CLEAR PLASTIC BUSINESS CARDS

Hi guys! The week is almost over! Where did the time go? It has been such a busy week! However we wanted to take a time out to feature one of our most popular & creative stocks. A lot of you have called in and emailed your questions regarding our PET plastic cards, and specifically our clear / transparent stocks. Here at MorningPrint we LOVE our PET products. However we know that everyone has different tastes and preferences so we understand that this stock might not be for everyone. PET plastic is 0.22mm (6-7mil) we list it as ultra-thin / light weight / flexible. So if you are looking for a rigid plastic card this one is not for you.

One of the most common questions is if it comes in a thicker size, which it doesn’t. You can get a MorningPrint sample kit to check these stocks out first hand: You can request a sample kit by visiting us at www.themorningprint.com>scroll down to the bottom > click on “sample request” located under“support” > fill out your information.

Why we love our PET plastic products:

•  Thin / lightweight – great to be used as business cards because they are easy to store and for your client to keep.
• Unlike paper these cards are strong – try tearing one by hand, unless you are the hulk I doubt you will be able to. They are overall more durable than paper products.

Downside:

• Since it is plastic, like all plastic products,some scratching is possible (if you are considering a plastic product this is an issue you will face) *We recently added a special coating to help reduce this issue (however it does not eliminate it)
• Color printed on our transparent stocks will not appear as saturated as your design appears on screen or as it would if printed on a solid stock. Ink printed at 100% opacity will still have some transparency due to the nature of the plastic so no areas can be printed 100% solid.

Clear + White Ink PET plastic examples:

clear + white ink plastic

We have a “clear plastic (no white ink stock)” & a “clear plastic + white ink stock”. The clear plastic + white ink is the stock I wanted to focus on this time. Normally in CMYK offset printing we do not have white ink. CMYK printing is a subtractive method of printing, where the stock you print on becomes the base, so any white areas in your design are left un-printed revealing the stock itself. However the processing we use for the clear + white ink plastic allows for one special spot white color to be applied.

CMYK ink is printed first and the white ink is printed second (behind the CMYK). This gives the ability to back areas of color with white to help increase the visibility of the design.  We usually recommend that you back all text and graphics in white.

The cool thing about the white ink is that it can be printed at different opacities or even as a gradient so this can be used to achieve a lot of different effects. Keep in mind as previously mentioned 100% white /100% CMYK colors does not make this area complete solid there still will be some transparency to it.

So how would we accomplish something similar to the“IdeaKind” card seen above?

We would need two files to accomplish this:

1. First file should be your complete design- CMYK colored ink will be printed first
2. The second file should be your white file- white ink is printed second after the CMYK (so behind it) the card (areas for white / backed in white should be denoted in 100% black)

 The first thing I would want to do is set up my document size correctly. For this project I used Illustrator. As we mention on the website :

File set up for clear + white ink plastic in adobe illustrator

For this example I set up 2 art boards, both have a document size of: 2.28” x 3.54”. These dimensions are what is required for all of our plastic products, this is where your design should be fully bled to. The bleed ensures that no un-printed edges occur in the final trimmed document.

I then set up my guidelines, I set one for the trim size:3.39” x 2.28” (this is approximate as there is a 1-2mm margin of error that can occur during cutting), and then another guide for the safe zone which is 3.23”x 1.97”. The safe zone guide is very important as it is the area that you want to keep text and graphics in as it is in ensured to not be cut off as it takes into account the margin of error.

Setting up the artwork then can be a little tricky depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Your first file should be the area for CMYK (any white areas on this side of the card will be left clear). Then your second file will be the area for white.. now this is where it gets tricky.. the area for white should be denoted in 100% black (c0,m0,y0,k100). So I wanted the“morningprint” logo to be white as well as back the whole circle graphic with white. In the white file this will look just like a black circle. Since On the Complete design file the “morningprint” logo was left clear, the white ink thatis printed behind this area will not only show through to make the “morningprint”appear white but back the circle making the results of the print appear more saturated than if we did not back it. Now if I wanted the red not to be so saturated and to appear more transparent then I could always reduce the opacity of the black on the white file or I could remove the black circle all together and allow the red ink to not appear as saturated but you would still want to include the “morningprint” in black on the white file to make it white.

file set up for clear plastic + white ink. CMYK file and White ink file

This is the same case with the white stripe at the bottom with the text. On the white file the whole stripe is black, unlike the white “morningprint”logo since the text is black on the complete CMYK file the result will be black on the final product, however on the white file we made the whole area black so that not only does it make the stripe white but it backs the black text with white just as we do with the “example social media” text below the stripe.

By setting up our files this way we will get a result just like the “IdeaKind” example. So in this example we did not use different opacities or gradients with the white but think just of all the possibilities if we did!!!

clear + white ink plastic example CMYK printed first, white ink printed behind

*please note how ink printed at 100% opacity / areas backed with 100% white ink are not solid, there is still some transparency. This is why this stock only allows for a single side design with only the ability to back areas in white or express areas in white from the backside.

I hope these examples and file set up tutorial has got your creative brains going! A little research and preparation can produce an awesome card that your clients will rave about. Enjoy the rest of your day, and as always.. Print responsibly.