Business card printing, though seemingly simple, involves quite a number of steps from planning, designing to printing. With today's advancements in technology, printing has become a fairly easy process that translates to only a few steps for clients.

Online printing for your business cards designs cannot be made simpler. In only 4 to 5 steps, you can be done with it and the rest as they say is history. Yet, what many people forget is that printing involves effort on your part too.

No matter how much your business card printer assists you in your printing, no matter how much time the customer service representative spends advising you with your business card, it won't do much good if you haven't done your part of the assignment.

What am I referring to exactly? Printers go at lengths to review your files if they are print-ready and even give you this service for free. But if your files are not up to the set standards necessary to achieve successful prints, there's only little that your printer can do to fulfill their end of the bargain.

Graphic designers too can only do so much. If your files are incomplete and are obviously flawed with too much inconsistencies, then al the effort you've put into your design will just go to waste.

Some files that clients send are just impossible to work with. If you stubbornly pursue printing out of sheer urgency, you might encounter such situations:

1. The printer has the option to refuse printing your designs
2. The design will be printed at your own risks wherein unmistakable flaws in your design would surface
3. You might pay an expensive amount owing to the graphic designer's computer time, trying to salvage your design
4. You start your design from scratch.

Read all the printing information you can even when you are just opting for business card printing. This will help you better understand the whole printing process and give you an over view on just what to expect of your business card printing.

A lot of things are overlooked, especially when you rush to get your design done to have it printed immediately. Take the time to read the company's instructions for business card printing and the terms and conditions that go with.

And so, let's talk about one common error overlooked by overeager business card clients - bleeds, safe zones and alignment. Arm yourself with these ideas that you might not waste precious hours and your precious design as well.

1. Observe a 0.125 inch bleed on all sides of your business card design. You have to extend your business card design so that no white lines will be visible on the edges of your business card when it is trimmed to its final size.

This means that your order of 2x3.5 inches business card should come in with the bleed size of 2.25x3.75 inches. Again, when the business card is trimmed, the bleed is disposed and your business card's final size will be 2x3.5 inches.

1. Understand that everything that goes into that 0.125inch bleed will be cut off. To this, you must place all the necessary images and text at a certain distance from the bleed to avoid it from being cut off.

1. The area where all your important design and text are placed is called the safe zone. This means, that everything within its boundaries are far from being cut off or trimmed away.

Within the 2x3.5 inch frame of your business card, excluding the bleed, the safe zone's size is 1.75x3.25 inches.

1. Make sure too that all your designs or texts are aligned properly. Use templates provided by printing companies as a guide where the bleed area, the safe zone, and even the very center of the business card are.

1. In your business card design, do not forget to remove or hide the margins or crop marks which you used in the template.

Keep these basic information about bleeds, safe zones and everything else in mind. Knowing these basic information shall help eliminate any errors in your business card printing. Soon enough, you'll be on your way to a smooth sailing business card printing.

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