Designer Guidelines
Designing for a print requires special attention to detail. It is essential to understand the importance of accuracy and precision when it comes to creating artwork for print.
Using Adobe Illustrator is the best way to ensure that your designs are printed correctly. With its powerful vector-based tools, you can create artwork that will look great on any medium.
*Please map out your special effects in the colours listed below:
Dielines – Spot Magenta (on a separate layer)
Foil Finish – Spot Magenta (on a separate layer)
Blind Deboss or Emboss – Spot Cyan (on a separate layer)
Letterpress w/ ink – please map with the Pantone Colour/s you would like to use
• Please supply all artwork at the correct size, 1 design per page in a print ready PDF.
• Please make sure all text is converted to curves/outlines. This will insure there’ll be no changes to the fonts once printed. Please ensure your colour profiles are set to CMYK.
• All important text and graphics must be in at least 5mm (0.2”) from the edge. This is to allow for movement when printing, and running the risk of being cut off when trimmed.
This is called a ‘safe area’.
• Ensure all crop marks and bleed are shown.
• Allow 3mm (0.12”) of bleed where required. This is to ensure that your edges are clean and smooth.
• The quality of your images is a very important factor to consider. If you’re using a grainy, old photo in your artwork, certainly your photo will print grainy and old looking too. Our digital presses are only capable of reproducing the quality you provide.
• Ensure all images are saved as CMYK, not RGB.
• Please ensure your images are 300dpi and are converted to CMYK.
• Save your photos as TIFF and your vectors as EPS files to ensure the best quality. If it looks pixelated on your screen, then it will print pixelated too.
•Images must not be blown up past 100%, otherwise pixelation will occur.
• Ensure you convert all RGB colours to CMYK. This is vital for your job to produce desirable results.
• Please allow for a difference in colour between what is shown on your screen and what is printed. When printing in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black), various factors
will effect the colour.
• When sending artwork for Letterpress with Ink, make sure that you’re only using Solid Pantone Uncoated Spot colours in your artwork. We’ll convert any unspecified CMYK colours to the closest Pantone match. If you supply us with a Coated spot colour please be aware that we will use the uncoated version of this which may differ in tone/shade. We mix our colours by hand and eye and try our best to get the colour as close to your specified spot colour. The colour can also sometime vary slightly due to the paper colour its being printed on as letterpress ink is transparent.
• You cannot determine how the colour will print by what you see on your screen, every screen is different and every printer prints each colour differently.
• We colour calibrate our digital presses daily to minimise colour variation. However, consistency is not guaranteed, this is simply the nature of printing in CMYK. There is potentially a 5% variance in colour from the first proof to the final product.
• Never underestimate the difference a stock can make to your colours.
When choosing a colour please take into account what stock it will be printed on. A colour will appear differently when printed on different stocks.
