Many of our clients use the online graphic design program called “Canva” to create planners, journals, and other products. Once your designs are ready for printing, it’s important to note that margins, bleed and crop marks must be applied for us to print.
If you are using Canva for your next project, here is how to apply bleed and crop marks.
Bleed
Bleed helps to avoid having unsightly white gaps when you want your design to print to the edge of the paper. It is for a design intended to have color elements all the way to the edge of the page.
Click on “File”
Select “Show print bleed.” A border of broken lines will appear close to the edges of your design. This margin is fixed and cannot be adjusted.
If you see white gaps around the design edges, adjust your background and design elements to cover the white spaces.
Crop Marks
Crop marks show the printer where to trim (or cut) the paper or card for your product. The size for crop marks is fixed and cannot be adjusted. The time to add crop marks is when you’re ready to download your design and send it for printing.
After you add bleed to your design, click the Download button on the toolbar.
On the File Type dropdown menu, select PDF Print.
Click the box next to “Crop marks and bleed.”
Click Download.
For more details and information about preparing your files for print, be sure to refer to this article “How to Prepare Your Files for Printing” on our blog.
Why are bleed and crop marks important?
Missing bleed and crop marks seem to be the most popular reason for rejected print files. If your PDF has edge-to-edge printing, then you need bleed. This means the image should be slightly larger than the finished page size so that when we trim to the crop marks, we will cut through the image so that the printing actually prints edge to edge. Without bleed, your page/cover/document will have a white border all of the way around and the color will not print to the edge of the sheet. Print file preparation is extremely important, so even if you're not ready to start printing just yet, be sure to save these instructions to help you down the road.
A few weeks ago we shared a step-by-step guide for creating a daily planner. Dates and deadlines for creating one for the year 2022 were provided, but our tips will work for any date, and even undated planners. Feedback was great, so we wanted to dig in a little deeper to discuss the steps in detail.
Step 1 was understanding your timeline. For instance, if you are planning to launch a planner for 2022, the final date to submit your files for printing is Oct 15, 2021.
Moving on, today we wanted to talk about the next important steps – deciding how your planner will look and function. A really great planner should provide the perfect mix of attractiveness and functionality. Your customers want it to look good and help them achieve their goals, so this step is very important. Find that sweet spot and you’ll create fans who keep coming back for more.
Choose Your Topic
There is an unlimited potential pool of ideas for daily planners. The sky is the limit when it comes to topics and types. Ask yourself: Who is your audience and what type of planner would best serve their needs?
Next, you’ll want to decide on the size and specs for your planner, starting with cover and binding. We’ll outline some options below, but please also check out the Vervante Video Vault where we highlight many different options for planners, including size, binding, and types and treatments for covers.
Binding options
Metal wire-o
Metal spiral
Plastic spiral
Custom printed 3-ring binders (any page size)
Case binding
Punched for Disc Binding
Concealed wire-o
Cover options Hardcovers (for wire-o, spiral or case binding): For a 12-month planner we recommend a sturdy cover that will hold up to daily use. Our most popular cover is a hardcover with either a printed design, faux/vegan leather, or linen treatment. We have color charts on our site for faux/vegan leather, linen, and customer favorite LaCreme vegan leather that feels like suede.
Laminated Covers: Another durable cover, and a great option for a 12-month planner, is our laminated covers. These can be wire-o, spiral bound or punched for disc binding.
Board Covers: These are a 2-ply softcover that creates a board-like cover option. These are sturdy and will hold up to daily use for 12 months.
Softcovers: If you have a short term planner such as a 30-60-90 day planner, a softcover would be fine. We also offer a poly plastic overlay to help protect the covers.
Foil Stamping: We offer a wide variety of foil stamp colors that you can see here. We can foil stamp hardcovers (printed, faux leather and linen), board covers, laminated covers, and softcovers.
Metal Corners: These are a popular add-on for hardcovers. They are available in gold metal.
Elastic Strap: These are a very nice addition to a hardcover planner or journal.
Ribbon Marker: We can add a ribbon marker (or two, or three, or more) to your casebound planner or journal.
Helpful website links
You can see all of the color choices and other options on our website, here:
Design & Functionality
Design matters. If you want to do it yourself, you can use programs like Canva or InDesign to create your planner pages. Or you can hire a professional graphic designer. Just make sure your planner design is both beautiful and functional for a high-quality look and feel. Be sure to watch our videos about creating planners and add-on options on the Vervante Video Vault page.
Are you ready to create and sell your own daily planner? We can help you make that dream come true! Here at Vervante, we believe in living an intentional, productive, and beautiful life – and we’re proud to help people like you make the world a better place. Email us at [email protected] or schedule a call using the link on our Contact page for questions, quotes, and any help you need.
Card decks are a very popular product, with many Vervante customers creating their own versions to use for so many fun and valuable ideas like tarot, recipes, fitness, mantras, study guides, writing prompts, daily prayers, and more.
We know you love card decks. We’ve shared lots of ideas in the past for creating and using card decks, and now want to talk about the step-by-step process to follow for creating a card deck of your own.
Step #1: Card size and specs
First, you need to decide your card’s physical specifications. When we say custom, we mean it, and offer lots of variations you can use to create the perfect card deck for your purposes. We can print card decks:
In any size
Any number of cards in each deck
Variety of paper options
With square or rounded corners
Each card can have unique designs on either side
Color or black & white (or both)
Step #2: Get a Quote
Use the “Get a Quote” link on our website home page or send an email to [email protected] sharing the specs for your new card deck to receive a free quote for printing and production costs. If you send an email, please include the following information:
Size of cards
Square corners or rounded corners
How many cards in the deck
Color, black-and-white, or a combination of both
Step #3: Design
Now it’s time to create your card deck masterpiece. You can hire a professional graphic designer, or you can do it yourself using a program like Canva. If you need a template to work with, we offer free downloads from our Templates page for card decks and tuck boxes. (Be sure to click on the small PDF icon on the list to access the template.)
Step #4: Sending print files
Once your design files are ready, you can upload the print-ready PDF to your Vervante author account. For card decks, we need one PDF for the entire card deck. For example, if your card deck consists of 40 cards, we need an 80-page PDF. Once you have your print files ready you can upload these from the Send Files link via your Vervante Author Dashboard.
Our team will download the files, review your specification document and let you know if we have any questions. If there are no issues with your files, we will add the card decks to your Vervante Author Account. You will receive an email notifying you that your card decks are now available for ordering.
We have an expert guide detailing these steps and more, “How to Create Custom-printed Card Decks,” on the Vervante website Expert Guide page.
Step #5: Packaging & Presentation Great card decks deserve great packaging. We can package and present your custom card decks in unique ways that increase their value in the eyes of customers.
Packaging ideas:
Custom printed tuck box
Custom printed rigid 2-piece box
Plastic “pop up” box
Cello sleeve
Ring
Drawstring bag
Metal tin
Plastic envelope
The custom printed boxes are available in minimum order quantities of 250. You can send us drawstring bags, metal tins or other creative containers for card deck presentation and storage. For an even more creative presentation, you can send us items such as crystals or stones that can be packaged and shipped to customers with the cards.
Need to include instructions or a guidebook with your card deck? We can do that too. We can print small perfect-bound or accordion-folding instructional booklets the same size as your deck to fit in the same packaging.
If this has inspired you to create your own unique card deck, we're here to answer any questions and help you get started right away. Just email us at [email protected] or schedule a phone call with our publishing experts by clicking HERE.
Many of our clients use the online graphic design program called “Canva” to create planners, journals, and other products. Once your designs are ready for printing, it’s important to note that margins, bleed and crop marks must be applied for us to print.
A few weeks ago we shared a 
Card decks are a very popular product, with many Vervante customers creating their own versions to use for so many fun and valuable ideas like tarot, recipes, fitness, mantras, study guides, writing prompts, daily prayers, and more.
Great card decks deserve great packaging. We can package and present your custom card decks in unique ways that increase their value in the eyes of customers.