Brand Applications: Business Card, Letterhead, and Stationery Suite

Why Print Setup Matters

A well-designed brand falls apart at the printer if the files are built incorrectly. Commercial print shops expect documents to arrive with precise dimensions, bleed, safe-zone margins, correct color mode, and resolved fonts. One missing setting can cause a job to be rejected, delay a client's launch, or produce cards with white slivers along the edge. This lab teaches you to build print-ready files the way the industry expects them.

Standard Stationery Dimensions

The two most common stationery pieces in a US brand suite are the business card and the letterhead.

• Business card: 3.5 × 2 inches (finished, trimmed size). This is the near-universal US standard.
• Letterhead: 8.5 × 11 inches (US Letter), the standard sheet used across North American correspondence.

When you create your Illustrator document, enter the finished (trim) size. Bleed is added on top of that, not counted as part of the page size in the dialog.

Bleed, Safe Zone, and Slug

Bleed is extra artwork that extends beyond the trim edge so that, after cutting, no unprinted white paper shows along the border. The industry standard for most commercial offset and digital print is 0.125 inches (⅛ in) on every side. Any background color, texture, or image that touches the edge of your design must extend all the way to the bleed edge.

Safe zone (live area margin): Keep all critical content — logo, contact text, legal lines — at least 0.125 inches inside the trim edge. On a business card this leaves a live area of 3.25 × 1.75 inches. On a letterhead it leaves margins of 0.125 in minimum on all four sides (though most letterhead designs use larger margins, around 0.5–1 inch, for aesthetics). The safe zone protects content from being accidentally cut off due to normal mechanical cutting tolerances.

Slug: An area outside the bleed used for printer notes, job numbers, or color bars. It is stripped away before the final piece reaches the customer. Illustrator lets you define a slug area in Document Setup. For student work, a small slug is good practice even if the notes field stays empty.

CMYK Color Mode

Commercial printing uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) inks. RGB is a screen color model and must never be the final color mode for a press-ready file. In Illustrator, set color mode to CMYK when you create the document. Verify it under File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color. Any RGB swatches from your brand library must be converted to their CMYK equivalents. Your brand style guide should already list CMYK breakdowns for each brand color; use those exact values.

Applying the Brand System

When you populate your templates, work directly from your brand master library (the file built in Lesson 8). Place the logo from that library — do not redraw or retype it from memory. Use only the approved typefaces at the specified sizes and weights. Apply brand colors by sampling directly from your swatch library, not by eyeballing screen appearance.

Contact information on a business card typically includes name, title, phone, email, and website. Keep type at a minimum of 6–7 pt for legibility on a printed card; below that, fine strokes may drop out on press. On letterhead, place the company address block, logo, and any tagline in the header or footer zone, leaving the main body area clear for written or typed correspondence.

Fonts: Outline or Embed

When exporting for commercial print, fonts must travel with the file or be converted so the printer cannot substitute a different font. Two accepted methods:

1. Outline text (Create Outlines): Converts type to vector paths. The font file is no longer needed. Do this on a copy of your working file so you can still edit the originals. In Illustrator: Select All, then Type > Create Outlines.

2. Embed fonts in PDF: When exporting a PDF with the correct Adobe PDF preset (see below), Illustrator embeds font data automatically.

For press-ready delivery, outlining text before PDF export is a widely accepted workflow that eliminates font-missing errors at the print shop.

Preflight and PDF Export

Before export, run a manual preflight check against the instructor's checklist:

• Document size matches finished trim dimensions
• Bleed is set to 0.125 in on all sides
• Color mode is CMYK
• All fonts are outlined or confirmed embeddable
• No live content sits inside the bleed area but outside the safe zone
• All linked images are embedded or collected

To export a press-ready PDF in Illustrator, go to File > Save a Copy (or File > Save As) and choose Adobe PDF (.pdf). In the PDF dialog, select the PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 preset as a starting point — both are standard press-exchange formats. Under Marks and Bleeds, check Crop Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings. These settings add the trim lines and include the bleed area in the exported file.

After export, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and visually confirm crop marks are present, bleed extends past the marks, and no fonts show as missing.

Proof Printing

If a desktop printer is available, print a proof at actual size (100%, no scaling). Hold the proof against a ruler to verify card dimensions. A proof will not match final press color but reveals layout, spacing, and readability issues before the file is submitted.

Safety and Equipment Notes

This is a computer-based lab. Follow standard workstation safety: adjust monitor height and chair to maintain neutral posture, take periodic breaks to avoid eye strain and repetitive-stress issues, and keep liquids away from keyboards and hardware. When using a desktop proof printer, do not reach inside the paper path while the printer is operating.