Work in CMYK if possible
When possible you should work in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). This is the colour space we use for printing and it ensures the best colour reproduction for your work.
If you're not sure how to create your artwork in CMYK, or you are using an application that does not support CMYK (e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher and low end DTP solutions) - don't worry. We will be able to use your files but will have to convert them to CMYK first. Be aware that converting colours from RGB (the colour space used by Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher etc.) may result in colour changes. If we have to convert your files to CMYK, we will supply a proof by email (as a PDF file) to ensure that you are happy with the results before we go to print. There is no charge for this service
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Embed your fonts or supply them separately on disk
There are thousands of fonts (typefaces) available, and we can't possibly stock all of them, so to ensure that we print your files using the correct fonts, please embed all the fonts you use into your files or supply them separately on disk along with your artwork files. Embedding fonts is a feature available on all good DTP software and even some low end DTP software (including Microsoft Word). Please refer to your application's User Guide to find out how to embed fonts.
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Use high quality, high resolution images/scans
Whether you are scanning your images, taking them with a digital camera or downloading them from the internet, make sure that they are high enough resolution for printing. The optimum resolution for scanning or supplying images / digital photographs is 300 dpi (Dots Per Inch). The one exception is where an image also contains text. Any image or photograph containing text should be supplied at 600dpi to ensure that the text will be clear and readable - and not appear blocky or blurred.
Images should be supplied at 300dpi at the size they are to be printed (e.g. a 10cm x 10cm image should be 300dpi at this size). Remember, if you enlarge an image scanned at 300dpi to twice it's size, the resolution will drop to 150dpi, which will be too low to provide good results when printed. (See "Changing the Size of your Images" below)
When scanning your own images, set the DPI on your scanner software to 300 dpi (or 600dpi if you are scanning images with text in them).
When taking images with a digital camera, use the camera's highest resolution. Depending on the camera this may not guarantee perfect results for printing but it should at least provide usable images.
When downloading images, make sure they are good quality and at a minimum of 300 dpi
Black and White / Line Art images should be provided at 600 dpi. Line art can suffer from pixelation (images appear blocky) at lower resolutions.
Do not use images taken from other people's websites (you could be breaking copyright laws). Also web images tend to be very low resolution (usually 72dpi) and will not look good when printed at larger sizes. Web images can be useful for bullet points and small icon type images (typically less than 1cm in size when printed). Make sure you have permission to use the images or that they are from a public source (such as a free graphic library etc).
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Changing the size of your images
If you enlarge an image scanned at 300dpi to twice it's size simply by 'stretching' it in your DTP software, the resolution will drop to 150dpi, too low to achieve good results when printed. To overcome this problem, scan the image at twice the resolution (600dpi in this case), then re-size it to twice it's size in your DTP software. This will result in an 300 dpi image.
When capturing images with a digital camera, always use the camera's highest resolution (or 'best quality') setting. Remember: you can make digital pictures smaller without losing quality but you can't make them bigger without losing quality.
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Setting up 'Bleed' for your artwork
When creating your artwork, you may want images, lines or colour to extend all the way to the edge of the page. If this is the case, you must add 'Bleed' to your artwork.
In order to give the appearance of colour/lines/images extending to the very edge of your work, we print it over-sized by 2mm all round. This extra 2mm on each edge is called 'bleed' and it allows us to trim your work to the correct size, giving the appearance of printing to the very edge of the page.
To achieve a 2mm 'bleed', set up your pages 4mm wider and 4mm taller (2mm top, right, left and bottom) than the size you want to end up with. Extend anything that you want to go right up to the edge of the page into the 2mm 'bleed' area. When the sheet is trimmed to its finished size, the extra 2mm on each edge will be cut off and the page will appear to have been printed right up to the edge. For example: an A4 page (210 x 297mm) becomes 214 x 301mm with 'bleed' added, but will be trimmed down to 210 x 297mm after printing.
IMPORTANT: make sure any text or important image elements are at least 2mm away from the finished edge of the paper (i.e. 4mm from the bleed).
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Notes concerning Business Cards, Taxi Cards and Promo Cards
Taxi Cards and Promo cards (right) have a thin white border around the edge. In other words, the
design does not 'bleed' off the edge of the card. The actual image area is 85mm x 50mm.
Deluxe business card do not need a border, so background colours and images can bleed off the edge if your design requires it. (be sure to follow the guidelines in "Setting up bleed for your artwork"). Dimensions for Deluxe cards are 85 x 55mm (the same size as a credit card)
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Printed colours do not look like those you see on screen.
The reason for this is simple: on-screen colours are created from radiated light (generated by your monitor), whereas, printed colours are created from reflected light (which can come from any of a multitude of light sources).
Radiated colours tend to have more energy and therefore look brighter. Printed colours actually absorb some of the light and therefore tend to look darker and duller than their on-screen counterparts. In addition, the light source used to view printed colours can drastically change their apparent colour (fluorescent lighting, for example, can make many colours appear tinted with blue or green).
The only way to attain some coherence between what is seen on screen and what is actually printed on paper, is to calibrate your monitor. Our monitors and proofers are carefully colour calibrated to match printed output as closely as possible.
Please note that no matter how well we calibrate our monitors or proofers, it is impossible to guarantee that the colour you've used in your artwork will be the same colour that ends up on the printed page.
If you need to know what your work will look like once it's printed, you should request a Colour Positional proof (usually 85% - 90% accurate) which will provide a fair representation in most cases. If the colour of your printed work is especially important, you can request a special Colour Accurate Proof. This method is more expensive as it requires a small run of your job on a printing press. To request either kind of proof, contact us for more information and a quote.
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Exact Colour Matching Not Available
We aim to achieve a pleasing colour standard rather than spend an inordinate amount of time and resources trying to achieve perfect colour matches. Our customers are usually very happy with this method of working - appreciating that it saves them a considerable amount of money.
The colours we print will be close (we aim to for a minimum 80% match), but they probably won't match the colour you see on your monitor - or that you have specified in your artwork. We therefore do not guarantee to provide an exact match to the colours in your artwork. If you require this, we regret we can't help you.
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Using colour
You are free to use whatever colours you like while creating your artwork, however, care should be taken when selecting colours as some colours print better than others.
If you're using dark colours, bear in mind that they tend to become slightly darker when printed on a commercial printing press - so don't make them too dark, or they may end up looking more like black. To avoid your colours being too dark, don't put too much black into them (10 - 25% can have a big effect).
Similarly, when using light colours, you need to bear in mind that they can look significantly darker once printed when compared to their appearance on your monitor, so it's best to lighten them up by between 15% and 25%. A 10% tint, for example, will probably look better if printed at 7 - 8%
Orange, Green and Blue produce poor results unless you make allowances for them.
When using Orange colours, make sure the Yellow content is somewhere between 30% and 50% greater than the Magenta content. An example of a good mid-range Orange is 100% Yellow, 60% Magenta. If the Magenta content of an orange colour exceeds 75%, the resulting colour will look too dark and will be shifted more towards red.
Similarly, when using Green colours, make sure the Yellow content is at least 40% greater than the Cyan content (a pure green should in theory be 100% Cyan and 100% Yellow, but in practice, this results in a Bluey-Green that is not very pleasant to look at). An example of a good mid-range Green is 60% Cyan, 100% Yellow. To make a dark Green, simply add some Black into the mixture (i.e. 60% Cyan, 100% Yellow, 20% Black). If the Cyan content of a Green exceeds 75% of the Yellow, the resulting colour will shift toward Blue and have a Bluey-Green appearance.
We also recommend that you don't overpower certain colours like Blue with too much Magenta. A true blue should be 100% Cyan and 100% Magenta, but in practice, this often looks like a very dark purple. To get around this, we recommend that you keep the Magenta content of Blue colours below 90% that of the Cyan content (i.e. use something like 100% Cyan and 90% Magenta for a true Blue.). Remember, you can always make a dark Blue by adding extra black into the mix - i.e. 100% Cyan, 90% Magenta, 15% Black will result in a very nice dark Blue.
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Using Pantone colours
Pantones are colours that you can pick from swatch books created and published by the Pantone Corporation. They are great for communicating colour across a wide range of media. However, since Pantone colours must be printed separately to other colours, they have one major drawback - their significantly higher cost. That's why we don't print using Pantone colours at all. If you have used Pantone colours in your artwork, you will need to convert them to CMYK before sending your files to us (we can convert your colours for you if necessary).
Unfortunately, Pantone colours rarely have a direct CMYK equivalent, so converting them can be tricky. We suggest you convert them to CMYK in your DTP software and then 'tweak' the resulting colour until it matches as closely as possible to the original Pantone colour you wanted. Although this method is not 100% reliable (light Pantone colours tend to be much darker when printed in CMYK) it is, in our experience, the best method of converting them.
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Selecting colours
If you're not sure how certain colours (including Pantones) might look, why not select a colour from our Colour Charts? We've produced a Colour Swatch Sheet containing 480 carefully selected colours - to give you a wide range from which to choose. Each colour has a breakdown of its CMYK values so you can mix the colour in your own artwork application by entering the CMYK values into the applications colour mixer.
However, every colour also has a reference number, so if your application can't mix colours in CMYK (for example if you're using Microsoft Word), we can alter the colours for you. Simply tell us the reference of the colours you want to use and where you want to use them and we'll do the rest. To order your Colour Swatch Sheet
.
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Using large areas of solid colour and Background colours
If your job contains large areas of solid colour it may take longer to be printed and, depending on the coverage (the area of solid to be printed), it may not be possible to print it at all - at least not without modification.
Colours such as 100% Cyan, 100% Magenta or 100% Black will not look too good when used as a large solid (100% Yellow, on the other hand, does look good), instead you should use combination colours such as 100% Cyan + 25% Magenta to give more ink weight to the solid (and therefore improve its apparent density). Be careful not to make the colour too dense, as very dark colours such as 100% Cyan + 100% Magenta can cause 'set-off' while printing ('set-off' is where some colour from one sheet transfers to the underside of the next sheet printed).
Black is a special case when used as a solid because, on its own, it will look more like a dark grey. To get around this problem, use a combination of 100% Black, 30% Cyan, 30% Magenta and 30% Yellow - which will result in a very rich, dark and dense black when printed.
To avoid 'set-off', ensure that the colours you use do not exceed about 250% ink density. Ink density is calculated by adding together the percentage of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black components of a colour. For example 100% of each of the CMYK colours will result in 400% ink density, which in practise is almost impossible to print and should be avoided!
We will check the colours you've used while performing our FREE Artwork check, so don't worry, if you use a colour that won't print very well, we'll let you know.
You're free to have the background of your artwork printed in colour, rather than just leaving it plain white (all the paper we print on is white - we simply tint it to the required colour while printing) but do take note of the above guidelines.
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Using Coloured Text
You're free to use as much coloured text as you wish, however, care should be taken regarding the size and colours used.
We recommend that you don't go below 8 point in size and that you avoid using small text (less than 10 point) in colours made up of more than two of the CMYK components i.e. blue text is fine as it uses only Cyan and Magenta, but dark blue text uses Cyan, Magenta and Black and may look blurred if printed at a very small size. This is due to minuscule movements of the paper while on the on press (even 0.1mm is enough to make small text appear slightly blurred).
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Using text over large areas of colour or images
Avoid placing small, light coloured text over large areas of colour or images. You need to judge for yourself as to whether text may be too small. Generally speaking, text with very fine detail (such as Times) will not look as good as text printed in plain fonts (such as Arial), especially if placed over very dark areas of colour.
Unfortunately, there are no firm rules. So, if you're not sure whether your text may be too small to look good when printed, err on the side of caution and increase its size.
TIP: placing a thin outline around text (in the same colour as the text) - will effectively increase the width of any thin areas and help prevent loss of detail.
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Send a 'hard copy' / Proof Copy of your artwork
When supplying your own artwork via email or on disk, it is vital that you also send a 'hard copy' or Proof Copy for us to check your files against.
If you are supplying your files on disk, you can simply enclose a printed copy of your artwork along with it.
If you supplying your files via email, things are a little more complicated.
There are several ways to provide a 'hard copy' via email. The easiest is to send a copy of what you are looking at on screen, as follows:
Bring up your artwork on screen and make it as large as you can (without cutting off any parts of course!).
Mac Users: press Command (Apple) + Shift + 3. Repeat for each page of your artwork. The resulting files will be called 'Picture 1', ''Picture 2' and so on. Post or Email these with your artwork.
PC users: press the 'PrtSc' (Print Screen) key on your keyboard - it's usually located at the top right, somewhere above the 'Home' and 'End' keys. Repeat for each page of your artwork. Now, go to the Start Menu / Programmes / Accessories / Paint. Once Microsoft Paint has loaded, go to the 'Edit' Menu and to 'Paste'. If a message box appears, click Yes. The Image of your artwork will appear. Now save the file as a .JPG (or .JPEG). To do this, go to the 'File' Menu and 'Save'. Repeat for each page of your artwork. Post or Email the saved file along with your artwork.
Alternatives to the above include:
• Output a .JPG image for each side/page of your artwork (this can be done on most good DTP software applications (refer to your applications user guide for details).
• Output a (high resolution) PDF file of your artwork. Remember to embed the fonts or send them separately. NOTE: We can work directly from PDF files so they can also serve as artwork.
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Setting up your artwork to allow for folding
When supplying artwork for a job that is to be folded, it is important to take into account where the folds will fall and to leave a sufficient distance between them and important elements of your artwork (such as text, boxes, images etc.). We recommend you leave at least 5mm between folds and other elements of your artwork.
Ideally you should avoid spreading images and large solid areas of colour over folds, as this can lead to cracking as the fibres of the paper are kinked. To help prevent this we can pre-crease your work before it is folded. However, unless you've ordered a product that includes this, there will be an additional charge.
TIP: If ordering 150gsm folded leaflets and you need to have solids or images that spread over where folds are located, why not order 170gsm Folded Brochures instead - they include creasing as standard - eliminating 99% of cracking problems.
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Can you design my artwork for me?
If you don't have the facilities, time or expertise to provide your own artwork - or if you want a fresh approach - why not hand the responsibility to our design studio? (it's what most of our customers do). Our studio is geared to producing effective yet affordable graphic design. Note that artwork for TaxiCards and PromoCards is free.
Do you have a question that's not answered here?
If you have a question that isn't dealt with here - or if you need advice regarding artwork - don't hesitate to
.
