In order to assist you better we have devised a guide of helpful pointers to ensure that your job will meet the assigned time requirements, if you have any questions regarding your job, please do not hesitate to contact our knowledgeable Art Department and speak to any of the Dynamic Card associates.
831-851-9908 or e-mail us at: artwork@dynamiccard.com

Plan your project:
Consider key elements such as; PMS colors, Trademark colors, Background colors or colors that need to match exactly to a reference color table, type of inks needed in the design such as fluorescent or metallic or just inks that overprint other elements of your design. Other key lements are; Magnetic Stripping, Numbering, UPC Coding, Embossing, Hole Punching Foil Stamping, etc.) Also take into account that printing on certain substrates might call for a different approach of some of the design elements such as colored text and logos that require special "Trapping" or "Registration". Once again Dynamic Card is ready to assist you in the planning process of any complex design.

Supported Platforms:
We accept files for the Macintosh platform mainly but also accept files created for the PC platform that we might need to work on the "Mac" platform which may cause font substitution.

Supported Digital Media:
We accept files on the following media; CD, DVD, Iomega Zip Discs, Properly "Stuffed" or "Zipped" files over the email, or files directly uploaded to our FTP server *.
(Please contact our Art Department before trying to upload to our FTP server, since access permission has to be granted from our Network Administrator and follow up the upload of your files with a fax or email).

Supported Graphic Applications:
We Support the following list of applications:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Pagemaker
• Adobe Acrobat
• Macromedia Freehand
  

Fonts and Color Management:

We only support Macintosh Postscript Type 1 Fonts, (like the Adobe Type Library) fonts must be supplied with each job and should consist of a printer font and screen font, also Encapsulated Postscript Files should come to us with the fonts included. Also you should never apply any styles to your fonts, instead look for the appropriate font in order to avoid unexpected print results.

Regarding color, these are some important guidelines for the color management of your artwork:

• When possible please provide to us a color sample of your work if we or any other printer have printed it previously. And note if the sample print is reduced or enlarged at any specific percentage.
• Remember that color from a NON-color managed printer won’t show the accurate color of the final printed piece.
• If special colors are needed, you should try choosing colors from a Pantone swatch book instead of “Just colors that look good on your monitor”.
• The naming convention of colors is important, since some graphic applications default to different colors for example, PMS 298 is not the same as PMS 298 CV or PMS 298 CVC so you should check your file and manually adjust the color names to avoid color conflicts.
• Specify which colors are to be printed as “Spot” color and which as 4 color process.
• Save bitmapped images and vector based images in the CMYK color space if they’re going to be printed as 4 color process.
  

Bleeds and Trapping:

Any background color or pattern that prints to the edge of the artwork, needs to bleed at least (.125) or (1/8) of an inch. And do not use any trapping settings from within your application when the file is created, the trap is output devise dependent. Our expert staff will trap the file according to the "Rip" specifications.

Image Formats:
For scanned images or supplied photos the resolution should be set at 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch) at the final size they will be used and saved in the CMYK mode, scanned linework should be saved at 1200 dpi and saved as a bitmap or .tiff file. Remember also to include all of your linked graphics that are placed in files from FreeHand or Illustrator and when possible use the Collect for Output or Collect for Service Bureau feature found in some of the graphic applications.