Stages

Artwork Guides

Artwork Checklist

All our print products are printed full colour Lithographically. Your Document is printed using a four colour process (CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Keyline Black).

It is important you design your documents in a CMYK colourspace. When you begin setting up your document, always select CMYK, if you have been working in RGB for web design don't forget to convert your colours to CMYK before sending to the artwork to us.

Traditional printers often use Pantone Spot colours when printing work. Like paint, spot colours are mixed specially and each colour is printed one at a time. As we use Process Colour, all Pantone Spot colours should be converted to their CMYK equivalent before your file is sent to us.

When designing for print you must ensure that you create your artwork in the correct document format.
We list the standard size in our print template table, along with the document size including 3mm bleed on each edge.
Click on the arrow images to download our print templates for all the correct dimension.

If you create your artwork to the correct size with bleed, you will drastically reduce any potential delays.

If you require print using a size not listed on our site - please use our bespoke quotes form.

When sending files to print we require your artwork to include 3mm bleed on each edge of the document

Bleed refers to the extension of any blocks of graphics or colour that you want to run right up to the edge of the cut sheet.

Without a bleed you can sometimes end up with awhite border around your artwork, where you haven't carried your design far enough into the bleed area.

You can download a template on the right which shows our print sizes with the bleed added

The No1 cause for delays in printing can be attributed to files being sent without bleed.

Although we can accept files with RGB colour there may be a large colour difference on converting your RGB colours to CMYK. Please convert your RGB colours to CMYK and where necessary adjust them to colour you are looking for.

We print CMYK process colour instead of spot or pantone colours. Spot colours can behave unpredictably, please convert these colours to CMYK to avoid print problems

Applications like Adobe Illustrator use grayscale swatches please change any objects using grayscale to CMYK before submitting your artwork.

Please check each step of your gradients created in applications like Adobe Illustrator for RGB, Grayscale or Spot Colours. Gradients should be supplied CMYK throughout.

If you are creating your artwork in software like Adobe Photoshop we require an absolute minimum of 300dpi, you can send 450dpi or even 600dpi if you prefer, the later two sizes dramatically increase the file size of your document. As a general rule 300dpi is adequate.

To ensure a crisp print on items such as text we strongly recommend creating all artwork in software like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe In-Design, these applications output text as "Postscript" data which means the text information will print crystal clear.

You can export PDFs from Photoshop, but please check that text layers have been preserved and fonts are embed.

To get the best results we highly recommend submitting your printing in PDF format.

The advantage of saving as PDF is text can be preserved as text layers, this will result in a muchhigher quality finish than flattened text which you may find in JPEG.

It is important that you check your setting when exporting as PDF as some settings for creating small file sizes can result in a file which is simply a JPEG inside a PDF.

If you are designing your artwork in Microsoft Word we recommend using a Primo PDF plugin for exporting your design as a PDF.

To preview how your print will be appear when it is printed, we would recommend selecting Overprint Preview. This should identify any vector objects that have Overprint applied to the them - the object would appear transparent and this is how your artwork will be printed.

In Acrobat Reader you can select Overprint Preview which can be located in the Advanced drop down menu

In both InDesign and Illustrator you can view as Overprint Preview by going to the View dropdown menu and selecting Overprint Preview

If you are using big areas of black in your artwork eg. a black background - we recommend setting your black as C 30%, Y 0%, M 0%, K 100% instead of just K 100%. On screen this colour will look slightly blue but in print will appear black.

Print Templates

Business Cards

Create print artwork using the correct business card dimensions and add a 3mm bleed around each edge. Download our business card PDF templates below to check your artwork dimensions.

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
Credit Card Size 85mm x 55mm 91mm x 61mm pdf jpeg
Folded Landscape 170mm x 55mm 170mm x 61mm pdf jpeg
Folded Portrait 110mm x 85mm 116mm x 91mm pdf jpeg

Leaflets

something about leaflets

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
Credit Card 85mm x 55mm 91mm x 61mm pdf jpeg
A6 105mm x 148mm 111mm x 154mm pdf jpeg
A5 148mm x 210mm 154mm x 216mm pdf jpeg
DL 99mm x 210mm 105mm x 216mm pdf jpeg
A4 210mm x 297mm 216mm x 303mm pdf jpeg
A3 297mm x 420mm 303mm x 426mm pdf jpeg

Folded Leaflets

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
A5 fold to A6 210mm X 148mm 216mm X 154mm pdf jpeg
A4 fold to DL (Trifold) 297mm X 210mm 303mm X 216mm pdf jpeg
A4 fold to A5 297mm X 210mm 303mm X 216mm pdf jpeg
A5 folded twice (Trifold) 210mm X 148mm 216mm X 154mm pdf jpeg
A3 fold to A4 420mm x 297mm 426mm x 303mm pdf jpeg
A3 folded twice (Trifold) 420mm x 297mm 426mm x 303mm pdf jpeg

Posters

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
A3 297mm x 420mm 303mm x 426mm pdf jpeg
A2 420mm x 594mm 426mm x 600mm pdf jpeg
A1 594mm x 841mm 600mm x 847mm pdf jpeg
A0 841mm x 1189mm 847mm x 1195mm pdf jpeg

Booklets

Download our booklet print templates below to see how printer page spreads should be setup with bleed.

  pdf  
8 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
12 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
16 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
20 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
24 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
28 Page A5 Booklet pdf  
8 Page A4 Booklet pdf  
12 Page A4 Booklet pdf  
16 Page A4 Booklet pdf  
20 Page A4 Booklet pdf  
24 Page A4 Booklet pdf  
28 Page A4 Booklet pdf  

Greeting Cards

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
A5 folded to A6 210mm x 148mm 216mm x 154mm pdf jpeg
A4 folded to A5 297mm x 210mm 303mm x 216mm pdf jpeg
Square folded 280mm x 140mm 286mm x 146mm pdf jpeg

Roller Banners

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
Roller Banner     pdf jpeg

Outdoor Banners 2ft Drop

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
2x2ft Outdoor Banner 610mm x 610mm   pdf  
3x2ft Outdoor Banner 914mm x 610mm   pdf  
4x2ft Outdoor Banner 1219mm x 610mm   pdf  
5x2ft Outdoor Banner 1524mm x 610mm   pdf  
6x2ft Outdoor Banner 1829mm x 610mm   pdf  
7x2ft Outdoor Banner 2134mm x 610mm   pdf  
8x2ft Outdoor Banner 2438mm x 610mm   pdf  
10x2ft Outdoor Banner 3048mm x 610mm   pdf  
12x2ft Outdoor Banner 3658mm x 610mm   pdf  

Outdoor Banners 3ft Drop

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
         
3x3ft Outdoor Banner 914mm x 914mm   pdf  
4x3ft Outdoor Banner 1219mm x 914mm   pdf  
5x3ft Outdoor Banner 1524mm x 914mm   pdf  
6x3ft Outdoor Banner 1829mm x 914mm   pdf  
7x3ft Outdoor Banner 2134mm x 914mm   pdf  
8x3ft Outdoor Banner 2438mm x 914mm   pdf  
10x3ft Outdoor Banner 3048mm x 914mm   pdf  
12x3ft Outdoor Banner 3658mm x 914mm   pdf  

Outdoor Banners 4ft Drop

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
         
         
4x4ft Outdoor Banner 1219mm x 1219mm   pdf  
5x4ft Outdoor Banner 1524mm x 1219mm   pdf  
6x4ft Outdoor Banner 1829mm x 1219mm   pdf  
7x4ft Outdoor Banner 2134mm x 1219mm   pdf  
8x4ft Outdoor Banner 2438mm x 1219mm   pdf  
10x4ft Outdoor Banner 3048mm x 1219mm   pdf  
12x4ft Outdoor Banner 3658mm x 1219mm   pdf  

Presentation Folders

  Print Size Bleed Size pdf jpg
A4 Folder (short flap)     pdf  
A4 Folder (long flap)     pdf  
A5 Folder     pdf