Artwork Specifications

The artistic look of your gift and loyalty cards is important to the success of your program. Since most of our gift card merchants are small businesses we understand that you probably don’t have the expertise as a graphic designer. So we give you a few excellent options when it comes to designing your cards.

First, we have some excellent pre-designed standard cards for a variety of industries and then we can have your business name printed on the front of the card so when it goes to print they come out looking great. We also customize the back of our standard cards.

Most of our merchants prefer to have their cards printed with their logo, design, and color scheme to match their other marketing materials. Whatever look you want to present to your customers we can get it done for you. If you already have a relationship with a local printer or web designer then they can usually assist you with creating the design and putting it into the proper electronic format. If it is just a matter of adding your logo and business name to a color scheme you select then please just email it to us in a high-resolution format. Our artwork department will let you know how your design will look on the card and make suggestions as necessary. Many times if you have already printed marketing materials for your business then you can ask your designer, printer, sign guy, or whoever created the original artwork for a copy to email to us.

Then you will want to decide what to put on the back of the card. If you need some suggestions then click on our page called Sample of Card Backs. Here you will see text that other of our clients have followed in the past or simply write your own from scratch. The best format to email the text to us is in a Word document attached to your email.

Once we have the card front artwork and the card back text our artwork department will put together a proof for your review within a couple of days. We will email the online link to you for the proof and then you can either approve it as is or suggest any changes you would like to see. We will then provide you with a second proof.

As soon as you sign off an approval on the card design the cards will go into production and you can expect your custom designed cards to be shipped within 15 business days. The normal shipping method is UPS Ground from our printer in Pennsylvania. Should you desire a faster method then you are welcome to provide a UPS or FedEx account number and they will be shipped with your instructions.

Some of our larger clients have their own on-staff graphic designer and have a better working knowledge of the plastic card printing process then the average smaller merchant. Therefore, here is a section with a little more technical information.

In creating your card design please keep in mind the following important points. The standard gift card (CR 80) is 3.75″ (width) x 2.125″ (height) x 0.30 mil (thickness). These are the same dimensions as a standard credit card. Artwork that bleeds must extend 1/8″ beyond the edge of the card on all four sides. A 1/8″ trim safety margin inside of the card edge is recommended for all type and essential art elements. Therefore, all files MUST be a total of 3.625″ x 2.375″ which includes the 1/8″ bleed on all four sides. All files must be supplied as CMYK (4-color process) and/or Pantone (PMS) colors. The magnetic stripe loco mag with a width of 3/8″ and are laminated litho printed for an outstanding polished look.

Please Click Here for our Full Art Submission File Guide

Now that you know about this great program, you are probably ready to take that extra step. Please Contact Kevin via Email or complete the I Want More Info form.