How to setup print files

Designing and setting up your art file correctly will be crucial in ensuring high quality printing. Below are a few tips to setup your file to be printed.

1. Bleeds: If your artwork will extend to the edge of the printed piece you will need to output your artwork with bleeds.  A bleed is a 1/8" border around the finished size of the piece which the artwork extends into and will be cut off after printing.  Please do not put text or images that you will want on the finished piece in the bleed or within 1/8" of the cut line to ensure these images and text do not get cut.  Please also include crop marks on the piece which indicate where the piece will be cut

2. CMYK:  Your artwork should be designed with CMYK color profiles as opposed to RBG.  CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, which are the colors printers mix to print your artwork.  RBG or Red Blue and Green are colors used to produce digital images.  If your file contains RGB images there may be issues with how the color is produced using CMYK.

3. PDF: It is best if you send your file a high resolution PDF.  The easiest way to do this is to use Adobe Presets when saving or exporting your files to PDFs and selecting High Quality Print.

These are a few basic tips to create better quality print files.  We will always review your files, can make minor adjustments and will send proofs for approval but taking these quick steps increases turnaround times and gets your printing completed faster and at a higher quality

How to setup your print files

It is very important to design and send your print files correctly to ensure high quality printing.  

Below are a few guidelines for setting up your print files correctly

Bleed:  Include a 1/8" bleed around the printed area.  In other words extend the design of the piece by 1/8" knowing that we will trim that extra 1/8" off the piece to ensure that the design extends to the edge of the printed piece.  This means that for a 8.5x5.5 postcard will have final dimensions of 8.75x5.75 as there will be a 1/8" bleed on each side. It is helpful to add cutmarks as well.  

Safe zone: Do not include any copy or critical images within 1/8" of the edge of the piece.  This ensures that when the piece is cut to size no important text or images are cut in the process

Colors: All files should be designed with CMYK colors not RGB

File format:  We prefer high resolution PDFs to ensure great print qualities.  You can also provide native files and have us export the file to a print ready format.

If you need any help or would like us to assist you in preparing your files please contact one of our customer service representatives.