How to to set up business cards for 3rd party print

yes especially for business cards you never know if they will be cut ever so slightly wonky so always make sure your text is 1/8" in from the edge

 

1/8" safety margin is common practice for business cards, they're often done on colour copiers for shorter runs which are prone to bounce. Safety margin is so nothing gets cut off when they cut stacks.

Your other service may have adjusted or just didn't care and ran whatever was given without proper preflight.

 

correct, there is the BLEED, CUT & SAFE lines. Each line is 1/8" apart.

 

Safety margin will differ based on their capabilities, 1/8" is standard. At 1/16" they're confident in their production equipment or they run on a press.

 

Correct, it is a total of 1/8"

as Dan stated, the type of equipment being used will decide what is needed

 

The design could easily accommodate a 1/8" safe line with some layout adjustment (I would not recommend the "NOT THIS" example).

 

In my experience with large volume card suppliers the finish cut will always be slightly off
You can see from the beginning of the batch to the end the cut sometimes changes just a little.

Try to give the text some breathing room so if the cut is slightly off it is not as noticeable.

Also a suggestion..your artwork needs some major kerning issues.

 

So per your request, I won't critique this particular design, but it's a good practice in general to leave more breathing room in the whole design, especially around the borders. Not only will it make it easier for the printer, it will be easier on the eyes.

 

Neato: You are quite right. Properly proportioned margins and an understanding of typography often go very far in establishing clear communications. In all cases, content is also important. The clarity of your message is essential. In some cases, the whole top third of a business card could be removed to make the message much more direct and understandable.

 

I use the templates the service requires. Always use crop marks just in case they don't understand how I want it. Seems every fairly large print shop has their own templates and they mostly are different because of the way they cut their cards. I like the 4over business card template the most and it seems to work good at other printers also.

 

If you don't want your margins to end up looking uneven, a good rule of thumb would actually be to set your safety to double the bleed or more.