PRINTING WITH BORDERS | Prepping your files for final print production
We have to admit, a border on a finished business card, postcard, poster, letterhead, you name it, IT LOOKS GREAT! It really ties the overall design together. However, there's a huge downfall with using a border. It's the natural shift of printing plates as card card-body as cutting your final print product to spec, which can cause your border to look uneven. The entire process constantly has your job moving around through the press when printing and cutting. The slightest movement could have your border appear to be uneven. However, in some cases, the border can be printed perfectly. When in production, the printing plates can shift up to 1/16″.
If you decide you want your final print product to use a border, you'll want to keep a couple things in mind. When designing your border, make sure you have this placed in the center and at least 0.25" away from the cut line on all 4 sides. Although this is still no guarantee, you'll have very good odds of the border being even and center following the 0.25" rule. See below for an example of using a 0.125" thick border -- ( make sure the border extends inside the safe margin. )
The Final Stage of Production
After your job has been printed and finished, it must be cut to the specs provided. To keep a speedy process after printing, we use a guillotine machine that can simultaneously cut many sheets of paper. During this process, some sheets can shift out of line after being cut. Although this is part of the natural cutting process, the movement of sheets during the cut is unavoidable. The cutting process can be the final culprit to your uneven border issue. However, if you have at least a 0.25" margin between the cut line and your border, you should not have any shift issues after cutting.
