Print File Specifications for Supplying Press Ready Artwork

A great finished product starts with the file!

The get great print results it is essential to create your file in a suitable program. The recommended design programs to use are Adobe InDesign, Illustrator or CorelDraw as these programs export vector files which are a printers dream!

Photoshop or Microsoft based programs are not ideal and not recommended when creating files for printing as they cannot produce/output the high quality vector files required for the prepress process.

When supplying your file for printing please ensure:
• Artwork is correctly sized with 100% scale on 1 up on a single page

• Standard bleed requirements are 3 mm on each edge (5 mm for booklets)

• Artwork to be supplied as PDF (portable document format). File types such as .jpeg or .png are unacceptable and conversion fees will apply if these file types are supplied for your finished file.

• Colours are CMYK or greyscale (no RGB, Pantone or spot colours unless PMS are required in the output)

• Solid black areas are better as rich black rather than just 100% black, a good colour breakdown for rich black is 40-40-40-100. Black text should be 100% black only

• All fonts/text are embedded or converted to curves/paths/outlines

• All transparency effects are flattened

• Overprints are set correctly for desired result

• All colour profiles are removed

• Images are at correct resolution (no less than 300 dpi at 100% scale)

• Borders and type are within safe zone as variations may occur when trimming

• Registration marks, keylines, dielines and other non-printing items are removed

• Please ensure crop/trim marks are positioned outside bleed area

• Printers cannot print directly from any files created using Microsoft suite (word, publisher, powerpoint etc). Files created using non-professional programs, such as these, are unstable. The final output often doesn’t look like the original. Files created from these programs are not meant to go through the transformations required in the electronic prepress department of a modern printing company. Conversion fees will apply if these files are supplied

It can be daunting for a home designer, keep in mind Cherish Creative do offer a full in-house Graphic Design Service if you would rather leave it to the professionals.