Preparing Your Artwork - what you need to know

The following is a brief explanation of the basics needed to get your designed artwork to a level where it can be printed without fear of things not turning out as expected. The end product can only be as good as the artwork supplied.

If you are supplying your artwork you should find this helpful.

• A PDF file is usually the most suitable format but we can work from JPG, PNG, TIFF, WORD.doc and OFFICE.odt files.
• All artwork should be supplied in CMYK colour space. RGB can be used for short digital print runs but for most print material the artwork will be converted to the CMYK colour gamut even if you provide it in RGB. This will affect the trueness of the colours.

* This may not apply for short print runs or jobs that can be produced using digital format only

Confused about the difference between RGB and CMYK and what it will mean for your print job?

• All elements of your file should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
Ideally, fonts should be embedded. (Disclaimer: Lawfully, we advise you to check your end-user license agreement to ensure you are permitted to embed fonts).
• If you have images that are going to bleed off the edge of the paper then you need your artwork to contain an extra 3mm around ALL edges. Additionally, no text or image elements should be within 4mm of this 3mm ‘bleed’ area, or the edge of the overall image are if not proding a bled area.

In more detail …

Images and vector files

All images should be a minimum of 300 dpi and should not be scaled up in your artwork by more than 125%. Images taken from the internet will NOT be good enough quality for professional printing as the typical resolution used on the web is 72 dpi. * The exception is when ordering large printed products for outdoor use such as banners and signs. Anything larger than A2 size can be sent at 50% size or at a reduced resolution of 150 dpi.  Generally, logos and illustrations which are not vector-based, should adhere to these rules. Vector artwork can be scaled as required.

* Although many online images are lower resolution than what is acceptable for print, there are now many applications available that can enhance and increase the resolution of an image. These applications provide mixed results, there is sometimes a trade off as they can actually alter part of an image in order to increse it’s resolution enough, but in many cases this method can be employed to improve some aspects of low resolution artwork.

It is recommend that all images, logos and illustrations are converted to CMYK before creating the PDF file to avoid unexpected results. Certain colours which may look bright on screen in the RGB colour gamut will simply never print with the same vibrancy when converted to CMYK. This applies particularly to neons, deep blues and bright reds. Digital cameras use the RGB colour space and therefore we recommend images be converted to CMYK in Photoshop or an equivalent programme with the capability to retouch and enhance the colours if required. Ensure that all vector files also use the CMYK colour space. Do NOT include spot colours. If you have referenced colour swatches such as Pantone, ensure these colours are converted to CMYK in your document.

Bleed

The document's bleed area is an additional area outside the page size, necessary to ensure even printing of elements that are required to bleed off the edge of your page. This bleed area will be trimmed off the job but it allows for the blade bends of 1-1.5mm on the guillotine when a stack of paper is trimmed. Adding the required bleed to your job will prevent your trimmed page from having white borders.
Page 'safe' area: To ensure text and important information are not trimmed off your job, we recommend that you do not place imprtant items of text or images within 4mm of the trimmed edge

Document sizes and formatting

There are two ways you can set your document page size: The first is to set it to reflect the trimmed size of your job, in which case you should specify the bleed as 3mm on all edges when creating your pdf. This will then be included on your file automatically. If you are a seasoned or professional designer following this method then you will probably want to set the pdf file to include crop marks.
However, the second method is most common: we work frequently from files that have been created with the bleed included, in which case crop marks are not necessary as the job will automatically be trimmed to the standard print-ordered size.
Eg: an A4 document without crop marks but requiring bleed must be supplied at a size of 216 x 303 (3mm bleed added to the all around dimensions) - it will automatically be trimmed to 210 x 297
NOTE: If there is NO bleed required on your work (ie. white paper is all that will be seen within 4mm of every page edge), then just provide a document that is the correct finished page size.

Booklets and multi-page documents

Please send as a continuous multi-page file with all pages in order, DON'T try to impose the page order using print or design spread applications such as supplied with Microsoft Office and other desktop publishing programmes.

Folded single sheet leaflets

When it is clear that only one folded sheet is required for a job then you CAN impose the individual sides yourself. Eg: an A4 leaflet folded in half to form 4 sides of A5 as one single sheet should be laid out as a double-sided A4 sheet with the A5 sides in correct imposition order.

Common page sizes

A3 297 x 420mm
A4 210 x 297mm
A5 148 x 210mm
​A6 105 x 148mm

Creating a PDF file

As well as the above measurement specifications there are one or two other important points to get right for the best results. 
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If your application allows you to preflight your document before conversion to pdf format, we recommend you use this facility as it will highlight all the specifics. If you don't have this feature then most applications will make a reasonable quality PDF straight off the bat as long as your source file meets all the specifications listed above.

When creating your print-quality PDF file you must ensure that you use print-quality settings, by default the Acrobat PDF Maker in Microsoft Office creates PDF files using standard settings, at the time of writing these do NOT meet the requirements for professional printing. If you are using a PC and do not have a PDF convertor you can download and install PrimoPDF for free.

​The industry print standard for a PDF file that you should look to make is PDF/X

All the guidance and advice given here is industry standard without all the fluff. In other words, these are the important points. Now, if you are design savvy, most of this guidance will make perfect sense, but if not, do not fear. While this may sound or seem very technical, Designed4print can help. If you have subscribed to one of the plans you will get a discount on all design and print services provided, if not, help will always be available.