HOW TO SETUP ARTWORK FOR OUR DIY BLANK KEY RINGS
HOW TO SETUP ARTWORK FOR OUR DIY BLANK KEY RINGS
Creating artwork correctly to fit our DIY Blank Acrylic Key Rings is simple if you follow the advice below.
When creating your own artwork or design for our blank key tags, it’s important to know about bleed, cutlines and safety lines. Below is a brief explanation of each of them and how they are used when setting up your design to fit our blank keychains.
BLEED
The bleed is the area that all artwork must extend to in order to ensure there are no blank (or white) spaces left over after cutting the design to fit the blank key ring. The bleed must extend past the cutline. This will prevent any of the unwanted white-space on the edges of your design should you cut slightly beyond the edge of your artwork.
The bleed is also important when sending your artwork to us for printing. We don’t always cut perfectly straight so if we cut slightly outside of the desired cutline, you won’t end up with ugly white spacing on the edges of your key tag.
CUTLINE
The cutline (a.k.a trim line) is the line where you or your printer aims to cut. Commercial printers will use crop marks to show where the cut will be made. The concept for cutlines, trim lines and crop marks are the same – they all show where the artwork must be cut or trimmed to the correct size to fit your keychain.
SAFE AREA
The safe area is the area inside the cutline where all your text and graphics must be contained. If you place any text outside of the safe area, you risk having the text “cut off” when your design is being cut out to fit you DIY blank key ring.
The safe area is where all your key ring text and images (excluding the background that extends to the bleed area) should be placed.
Another reason a safe area is important is that they make it more difficult to spot an off-centre cut to your plastic key tag. For example, it is easier to spot a cutting mistake on your acrylic key ring if the text is closer to the edge, compared to if it’s spaced in a little bit.
Use the below table as a reference guide when setting up you artwork to fit your blank key rings.
TIP: To print on both sides of your acrylic key ring, extend the cutline as follows:
60 x 30mm Key ring
Cutline = 104mm x 24mm
Bleed = 6mm i.e. 110mm x 30mm
65 x 45mm Key ring
Cutline = 120mm x 40mm
Bleed = 6mm i.e. 126mm x 46mm
Once you have printed and cut your artwork to size, then the only thing left to do is to fold your insert down the middle and pop it into your blank key ring!
Need help? Download our Artwork Template Guide here and insert your design in the already setup templates.