Advice & Guides

PDF is our preferred artwork format because it is widely supported by professional design software and is well suited to print production.

We can also work with other common formats including JPG, TIFF, EPS, AI, PSD, PNG and SVG. Wherever possible, supply the final print-ready version of the artwork rather than multiple alternative versions of the same design.

Ideally, artwork should be created at the actual size it is intended to print. If the finished dimensions are too large for your design software, artwork can be supplied at a reduced scale provided the proportions are correct.

If you work at a reduced scale, clearly identify the scale in the file name or accompanying instructions so there is no ambiguity when the artwork is enlarged for production.

Bleed is extra printed image that extends beyond the final cutting line. It allows for normal production and trimming tolerances so that artwork intended to run to the edge of the finished product does not end up with an unwanted white line.

For small-format print, 3mm bleed is commonly required. Large-format products may need more, and product-specific artwork templates should always take priority where one is supplied.

A safe area is the part of an artwork template in which important information such as text, logos and contact details should remain. It provides tolerance for cutting, finishing and the physical behaviour of the material being printed.

Safe areas are especially important on fabric graphics. Dye-sublimation printing involves heating fabric to around 200°C and the material can shrink by slightly different amounts from one batch or environment to another. Keeping key content inside the safe area gives us the flexibility needed for accurate trimming and finishing.

The same principle can also allow for hems, silicone edging and graphics that wrap around tubular display frames.

Artwork for print should be created in CMYK colour mode. Computer screens display colour using RGB light, which can reproduce a wider range of bright colours than CMYK printing inks.

If RGB artwork is supplied, it will have to be converted to CMYK before printing. Colours can therefore become less vibrant or change in appearance during conversion.

Designing in CMYK from the outset gives you a more realistic basis for judging the colour that can be produced in print.

Our full-colour digital printing processes use CMYK. Pantone spot colours and HEX values can describe colours that sit outside the CMYK printable colour gamut, so an exact match is not always possible.

Bright neon or fluorescent shades, some deep blues and true metallic colours are particularly difficult or impossible to reproduce accurately using standard CMYK inks.

If brand colour is important, artwork should use an appropriate CMYK value and you should be aware that the printed result may not exactly match a Pantone swatch or the colour seen on an illuminated screen.

We recommend converting text to outlines before saving the final artwork wherever practical. This removes reliance on the original font file and helps prevent font substitution if the artwork needs to be opened in its native design application.

If you are supplying editable artwork rather than a print-ready PDF, ensure all fonts required by the document are available or properly embedded.

Yes. If your design software uses linked images, embed them into the document before supplying the final artwork. Otherwise, the design file may reference an image that exists only on your own computer and will not be available when we open the file.

Resolution requirements depend on the finished print size and the intended viewing distance. As a general guide, artwork smaller than A0 is normally prepared at around 300dpi, while large-format graphics exceeding A0 can often be prepared at around 150dpi at full size.

If artwork is supplied at reduced scale, its resolution must increase proportionally to allow for the enlargement during production.

Vector artwork is made from mathematical lines and curves, so it can be enlarged without losing sharpness. This makes it ideal for logos, text and graphics that may be printed at large sizes.

Raster or pixel-based artwork is made from a fixed number of pixels. If it is enlarged too far, the individual pixels become visible and the image can look blurred or jagged.

• Common vector formats: PDF, AI, EPS and SVG
• Common raster formats: JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP and GIF

A logo copied from a website, email or screenshot may look sharp on screen but still be unsuitable for large-format printing. Wherever possible, supply the original vector logo.

We can identify objective technical problems, but there is no universal standard for whether an image is subjectively “good enough” for a particular customer.

A useful way to judge quality is to view the artwork on screen at approximately the same physical size as the final print, then inspect the text, logos and images carefully. What one customer is happy to accept may not meet another customer's expectations.

Overprinting is a setting that instructs one colour to print on top of another instead of knocking the background colour out beneath it.

If overprinting is enabled accidentally, colours can mix unexpectedly. For example, a cyan object overprinted onto yellow can appear green.

White objects can create an even more obvious problem. Because most CMYK printing processes do not print white ink, a white object incorrectly set to overprint can disappear altogether.

Designers should preview overprint behaviour before supplying final artwork and ensure that overprint settings are only enabled where they are genuinely intended.