Stickers, small cards, game cards, and character cards generally go through two stages: front-and-back printing and die cutting. Your design should therefore allow for reasonable printing and cutting tolerances.
Front-to-back print alignment: ±2 mm | Even with professional printing and registration systems, variations in the paper, equipment, and environment can result in front-to-back misalignment of up to ±2 mm. |
|---|---|
Die-cutting tolerance: ±1 mm | Positioning and die cutting after printing can introduce a further reasonable variation of up to ±1 mm. |
Combined tolerance: up to ±3 mm | If both sides have thin borders or require precise alignment, the combined printing and cutting tolerances can make the offset more noticeable. |
When preparing your design, we recommend the following:
Avoid thin borders on both sides.
If you need a border, consider placing it on one side only.
Keep important text and graphics at least 3 mm from the finished edge.
Use full-bleed, borderless, or wider-border designs to allow more room for variation.
For example, a full-bleed, borderless front combined with a wider border on the back is a more forgiving layout. Small alignment differences will be less noticeable.
