I tend to use and creat most of my cards on the dl template, I find it much easier and nothing has been croped so far that is not good, even with the dotted line I still leave myself a cm or two incase as I dont want my text jammed up the sides.
 
But I find the template invaluable and much easier, also works for z and rb.

We use software called Micrografx Picture publisher and now use feature called rulers which when turned on for 1/4 " shows  a true guide line at 1/4 in imposed as a layer on top  of image. What  looked perfect to the eye was not . The monitor distorted the view.
 
We are correcting over 50 cards that were approved OK, but are to close to risk and could be wrong when printed and will examine every one of our cards to make sure each is OK.

Corel is a good program I used it for many years it's almost like photoshop but a bit more frustrating (for me that is)... so a template on that should be a breeze to make. And you also have the crop tool to see what you get before you put it up, love that really. Awful shame though you have to go through so many wish you luck with that, the cards are fab.

Ohh whoot had not noticed   Thanks Pamela

I have a question about the bleed area.  If I put a colored border around a photo to compensate for the bleed area, the border ends up looking really chunky and appears that way to customers.  I feel it is giving the buyer a false impression and doesn't show how the "trimmed" card will look.
 
I'm new at this.  Am I missing something?

Quote from Emily_138045 on Jan 31^st, 2011, 9:09pm:

Hi Emily,
 
Good question.
 
Since these are paper cards and machines are used for printing, trimming, and folding, it is impossible to predict how much will be trimmed off each edge.  The "cut line" will, however, be somewhere in that 1/4-inch border area on all sides of your image except the side where the fold will be.  
 
On all cards, and photos especially, the choices are to:
 
1.  Have the whole photo fill the image space (1500x2100) in such a way that nothing important falls in that outer 1/4-inch area.  See here:  http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/shopping/zoom.asp?pid=491664&w=1
 
2.  Add an attractive border of at least 1/2-inch knowing that some or all of the outer 1/4-inch might be trimmed off.  Since the trimming process is imperfect, the risk with this method is that the final borders will be of different widths and could really look bad.  The only remedy is to make the border much wider than 1/2-inch.  See here:  http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/shopping/zoom.asp?pid=432575&w=1& ref=details_large_view
 
3.  Use an attractive background, perhaps with a pattern, and align the photo on it well away from the edges.  See here:  http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/shopping/zoom.asp?pid=397156&w=1& ref=details_large_view
 
I hope that helps!
 
TOM

Thanks for the great information, Tom!  I'm going to rethink how I design my cards.  I was using borders as a crutch against the bleed area, but I see they will cause me more problems than they solve.
I really appreciate the time you took with your answer and the handy links!