Apply effects and appearance attributes

Apply finishing effects to the product badge: add the subtle inner bevel, a 30% soft drop shadow for print mockups, and a glossy highlight using appearance attributes so the effects remain editable. Put the bevel above the color fill and below the outline, then save that as a graphic style named Product-Badge-Finish with the appearance intact.

Before I hand the file to the packaging team, make the effects easy to approve. Move the most visible change — the highlight — to the top of the Appearance panel, summarize what will rasterize at 300 dpi, and call out any effects that will shift when the artwork is scaled above 200% so the reviewer doesn’t sign off on something that fails production.

I applied an outer glow and then exported the dieline for the cutter; the dieline shifted offset by the glow on the dieline layer. The production lead is already on a tight schedule and will reject art that requires manual correction. What probably caused the dieline to move during export, who needs to be told, and what’s the fastest safe correction to deliver the correct dieline to production?

Across several jobs the use of appearance effects has caused dielines to shift, rasterization surprises, and inconsistent proofs, costing us two rounds of rework per job. I want a reproducible rule set so designers can use effects without breaking print. What three habits and checklist items should we enforce at handoff to cut these mistakes and keep proofs predictable?