Data Delivery

Pre-press guidelines

  • To ensure your job runs smoothly, please read and follow these guidelines:

File formats

  • To get your print job underway you’ll need to send us your design as a professional press-ready CMYK file.
  • We recommend you supply your artwork as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Resolution

  • For best results, we recommend using source files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
  • Artwork images with an effective resolution lower than 300 dpi may result in a pixelated or blurry printed result.

Images

  • All full colour artwork and/or images must be saved in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) colour mode.
  • Black and white artwork and/or images must be in grayscale colour mode.
  • Any files submitted in RGB or Pantone colour modes will be converted automatically to CMYK. This conversion will cause colours to change from your original files as the colours are from a different colour spectrum. To avoid this we recommend you design your artwork using a CMYK (or grayscale) palette or, if necessary make image conversions and any hue adjustments you need to before sending us your source files.

Fonts

  • Consider your font styles and sizes carefully.
  • Small or very narrow fonts may render poorly on print against dark backgrounds. Do not use fonts smaller than 7pts.
  • Ensure fonts are embedded in your files, or for simple documents you may prefer to convert type to outlines.

Lines

  • Keep all lines at least .25 pts thick. Although you might be able to see thinner lines on screen, they may not show on print.
  • Size and bleed
  • We accept a wide range of standard artwork sizes. Regardless of size, the artwork should be the final trim size plus 3mm bleed on each side – e.g: for a 90mm x 55mm card, the artwork should be 96mm x 61mm. Do not add crop or printer’s marks as these will increase the dimensions of the design file.

Safety zone

  • Never place critical images or text beyond the safety zone, which should be at least 3mm within the final trim size. This will ensure that they are well within the finished piece when it is trimmed.