and what they recommend.
Of course, if you end up going with a different printers you could end up with a different result.
Not everyone has the same machine, same paper.
i agree - but the machines they use for these cost a lot.
You can buy a paper guillotine for a few thousand.
My dad was a train engineer and he showed me his workshop. They had a machine for cutting foot thick steel - and it used compressed water to cut it.
Perhaps if someone has a very expensive guillotine that they get serviced regularly it might help.
But from my experience, a lot of print shops are using older guillotines and not up to date. Typically don’t buy a new one unless there’s a reason to.
But I worked in a place that refused to get any machines fixed and the staff were going home in the evening and making the parts their sheds and bringing them in to fix the machine.
They had to, nobody was going to fix it, and if broke they were going to be out of a job. If they are not going to pay to fix a machine, they won’t pay to replace it.
Said - but printers don’t have the resources (financially) that places doing CNC and CAD would have. There’s a lot more money in that end of things, more money = better machines and better (qualified) workers.
One big difference - in CNC you are cutting ONE piece, when you guillotine paper or card, you are cutting a stack of 1-200 pieces. You can achieve a similar degree of accuracy cutting business cars one sheet at a time but that would take all day (and be prohibitively expensive).
Well, if that’s all it comes down to, then you have to pay a premium price for a premium product. Or in this case, service. I have no problem with that.
And I did some cleaning today and found my old business cards that were printed from when I was in school. Hehehe. Too bad I didn’t get the ones I designed NOW printed. But i’m glad @Joe brought up the frame. I didn’t even notice it on my old, crappy cards. Here’s a photo I took really quick. And there’s an entire stack of them. And yep, they’re all trimmed more on the right. I still have the dusty old working file, and it’s the same scenario as my current design. Stroke right on the artboard. Centre aligned. 1/8" inside and out, and of course the Bleed is 1/8" as well.
Don’t know if I should make the border larger. Or remove it altogether. It’s a design decision at this point.
. That is, if I ever decide to print them.
