Designing printed items with a hairline border

Question

I came across these business cards on a blog, what i cant work out is how did they manage to print the cards with such a fine hairline white board close to the edge.

Normaly when you'd print something like this you'd spec a bleed and the idea of that is that the bleed will get cut off, but because they are cut on mass the cut mark can differ up to a couple of a mill from card to card.

How did they manage to do this while leaving such a fine, and also even border all around the card ?

I could image doing this were you'd spec a white border to the bleed and it would come back with the white on only 2 sides out of the 4..

Answer 1

Well this sort results can be achieved through Die Cutting.

How we do DieCutting

The cut is made using a special die shaped as the design. The die has sharp metal strips placed into a CNC cut block. The printed sheet is pressed onto the die using a high pressure roller which punches out the desired shape. This works alot like a "cookie cutter".

for more details you may check this link http://www.digitalcitymarketing.com/Die-Cutting

Answer 2

The key to these kinds of effects is

1. Work with a very detailed printer
2. One that you trust and have a good history with
3. And discuss your results in detail before you promise anything to the client

This not only takes a patient printer, but one who has the skill and quality equipment to deliver. And the job isn't going to be cheap.