Helpful Information For Creating & Submitting Artwork


Please read this helpful information for creating and submitting artwork.

RESOLUTION
Images need to be at least 300 dpi (ppi) to print clearly, otherwise they will appear fuzzy or pixilated.
Most website images found on the Internet are 72 dpi and are generally not suitable for professional
printing. Upsampling files in Photoshop does not give the same quality as an original high resolution
image.

COLOURS
Saved images/files must be CMYK to ensure print accuracy and reproduction. Any file submitted to us
using RGB, Pantone and specific spot colours will automatically be converted to CMYK, which may
cause changes to your original colour choice.
If you require an exact match, then you must send in an example of the colour required.
However, not all colours can be accurately reproduced using CMYK, e.g. metallics and fluorescents.
In this instance, we will inform you before commencement of printing. Our presses are fully capable of
printing special spot colours such as metallics or fluorescent colours as well as ‘house specials’.
Please contact us before submitting any artwork of this nature.

FONTS
If we don’t have the font that you have used, it may be automatically substituted for the nearest
alternative. To avoid this happening, please embed or outline all the fonts used in your document
before forwarding the final artwork.

BLEED
Bleed is used to extend an image, colour or line, right to the edge of the finished printed document.
For example, if you want your business card background to be entirely blue, then you must bleed the
blue colour over the edge of the final size of the card. This will prevent a white line showing down one
or more edges of your print. This is caused by slight variations in printing and guillotining. This can be
avoided by allowing at least 2mm bleed on all edges of your artwork.

TEXT
Try and keep text at least 2mm away from the edge of your finished sheet size.

FILE FORMATS
We can accept work from most programmes and applications: InDesign CS.4, Quark Express,
Photoshop, Illustrator etc., but prefer files that are ‘print ready’ and saved as PDFx-1a or Press Quality
PDF. The majority of graphic manipulation tools will allow you the option of saving or printing to either
of these standards. Please note that we may have to charge extra to convert to PDF.
Certain tools will allow you to print to a PDF file from almost any other program. Adobe Distiller is the
most popular commercial version and is often packaged with Acrobat Professional, but there is also
the alternative of free or shareware versions available on the Internet as downloads. Two favourites
are PDF995 and AcroPDF.

As a final check, view the file in Acrobat for integrity to the original, (magnify it so that you can see if
there is any pixellation). And remember that some fonts may be copyright protected and will not
embed. If you have Acrobat Pro you can run a “Preflight” on your PDF to ensure that it will output
smoothly without any of the above problems.

If you supply us with any native file, we will definitely need all of the original images and fonts.

All of the information offered above is merely a guide. Please talk to us beforehand and
together we can ensure a trouble-free pre-press and print operation.

If you have read the above instructions and your artwork is correct and ready for submission please
attach and send to studio@sprinter-printer.co.uk