Custom card artwork: prepare one controlled print package

A production-ready artwork package makes the intended result clear without forcing the printer to guess which file or layer is authoritative.

Artwork for a plastic card is not a page layout. The file has to survive a printed sheet that is laminated under heat and pressure and then punched to a finished outline, and it has to coexist with an antenna, a magnetic stripe or a signature panel decided before the design started. A layout that looks correct on screen can still lose 2 mm of a logo at the punch, print a spot varnish as a grey rectangle, or put a QR code where the rounded corner cuts its quiet zone.

The package that prevents that is small: the supplier's template for the exact construction, artwork built on it with every finish on its own named layer, and variable-data rules kept separate. The Kaway artwork release manifest ties them together: a single page naming the approved front file, the approved reverse file, every named finish layer and the variable-data template, each with its revision. Everything below exists to make that one page unambiguous.

01. Request the production template for the exact construction

The template comes from the supplier that will print the job, and it is specific to one outline and one construction. A generic CR80 template carried over from another supplier is not a substitute, because the values that matter are not properties of the format. ISO/IEC 7810 fixes the ID-1 card at 85.60 by 53.98 mm with a corner radius of about 3 mm, and that is where the agreement between suppliers ends. Registration tolerance between print and punch, the usable bleed and the keep-out over the antenna belong to the tooling and the press.

A production template carries more than a trim line. It shows both faces with their orientation, so a reverse designed upside down is caught before plating. It marks the keep-out over the inlay or antenna, where embossing, a punched slot and hot foil are all excluded, plus the magnetic stripe track, the signature panel and any chip module window.

Ask for the template by construction and revision, and record the revision the artwork was built on. A supplier that changes a punch tool issues a new template revision, and artwork built on the previous one shows up as a trimmed border.

02. Trim, bleed and safe area are three different lines

Trim, bleed and safe area describe three separate things, and confusing any two of them is the most common artwork error on a card. The trim line is the finished outline where the punch cuts. The bleed is the artwork extended past that line, so a small shift between printing and punching leaves no white sliver along an edge. The safe area is the inner margin where text, logos and legal lines stay, far enough inside the trim that the same shift never clips them.

Use the supplier's confirmed values for all three rather than a universal bleed measurement. A figure that worked at one factory is a habit, not a specification, and the punch tolerance behind it does not travel with the file.

Two design decisions interact badly with a punched card. The first is a thin border following the card outline: a 0.3 mm shift makes one side visibly thinner than the other, on every card in the run, so a border set inside the safe area survives and one on the trim line does not. The second is any element near a corner, where the radius of about 3 mm removes more area than designers expect. CR80 card dimensions, fit and tolerances covers the acceptance limits behind those lines.

03. Name every finish layer, or the press prints it as artwork

A special finish is a separate named layer, never a colour inside the artwork. Spot UV varnish, hot foil, a white underlay, embossing and a scratch panel are each applied by a different operation on a different station, and the press can only separate them if the file does. What the printer cannot separate, the printer prints.

The rule takes a specific shape for each one. Spot UV varnish and hot foil go on their own layers as flat shapes in 100 per cent of one spot colour, with no gradients or transparency: a gold area set as a CMYK gold swatch prints as brown ink, and the press cannot detect the error. A white underlay is a named layer beneath the colour artwork, and it matters on recycled PVC, dark stock and wood, where colours printed directly sink into the material. Embossing and scratch panels come as position-only outlines, so they can be checked against the antenna keep-out before tooling is made.

Fonts and images follow the same logic. Convert type to outlines or supply the font file, because a substituted font changes line breaks and a legal line can stop fitting its safe area. Supply logos as vector artwork, and set image resolution for the final printed size of 85.60 by 53.98 mm rather than for a page. Printing a card: offset, digital, screen and finishes covers which process each finish belongs to.

04. Variable data stays outside the decorative artwork

Variable data belongs in its own template and its own data file, linked to the decorative artwork by revision rather than merged into it. The design is approved once and reused; the data changes on every batch. Merging the two means either re-approving the design on every reorder, or printing new numbers on a design revision nobody checked.

A variable-data specification names the numbering range, the start number, the increment, any check digit, the symbology, the font and size, and the zone the data sits in. For a QR code the quiet zone is part of the symbol, not decoration: ISO/IEC 18004 defines a four-module margin, and a background pattern or a punched corner intruding into it makes the code unreliable. For a barcode the bar height and the orientation relative to the scan direction belong in the same place.

The link to the chip is specified here too, because a printed number that has to match an encoded number is a requirement and not an assumption. Variable data on a card: numbering, barcodes and matching print to the chip covers the three ways that match can be defined, and encoding a credential, blank stock or pre encoded covers the keys that make it possible.

05. Release a manifest, not a folder of possibilities

A release manifest states which files are authorised for the run, and a tidy folder does not. Three files in a folder are three candidates until something names the approved one. The manifest is short enough to sit in the body of an email: the approved front, the approved reverse, each named finish layer, the variable-data template and the construction they were built on, each with its revision, plus who approved it, when, and against which proof.

The other half of the manifest is what it excludes. Reference-only images and superseded drafts are labelled as such and withdrawn from the job folder, because an unlabelled old file is indistinguishable from a new one when someone is working at speed.

When one file changes after approval, two things reopen: the physical proof is no longer evidence for the part that changed, and any packaging artwork carrying the old design is no longer current. Custom packaging printed with the buyer's logo is a second artwork item with its own revision, and the one most often forgotten.

06. Buyer checklist

Before approval

• Exact template. The artwork is built on the supplier's current template for this outline and construction, and that revision is written down.
• Face orientation. Front and reverse are supplied together, the right way up relative to each other, with any slot, stripe or panel in its marked position.
• Fonts and images. Type is outlined or the font supplied, logos are vector, and image resolution is set for 85.60 by 53.98 mm.
• Special layers. Every finish has its own named layer in a flat spot colour, checked against the antenna keep-out.
• Approved revision. One manifest names the authorised revision of every file, the proof it was approved against, and which files are reference only.

07. Worked example

Illustrative scenario, not a Kaway case study. A distributor orders 3,000 member cards with a spot UV logo on the front and a sequential number and QR code on the reverse. Artwork is approved in week one, production is scheduled for week three.

In week two the end client changes the front logo. The designer corrects the front file and drops it into the shared folder beside the previous version and two reverse files, one an early draft with the QR code 2 mm lower. Nothing is renamed, because everyone knows which is which.

What reaches the press is the corrected front and the early reverse. The QR code sits 2 mm low, which puts the punched corner inside its quiet zone on about a third of the sheet positions. The cards look right, the number prints correctly, and the scan failure appears after delivery.

The version that works costs one email. A release manifest names the front at revision 3 and the reverse at revision 2, states that revision 1 of each is superseded, and names the signed proof those two revisions were approved against.

08. Technical references

• ISO/IEC 7810 sets the ID-1 dimensions and corner radius every card artwork template is built on, which is why trim and safe area are geometry rather than preference: iso.org/standard/70483.html.
• ISO/IEC 18004 defines the QR code symbology, including the quiet zone artwork has to leave clear for the code to read reliably: iso.org/standard/83389.html.

09. Where Kaway fits

Kaway manufactures in its own plant in Dongguan, China, and issues production templates per construction, so the trim, bleed, safe area and keep-out values an artwork file is built on come from the tooling that will punch the cards. Kaway also adapts the buyer's design and logo to those templates, which is artwork adaptation rather than a full design service, so what arrives has to be complete enough to adapt.

A sample in your material and chip goes out before any order, and it is the object a printed proof and an encoded number can be checked on together. Encoding is done at the plant across EM4200, T5577, MIFARE Classic EV1 1K and 4K, MIFARE Ultralight EV1, MIFARE DESFire EV2 and EV3, NTAG213, NTAG215 and NTAG216, ICODE SLIX, and UHF Impinj Monza and Alien H3, so a printed number and an encoded number can be specified as one requirement. Custom packaging is available printed with the buyer's logo in black, one ink only, and belongs in the same manifest.

Minimum order is 500 units. Standard production is 13 calendar days, 8 calendar days on express and 12 calendar days for wooden cards. Quote requests are answered the same working day. Specifying a card order covers where the artwork package sits in the rest of the specification, and the PVC and recycled PVC card range lists the constructions a template is issued for.

Share your card artwork and personalisation requirements with Kaway Group.

10. Frequently asked questions

Can one artwork template serve every card construction?

Not safely. Use the template approved for the exact outline, features and construction, including any electronics restrictions. A 0.76 mm PVC card with a MIFARE DESFire EV3 inlay and a wooden card with a punched slot have different keep-outs, and the template states them.

Can we send a single PDF with both faces and all the finishes in it?

Only if the finishes are on separate named layers inside it. A flattened PDF cannot be separated back into a varnish plate and a print plate, so the varnish prints as artwork. A layered file works, and so does one file per face plus one per finish.

Does an approved proof cover a later artwork correction?

Only the parts that did not change. Record the correction as a new revision, state in the manifest which proof it supersedes, and decide whether a new proof is needed. Card sample types covers what each sample proves.

What happens to the artwork on a reorder months later?

The manifest is what makes a reorder identical, because reordering against a folder reproduces whatever file is on top. Reordering so that batch two matches batch one covers the other things a specification record has to freeze.