Artwork Guide

This hopefully helpful guide to supplying great artwork will speed up the print process and ensure you receive your order as expected and without delay.

If after reading this guide you are unsure about any aspect of it, please do get in touch and one of our design team will be very happy to answer questions and offer advice.

File Type

PDF files are by far the best format to supply artwork. PDF’s are certainly the most stable file type. PDF’s are universally compatible and display artwork the same way on different computers and operating systems.

Creating (exporting PDF files)

If artwork is exported to a PDF in the correct way many of the potential pitfalls such as colour space, crop marks, bleed and image resolution are automatically resolved. It’s important that when you create your PDF that you choose the correct settings for commercial printing, often called ‘press ready’ in the Adobe pre-set list and also ensure settings for bleed and crop marks are ticked.

Bleed & Crop Marks

These settings are very important, we require 3mm of bleed if the design requires image or colour to run off the page. Bleed is where the print extends over the trimmed page size to ensure you don’t get any unexpected white borders. Bleed acts as a tolerance for the printing and finishing processes. In most design programs bleed can be set to 3mm when creating the initial design file.

Crop marks show where the page or sheet is cut and are added when a ‘press ready’ PDF is exported. Setting the right bleed and adding cropmarks can be complicated if you’re not used to creating print ready artwork so please do ask if unsure.

Size & Format

Please ensure you design and save your artwork in the size you want it printed. If we have to scale up artwork the resolution and clarity of the print will be reduced. Scaling files down is less of a problem and we are happy to do this.

Colour Mode

We ask that artwork is supplied in CMYK format unless Spot Pantone colours are required, which requires bespoke pricing. If artwork is supplied in RGB or another colour profile it may not print as it appears on screen. We can, and if required will convert artwork to CMYK before proofing the file back to you.

Image Resolution

Print resolution is measured in DPI (dots per inch) the higher the DPI the crisper the image and we ask for images to be saved at 300 DPI. This can be reduced to 150 DPI for large wide format prints such as pull up banners and exterior banners. We’ll explain later how to save files for printing in the required resolution.

Fonts

We ask that when you save or export your PDF file that you embed your fonts, a process that normally takes place if artwork is exported as a PDF properly. This will ensure the font will look the same on our system as it does on yours. If using unusual or specialist fonts we recommend converting the font to ‘curves’, sometimes called ‘outlining’. This rasterises the font converting it to an image which makes the file easier to process.

Imposition

Please supply all files as single pages within one PDF document. Whilst it may be beneficial to design artwork in ‘viewing spreads’ which is fine, the document needs to be exported as single pages, except in the case of folded leaflets or book covers. We can supply measurements and templates for folded leaflets and advise on the width of book spines depending on the paper stock and number of pages.

Templates

We can supply a range of file templates. These can simply show the bleed and safe areas (recommended margin for text) or can show intricate cutting and creasing points for folder or packaging designs. Using our pre-set templates for folders and packaging items can often save you time and money. Here is a basic A4 example to help visualise these areas, the same principles apply for different sized documents

Proofs & Responsibility

We’ll take care to check basic elements of artwork using a pre-flight system. We do not proof read artwork, so it’s very important to take time to thoroughly check artwork before uploading and when you receive a PDF proof. We do not take responsibility for any inaccuracies in your artwork.

We’re here to help so if you have any problems or concerns regarding your artwork or the ordering process please just ask. Whilst much preferring PDF files we can sometimes accept different file formats such as jpegs, tiffs, Photoshop files or Microsoft Office documents but please check with us.