Supplying Artwork and Graphic Design for Print

Printing

11 Jan

If you are supplying your own Artwork and Graphic Design for commercial printing, here are some basic requirements. Contact me for any help if you can’t complete these steps, or for any assistance, with the finishing process, as this is something I specialise in so don’t worry.

Correct Size

Always create your artwork in the correct size. If it is going to be printed A4, create your document in A4 size, not something else.

Resolution

The resolution of your PDF must be 300 dpi, which means dots per inch. 300 dpi is for commercial printing. 72 dpi is screen-based, like a website. If you supply 72 dpi, the quality of the final print will not be good.

File Format

I can accept PDF or JPEG formats. Ideally, a PDF file is always the best. I can also accept Word documents, but these may need a bit of extra work.

Colour

Keep colours CMYK, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and K is for key plate (black). RGB is screen-based use. CMYK is for print.

Fonts

Fonts need to be outlined (also called paths or curves) or embedded. In most cases, embedded fonts will work fine, but if this doesn’t work, all text needs to be converted to vector outlines or paths. If you can’t do this, supply the files in the original format.

Bleed

3 mm with crop marks is advised. This ensures there is a cut line (trim edge) for the job to be guillotined. This prevents unprinted white edges from showing after cutting leaflets, business cards and brochures. If you can’t supply a 3 mm bleed, then we can cut into the job slightly if you have enough safe zone area, see below, but I would need to see the artwork first to advise.

Safe Zone

Keep your text and logos 6 mm from the edge of the page unless they are deliberately bleed off the page. For example, this could be a heading running off the page, in which case it is ok to break the safe zone rule. Generally, text and images should stay within the safe zone unless they are bleeding off the page. Please adhere to the above requirements. If you have any questions, just ask.