File Submission Guidelines
To ensure that your job is printed exactly the way you want it, it is important that you follow the guidelines below when creating and preparing your print project.
Use a page size that is the actual page size of the job
When you create your artwork, make sure that the page size you choose in your page layout software (e.g. Adobe Indesign, Quark) is the same size your job is to be printed at. If your print project needs to be printed right to the edge of the page you need to provide a document with bleeds (see below). However, even in this instance you still make your page size the actual page size of the job and then drag the elements that will bleed a few mm outside the page border.
Crop marks
While it is not essential that you provide your artwork with crop marks, providing them will ensure that your job is trimmed exactly how you want it.
To create the required PDF file with bleeds and crop marks, do the following:
- Set your job up as if you were going to print it to an oversized sheet allowing for bleeds (see below) and crop marks, and then print to disk or file (PC), or save a PostScript file (Mac).
- Using Acrobat Distiller, select High Quality or Press Quality settings and then distil the .prn or .ps file into a PDF file.
- Open the PDF file you created to check you actually got what you expected.
If you are creating a PDF file out of Adobe InDesign CS or other Adobe CS products (PhotoShop or Illustrator), you don't need to save a PostScript file. However you do need to make sure the appropriate settings are correct for providing bleeds and crop marks.
Bleed
If you want your job printed right to the edge of the page, with no white border, then you need to provide your job with bleeds.
‘Bleed’ is the area that will be trimmed off after the job is printed and cut down to the finished size. The bleed area should be a minimum of 3mm outside the final paper trim edge.
Page layout and drawing software such as InDesignCS, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher and CorelDraw allow you to choose the exact page size, and they add an area for bleeds and other purposes.
If your software does not allow you to set up for bleeds you will need to set up an oversized page (i.e. that is create a page that is at least 5mm wider and longer than the required page size) and then draw guides to the exact page size to show you where the job will be trimmed. Any part of your artwork that you want to print to the edge of the page should be extended right to the edge of the bleed area (i.e. beyond the page size guides you have drawn to show you where the job will be trimmed).
It is recommended that text and graphics in your artwork stay within a “safe zone” of about 7.5 mm within the final trim edge. This not only ensures a professional finish but eliminates the risk of any part of the text or images being nicked during trimming.
If you are saving your job as a PDF file, it is crucial that you save it with bleeds and crop marks.
To create the required PDF file with bleeds and crop marks, do the following:
- Set your job up as if you were going to print it to an oversized sheet allowing for bleeds and crop marks (see above), and then print to disk or file (PC), or save a PostScript file (Mac).
- Using Acrobat Distiller, select High Quality or Press Quality settings and then distil the .prn or .ps file into a PDF file.
- Open the PDF file you created to check you actually got what you expected.
If you are creating a PDF file out of Adobe InDesign CS or other Adobe CS products (PhotoShop or Illustrator), you don't need to save a PostScript file. However you do need to make sure the appropriate settings are correct for providing bleeds and crop marks.
Make sure your job is designed correctly for folding
If your job is going to be folded then it is recommended that, before providing us with your artwork, you print your project and fold it as required. You can then ensure that all of the elements on the page are positioned correctly, are the right way up and you can see if there are any problems with folding it the way you are planning to. For A4 brochures that are to be folded to DL size, the front panel (the one on the right when the job is unfolded) should be 100mm wide, the middle panel 99mm, and the inside panel (the one on the left) should be 98mm wide.
Fonts
Use Correct Fonts
The fonts you use in your artwork should always be Postscript fonts. While TrueType fonts are suitable for printing to a laser or inkjet printer they can cause severe problems with commercial printing.
Bold & Italicised Text
Don’t use Bold or Italic in the style menu or hit the Bold or Italic button when you want to bold or italicize text in your page layout program. Use the actual font. For example, in Quark, if you want to create text that is Helvetica Bold, don’t select some Helvetica text and then bold it. Instead, select the text and change the font itself (not the style) from Helvetica to Helvetica Bold:
Embed or Convert Fonts
To ensure that your job is printed with the fonts you have used in your artwork you must either embed the fonts in the PDF file you provide or convert the fonts to outlines.
To embed fonts when creating the PDF file, in Acrobat Distiller go to Settings > Edit Adobe PDF settings > Fonts, and make sure the ‘Embed All Fonts’ tick box is ticked.
If a font is protected by copyright you will not be able to embed it. In this instance you will need to change your font to one that can be embedded.
Converting fonts to outline/curves is done in programs such as InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Quark. If you are not sure how to convert fonts, look in the Help menu of your program for instructions on how to do this.
Use high resolution images
One of the most common causes of disappointment in a print project is the poor quality of images, which is usually caused by low resolution images being used.
Images used in printing projects must be of much higher resolution than those used for displaying on computer screens. Screen images normally have a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch) while image resolution for printing needs to be 300 dpi. If a low resolution image is printed it will be indistinct and look very unprofessional.
Therefore please make sure all the images you use are 300dpi. Also note that resolutions higher than 300 dpi will not provide a discernible improvement in image print quality.
Make sure your file uses CMYK colour space
For a Print Job, the file must be provided in CMYK, not RGB.
RGB and CMYK are known as ‘colour spaces’. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. RGB is the ‘colour space’ used by computer monitors and digital cameras. All conventional and digital printing presses use CMYK.
If images and background tints you work with whilst preparing your job use the RGB colour space, at some stage they will need to be converted to CMYK.
The file you send us must be a composite CMYK file (one PDF file), not pre-separated files (four PDF files).
Read more about RGB vs CMYK
Supply PDF files
Our first preference is to receive your project as a PDF file.
After you have created your work in your page layout software of choice you should then distil it into a PDF file. The advantages of doing this is that we can’t easily change your file, the file size will usually be small enough to email or upload, and you don’t have to send us linked images or fonts, thus lessening the chance for mistakes to occur.
As mentioned above, it is important that the PDF file:
- includes bleeds if your job prints right to the edge of the page
- includes crop marks so we can see where you want the job trimmed
- have all fonts embedded or converted to outlines/curves
- have high resolution images (ideally 300 dpi at the size they will be printed)
- have all images converted to CMYK.
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