Your printed materials will only look as good as the art
file that is given to the printer. Properly created art files are cruicial to producing a successful print run.
General Guidelines:
1. CHECK THE SIZE. The most common error people make in submitting art to
commercial printers is supplying the file with incorrect dimensions. The absence
of allowance for bleed or an incorrect canvas size causes this problem.
Click here to read about bleed and trim size.
2.SET YOUR FONTS. Giving a file to your printer where the text/fonts can be
edited is a bad idea and will sometimes cause your fonts to change from the art
file to the printed piece. To remedy this situation either flatten your text
layers in Photoshop or convert all of your text to outlines in Illustrator or
Indesign.
Click here to read about flattening fonts in Photoshop.
Click here to read about converting fonts to outlines in Illustrator or
InDesign.
3. SET YOUR DOCUMENT COLOR MODE TO CMYK. Your files must have a CMYK color space
as oppossed to RGB.
Click here to read more about CMYK.
4. ALL IMAGES MUST HAVE AT LEAST A 300dpi RESOLUTION. The printed image looks
great when all of the digital files used to create it have a 300dpi resolution.
If you have used any images from the web in your printed piece they are likely
to turn out fuzzy as web uses 72dpi images.
Click
here if you would like to read more about resolution.
5. SUBMIT ONLY ONE FILE FOR THE FRONT AND ONE FILE FOR THE BACK. Unless you are
printing a catalog or some other multipage document that is more than two sided
always submit one file for the front and one for the back of your printed piece.
6. PDFS WORK THE BEST. Whatever program you design in, follow the steps abve
then convert your file into a pdf. Also please note that we strongly urge you to
never design a printed piece in anything other then the programs listed in this
section. Microsoft programs are especially bad to design for printing. Giving a
file of this type to a commercial printer will no doubt have problems or issues
and will print below our standards. For that reason you will need to have a
professional designer convert your art into a print ready file.
There are 3 ways to submit art:
1. You can upload art during the ordering process. This occurs naturally as you
place an order.
2. You can upload art after you have placed an order. Submit your print ready
art by logging in and selecting the appropriate order and clicking the button
called "upload print ready art". You may also simply attach non-printready art
for us to review or setup for you by going to our
Upload Files
page and entering the appropriate information.
3. You may mail us a disk with your art. We prefer you do not choose this option
as it takes more time and we will still require you to login to approve the art
online.
*Please note that we do not accept any files, art or otherwise, until an order
has been placed and is in the system online.
Bleed:
When a printed piece has ink that touches the edge of the paper it is said to
bleed. That means that the image extends all the way to the edge of the paper.
Lets take a standard 3.5" x 2" Business Card for example. To produce a Business
Card that bleeds we need to make the art work 1/4" taller and wider than 3.5x2.
So the file supplied would need to be 3.75" x 2.25"
Trim Size:
This is the final size of a printed piece. (Also known as finished size) It will
cut or be "trimmed" to this size.
Safe Area:
Safe Area is the area 1/8th of an inch in from the trim line. It will contain
image and design, but no critical text or critical design elements. This area
stays safe from critical elements for cutting purposes.
Suggestion:
When designing a piece for print. Take your desired finished size and add 1/4
inch to the height, and an 1/4 inch to the width. This is the size of your
canvas. All critical text and elements should be 1/4 of an inch away from this
edge.
Process Color:
Also known as "Four Color Process or "Pleasing Color". A method of laying color
images onto paper in comercial printing. By using four inkcolors; Cyan, Magenta,
Yellow and Black (
CMYK)
a commercial printing press is able to reproduce full color photo quality
images.
This is achieved by converting each color into "screens" or a series of "dots"
set at a percentage of the original color. The smaller the percentage the
smaller the dot the lighter the color. For instance 50% Black (K) would look
gray.
Using "Rich" Blacks (Process Black)
When designing for printing, it is good form to set all of your black elements to process black instead of just 100% K.
This will give your finished piece the darkest blacks achievable in one press run.
1. Resolution: Be certain to use image resolutions 300 dpi (or ppi) or better for color and grayscale images, and 1,200 dpi (or ppi) for bitmap images. Never use images from the web as they will print poorly 95% of the time due to the resolution being set at 72 dpi.
2. Image quality: Use non-compressed file formats such as TIFF, EPS or native Photoshop files when possible (without compression settings). If you need to use a compressed file format like JPEG in your design, make sure the image is saved with “Maximum Quality” settings. This will prevent loss of image quality during the compression process.
Raster Art are images made of pixels. Each pixel is given a position and a value for its color. The larger the image the larger the number of color values necessary, which is why high resolution raster art always makes for big files. JPG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, and GIF are all examples of Raster Art. The Adobe Photoshop program produces raster art.
Vector Art are images made of lines. These lines are given a position as well however their shape is determined by mathematical equations and since each shape is only one closed line there is only one color value for each shape. This typically reduces the amount of digital imformation required to make the same looking file, in comparison to Raster Art. Furthermore Vector Art files always have sharper edges and clearer text, and it is for this reason that we prefer Illustrator and Indesign to Photoshop. However, Photoshop is a great program, and regardless of your chosen program just make sure that your images are minimum 300 dpi resolution. The difference in your printed product will not be noticeable to the layman.
The image to the right is an extreme close up of the border surrounding it. The top is the actual image saved as raster art for the web, while the bottom is the same thing zoomed into Illustrator. If you were printing obviously the bottom would be preffered.
A common mistake in design is the use of type or hairlines that do not print clearly and end up being illegible. To avoid this issue, stay away from type sizes smaller than 6 pts and lines (rules) thinner than .25pt.
Type smaller than 6 pts is difficult to read anyways and finer details will be difficult to hold on press. Typical body copy should run between 9 and 12 pts in size for maximum readability.
Use caution when using “reversed out” copy ( text that is a light color running across a darker area) because the darker area tends to bleed into the lighter text area on press. It is recommended that you use at least 6 pt type and sans serif fonts in these instances.
This Section is for Photoshop Users.
1. When your document is complete and it is ready for printing flatten/rasterize
all of the type in the document.
2. Before doing this make sure to save a seperate editable verison of the
document without all of the type flattened. Just in case you need to come back
and edit it or revise it later.
4. To do this select the type layer to be rasterize. Go to Type > Rasterize >
Type.
To the right is a before and after image of how the the appearance of the type will change in the layers palette. When the type is not flattened it will look like the highlighted blue layer with the capial T. This indicates that it is editable. When it is flattened the text longer has the capital T.
Converting Fonts to Outlines
This Section is for Illustrator Users.
Indesign Users Click here.
1. When your document is complete and it is ready for printing convert all type
to outlines.
2. Before doing this make sure to save a seperate editable verison of the
document without all of the type in outlines. Just in case you need to come back
and edit it or revise it later.
3. In your document select all text objects. Or simply Select all.
4. Go to type. Then to Create Outlines.
To the left is a before and after image of how the the appearance of the type
will change. When the type is not outlined it is simply underlined indicating it
is editable. When it is outlined the blue line outlines the curves of the text
and it is no longer underlined.