Design Specifications

I want to save some money, can I design my own artwork?

Of course, our professional design fees are some of the best around (take a look at our print design page for further information), however, if you wish to design your own artwork and provide a print ready file then this is fine. Ideally you will need a professional design program such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign or Corel Draw, however, some other design programs may still be able to produce print ready files.

Download one of the free print templates that we provide and edit it in your chosen design program. Please ensure that you take the time to thoroughly read this page and our page on bleed as they are very important. If you require any help at all then do not hesitate to get in touch.

What are your required design specifications?

Below are the basic requirements that we need from your artwork along with some additional ones which are dependant on the software you are using.

Basic Requirements

• Artwork must be created in CMYK mode (not RGB). All prices displayed online are for full colour printing (CMYK) so please ensure any RGB or Pantone elements are converted to CMYK before saving your print ready file, if you don't, we will do a standard conversion for you, however, our results may vary from what you expect and this is at your risk. We can print Pantones but this must be agreed by prior arrangement.
• Artwork must be created at a minimum of 300dpi. 300dpi (300 dots per inch) is the resolution that a design/image has been created or scanned at. When using photographs and scanned images in your artwork, please ensure that photographs have been taken at the highest setting possible on a quality digital camera and that scanned images have been scanned at a minimum of 300dpi. Logos, photographs and images taken from your website should not be used at all as these will only be 72dpi, only accepting artwork created at a minimum of 300dpi ensures that the final print looks fantastic.
• Artwork must be supplied with a 3mm bleed on each edge. Images, background images and fills which are intended to extend to the edge of the page must be extended 3mm beyond the cut line to give a bleed. Text and other images that you need on your finished job must sit 5mm in from the cut line.

Adobe Photoshop (or similar)

• If you are supplying artwork as a press ready PDF/X-1a (preferred), PSD, TIFF or JPEG please ensure that all layers are flattened prior to exporting your print ready file, ensure you keep a copy of the original file as once flattened you will not be able to easily edit your artwork. For best results do not use any optimisation when saving your file.

Adobe Illustrator/InDesign (or similar)

• If you are supplying artwork as a press ready PDF/X-1a (preferred), AI or EPS file then please ensure that all fonts are converted to paths/outlines, all images are embedded correctly and any transparencies have been flattened. To preview how your artwork will look when printed, we would recommend viewing an Overprint Preview. This should identify any vector objects that have overprint applied to the them, the object will appear transparent and as a result will not be printed. In Acrobat Reader you can select Overprint Preview which can be located in the advanced drop down menu, in both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign you can view an Overprint Preview by going to the view drop down menu and selecting Overprint Preview.

All artwork supplied is treated as print ready, although we will of course always do our best to point out any obvious errors such as problems with bleed, however the onus is on the customer to ensure the above specifications are met where applicable.

Black Ink

If you are using large areas of black in your artwork such as a solid black background, we recommend setting your black to C:30%, M:0%, Y:0%, K:100% instead of just K:100%. If you have black text in your artwork setting your black to K:100% only will give you the sharpest print.

Which file types do you accept?

Our preferred file type is a press ready PDF/X-1a, if you have the knowledge and software to save in this format then please do so, ideally adding crop marks. Alternatively, as long as the artwork meets our required design specifications set out above we can accept many other files, including PSD, TIFF, JPEG, AI, EPS files and artwork created in any of the professional design programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.

Microsoft files; Word, Publisher etc

Artwork created in any of the Microsoft programs such as Word or Publisher will not be print ready files, this will be the same response from all commercial printers, however, it may still be possible to get your artwork print ready so get in touch.

Is there anything else I need to know?

As mentioned above, if you have the knowledge and software to save your artwork as a press ready PDF file then please do so, ideally adding crop marks. Please ensure that all file types are PC based.

I have no artwork, how much does design cost?

Take a look at our print design page for further information.