Cutting cards from a full sheet

Print at 100 percent first

The cards are an exact size only when the sheet prints at full size. A reply card printed with "fit to page" comes out a little small, and then it is loose in its envelope and the marks no longer fall where they should. Printing at actual size shows where the setting is.

Reading the marks

Every cut is drawn twice. A dashed line runs across the sheet where the cut goes, and a short solid mark sits in each margin at the two ends of that line. Trust the marks. Lay the ruler from one to the other and cut along it. The dashed line is there for your eye, and it is thin enough that the cut takes it away.

The birthday invitation has one cut, across the middle. The reply card has two, one across and one down, and they cross in the center of the sheet. The wedding invitation has five, and it has its own section below.

The tools, best first

A metal ruler, a craft knife and a cutting mat give the cleanest edge. Press on the ruler, not the knife, and make two light passes through card where one hard pass would tear it. Use a new blade, because a dull one drags the paper and leaves a furred edge.

A paper trimmer, the kind with a sliding blade or an arm, is faster. Cut two or three sheets of card at a time and no more, since a thick stack shifts under the blade and the bottom sheet comes out crooked.

Scissors are the last resort. If they are all you have, rule a pencil line between the marks first and cut along it.

Choose by the count. Ten invitations is a job for the knife and ruler. A hundred reply cards is a job for a trimmer. Past a few dozen sheets, ask a copy shop what it charges to cut a stack on its big cutter.

The order of the cuts

On the reply card sheet, start and stop each cut at the marks and leave the last half inch at both ends uncut. The sheet stays in one piece, so nothing moves while you make the second cut. Then run the knife out to the edge at all four ends and the cards fall apart.

With a trimmer you cannot stop short. Make one cut, then line each strip up against the dashed line for the second.

A card smaller than its half of the sheet

Two sheets print cards that are smaller than the paper they ride on, so the cut between them is not the last one.

The wedding invitation is 5 by 7 inches, two to a landscape sheet. It takes five cuts: three down (the left edge, between the cards, the right edge) and two across (top and bottom). Every one of them has a short mark at each end, out in the margins, and only the cut between the cards has a dashed line. The outside edges have no line on purpose. A line there would leave a sliver on the card whenever a cut was a hair off. Make the three long cuts first, stopping at the marks, then the two across. The frame sits a quarter inch inside every cut, so a small wander does not show.

The recipe card is 4 by 6 inches, which is smaller than half a Letter sheet, so the cut across the middle is not the last one. Each card has a thin printed border. Trim just outside it on all four sides and keep the line on the card. A 4 by 6 card dropped into a recipe box shows at once if one side was cut inside the line.

What they fit in

Card	Size	Goes in
Birthday invitation, half a sheet	5.5 × 8.5 in	A 6 by 9 envelope, or an A9
Wedding invitation	5 × 7 in	An A7 envelope, the standard invitation size
Reply card, a quarter sheet	4.25 × 5.5 in	An A2 envelope
Recipe card	4 × 6 in	A recipe box or a 4 by 6 sleeve

On A4 the half sheet is A5 and goes in a C5 envelope. The quarter sheet is A6 and goes in a C6. The wedding invitation stays 5 by 7 inches on either paper.

The paper

Cards want card: 65 to 80 lb cover, if your printer can feed it. What paper to print on covers the weights and how to check your printer's limit.