How should I design for clear and frosted plastic cards?

Clear plastic is completely see-through, frosted plastic is semi-transparent, and white plastic is solid white. That makes a big difference in how your design prints.

• There is no white ink. Anything white in your file prints as no ink, so on clear and frosted cards those areas show the plastic.
• Colors are see-through too. On clear and frosted cards every color is a little transparent and prints lighter than on paper. That comes from the material, not from production.
• Rich black: use C60 M40 Y40 K100. Don't set all four colors to 100%, it causes problems and doesn't print any darker on plastic.

Clear cards ship with a thin protective film on one side to prevent scratches. Peel it off before use. A few cards in a run may still have light scratches from the material itself, which is why we print a small number of extra cards.