How To Make Your Artwork Print Ready

There are three different ways in which we can deal with your artwork before we print your order.

1. We get an exciting graphic design brief to create a brand new piece of artwork for you
2. We’re given something you’ve used before that needs adapting to suit your new order
3. Or we’re supplied with print ready artwork that either you or your designer have put together

Today we’re going to focus on the third.  Print ready artwork.

What is Print Ready Artwork?

Print ready artwork does exactly what it says on the tin:

It’s artwork for your print job, supplied by either you or your designer, that is hi-res and in the background is set up ready to go straight to print (subject to proof approval) without the need for us to do anything to it.  For example it will have the correct amount of bleed (see what is bleed for more info).

So What Do I Need To Know?

• You can use any of the programmes listed below to create your artwork, but Adobe PDF (hi-res) is our preferred choice
• Don’t forget to add bleed (at least 2mm) – this is an extended area which gets printed then trimmed off.  It means that for example, if the background of your design is black, we print a few extra millimetres of black around the edge of your design, so that when we trim it you aren’t left with any unprofessional looking white around the edges
• For best results and the quickest turnaround time, please enquire about our Distiller options set which is tailored for our Studio Rip. In all other cases, please use the highest resolution options available
• Ensure that under images, all downsampling is off. This will increase the size of the file
• Ensure that all fonts used are set to embed
• The PDF must be set to the correct colour space, ie CMYK, spot pantones or a combination of both
• Any cutting lines or non-printing guides must be set in a spot colour and set to overprint throughout
• Image data needs to be a minimum of 300dpi for oprtimal print
• More info can be found here