How To Prepare Artwork for Printing

COLOUR

Offset and digital printing use a colour format of CMYK
(Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). The colours you see
on your computer screen are made from a colour
format of RGB (Red, Green and Blue).
Convert all colours to CMYK before exporting your
print ready PDF. RGB files should not be used. Our
graphic designers may be able to convert your RGB
PDF through colour mapping but the colours may shi
when converted to CMYK. It is also important to
mention that CMYK colours on your screen will almost
never match those printed. Be aware that all printing
devices interpret colour differently. Pantone or ‘Spot
colour’ printing is the best way to achieve colour
matching but is a more expensive process.

RESOLUTION

All images or graphics contained within the artwork
should be 300dpi or more at size to avoid pixelated
printing. (Fuzzy and unclear). Images sourced from the
web are usually low resolution (72dpi) and are generally
unsuitable for printing. If you are unsure if your image is
the correct resolution, feel free to email your file to our
designers and we will advise you accordingly.

BLEED

 All artwork should include at least 2mm bleed on each
side. Bleed is where artwork elements extend off the
edge of the printed page. This allows images and
colours to print to the edge of a page with no border –
bleed is trimmed off during production.s
E.g. The finished (trimmed) size of an A4 document is
210 x 297mm. An A4 Page including 2mm bleed would

be 214 x 301mm. When seing up your document you
need to include this area.

SAFE ZONE

Critical elements (text, logos, graphics etc.) must be
placed within the ‘Safe Zone’ to avoid them being cut
off during the trimming process. This means that they
are at least 3mm in from where the document will be
trimmed.will be able to tell you.

FONTS

In general most fonts can be embedded but some fonts,
usually those downloaded from the internet might have
some usage restrictions. Check the PDF seings you
are using to see if they have font options, if they do,
select “embed all fonts” or “embed subset fonts”.

FILE FORMAT

Our preferred format for receiving all artwork is a high
resolution PDF. This is to ensure that all fonts, images
and logos are embedded in your artwork. Word or
Publisher files are unstable document formats and rely
on the operating system of a computer for things like
fonts. Not all operating systems are the same;
therefore a PDF is the best way to avoid any issues. We
prefer print-ready PDF (PDF/X-1a). Supply artwork one
up (do not multi or export as spreads). If you are not
able to provide us with PDF files, then we can accept
high resolution .jpg, .tif or .eps files (.eps files must have
the text converted to outlines).