How to set Bleed Marks for Business Cards in InDesign

Nevermind. 

Enter the dimensions of your business card, including the bleed area. For instance, if your business card size is 3.5 inches x 2 inches, set the bleed to 0.125 inches on all sides, resulting in a document size of 3.75 inches x 2.25 inches.
enter the bleed amount you specified earlier. For example, enter 0.125 inches for all sides. You can also set a slug area if you have any notes or information that need to be outside the trim area.

Hi @Katherine25238449muqx , Vista does not want crop marks. They have templates and trim & bleed specs for all of their card sizes--you might want to download the template for the card size you are printing

Document settings:

PDF Export settings:

Or you can override it and type values manually when exporting:

Remember to UNTICK EVERYTHING in the green area - in case your printer DO NOT WANT those extra lines

:

Services like Vista Print typically do not use trim or bleed marks, and will reject jobs that contain them. You typically must submit a layout (PDF) of a precise size that is usually the print size plus a nominally 1/8" bleed (so a business card layout would be 2-1/4 x 3-3/4). It's simply part of the technical process for the service to impose that layout on their print master and cut it down centered on the print size to produce 2x3.5 with bleed printing.

It's critical to read print services' design guides and follow technical aspects like this to the jot. Anything else, and the largely automated process with either reject the job or return unexpected results. (That is, these services are not like your local SpeedyPrint, where a press guy will RIP and print the cards and then more or less manually cut them down. It's press-sheet, gang-run, automated printing.)

ETA: Vista, being a service for secretaries and home crafters, is maddeningly long on fancy options and short on useful information. However, I eventually found layout specs (a primary, top-level page on most pro/commercial service sites) buried in the actual sale and upload listing for standard business cards. I suggest you look up the specs under the specific type of card you want printed, but the info is there.

When you add bleed (extend the image outside the page size) in the InDesign document, you need to add that in the PDF as well: in the export settings of the PDF dialog look at the bleed value, it may say 0 even if it is 5 in the document and you extended the image 5 mm over the edge of the page (you still have to do so yourself). So also make it 5 mm in the PDF export setting.

Bleed marks show the extended area, trimm marks indicate the final size. 

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

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