Pro Printing Basics

What Pro Printing Means

Pro printing is for sending your deck to a print shop or professional printer.

Instead of arranging multiple cards on a home-printer sheet, I Love Cards generates one print-ready card page per side with the geometry that print workflows expect.

The 3 Concepts You Need to Know

1. Trim size

This is the final finished card size after cutting.

Example:

• Poker card: 63.5 × 88.9 mm

2. Bleed

Bleed is extra artwork that extends past the final cut edge.

Why it matters:

• cutting is never perfectly exact
• bleed prevents thin white edges after trimming

A common default is:

• 3 mm bleed applied equally on all sides

3. Crop marks

Crop marks are the small lines outside the artwork that show where the final cut should happen.

Important:

• they are useful for humans checking the file
• many professional printers add their own marks during imposition
• some print shops only care that the PDF page boxes are set correctly

What I Love Cards Can Export for Pro Printing

Our Pro PDF export can generate files with:

• proper TrimBox
• proper BleedBox
• CropBox
• optional visible crop marks
• crop marks in registration color
• one custom bleed value applied equally on all sides

What These Boxes Mean

You do not need to memorize this, but it helps to know the basics:

• TrimBox = the final card size
• BleedBox = the final card size plus bleed
• CropBox = the visible page region used by many PDF viewers

These boxes are machine-readable PDF geometry. They are often more important to a print shop than the visible crop marks.

Recommended Default for Most Print Shops

If your supplier does not specify anything unusual, start with:

• Pro PDF export
• 3 mm bleed
• crop marks enabled
• your final card size set correctly

This is a strong general-purpose print-ready setup.

When to Disable Crop Marks

You can disable visible crop marks when:

• the printer says they only need correct page boxes
• the printer will impose and add their own marks
• you want the cleanest possible supplied PDF

The page boxes can still be correct even without visible crop marks.

When to Change Bleed Size

Use a custom bleed only if your supplier asks for it.

Examples:

• 3 mm is common in many print workflows
• some printers may ask for a larger bleed
• some special products may use a non-standard value

If in doubt, ask your supplier for:

• the required bleed value
• whether they want visible crop marks
• whether they only need TrimBox / BleedBox

Simple Supplier Message

You can send this:

Hi, we can generate print PDFs with proper TrimBox / BleedBox / CropBox, with or without visible crop marks, and with one custom bleed value applied equally on all sides (default 3 mm). Could you confirm exactly what your workflow requires?

Practical Advice

Before placing a large order:

1. Export one sample card
2. Print a test page at home
3. Make sure your printer dialog is set to no scaling
4. Measure with a ruler the final card size using the crop marks as a guide

When you print the test page:

• disable any automatic scaling: use Actual size / 100% if your printer dialog offers that option
• measure the final card size at the crop marks / trim area, not at the outer bleed edge

That small check can save a lot of time and cost.

Next Step

If you want the full technical explanation of all Pro printing options in I Love Cards, read:

• Pro Printing Reference