Please ensure that your artwork contains trim marks so that we can cut it in the right place.

3mm of internal bleed

Internal bleed is the area just inside your trim marks (the final size of your job). We require 3mm of internal bleed on all files - this means you need to keep all of your important information away from this 3mm area. Background images and graphics are fine, just no critical information that can't be trimmed away.

3mm of external bleed

Your job is printed on a larger sheet than its finished size and then trimmed down to size. External bleed is the area extending just beyond your trim area (the final size of your job). This is the area that will be trimmed off with any other excess paper. We require 3mm of external bleed - this means your artwork must extend 3mm beyond your trim marks.

Example

When setting up a business card, make the document 3mm bigger than the final business card size on all 4 sides. Eg. For a 90 x 55mm business card make the document 96mm x 61mm. Or just add 3mm bleed in the preference box at the start when creating your document if using Adobe CS4 or above.

Always supply your files in CMYK mode

Your computer screen displays your images in RGB colour mode. We print your job in CMYK. Before your job can go to press, these RGB files must be translated to CMYK. It's best that you do the RGB to CMYK conversion of your own files. In most cases the colour change is very slight - too small to even notice. However, once in a while the conversion will produce a noticeable colour change. You'll have more control over the final appearance of your job if you convert all of your images from RGB to CMYK before you send them to us.

Resolution

We recommend that you supply print ready files at 300dpi image resolution at 100% for best results. We cannot accept anything lower than 150dpi.

Ink density

The maximum ink coverage that's possible in 4 colour process printing is 400%. That's 100%C, 100%M, 100%Y, 100%K. However, if you were to print a file with this amount of ink coverage, the ink on the sheet would never dry! The maximum ink coverage we recommend is 300% for coated stocks and 260% for uncoated stocks. This means the colours that you use on any one pixel should contain less than a total of 300% (or 260%) when you add together CMY and K. Only colours heading towards black will constitute a high ink density. These blacks often get bumped up by using levels in Photoshop so be aware of this when colour balancing your images.

To create the most deep, rich black possible, use 100%K and 40%C.

Always embed your fonts or convert to outlines

Embedding the fonts that you use in your files allows us to print them even if we don't have those particular fonts installed on our computers. Your fonts will look exactly the way you want them to.
Fonts can be embedded into formats such as PDF files.

File formats