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• Letterheads
• Compliment slips
• Business Cards
• Deskpads
• Notepads
• NCR - Duplicate Pads
• NCR - Triplicate Pads

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• Flyers
• Leaflets
• Posters
• Booklets

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• Large format posters
• Banners

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• XL Photographs
• Canvas Prints

PDF

PDFs are the best way to provide artwork to us. You can export PDFs from most design software (try File - Save as PDF, File - Export as PDF or File - Publish to PDF). You can also use a PDF Printer to create a PDF from the print menu of ANY other software (if you have Acrobat Professional installed, you should already have 'Adobe PDF' in your list of printers, otherwise go to: dopdf.com and download then install the free software. Any images within the file should have an original resolution of at least 300 dpi. There is no need to go higher than this. Please ensure that the file has bleed added and crop marks (lines around the edges identifying where the bleed ends and the actual artwork begins).

EPS

When supplying as EPS make sure that all fonts are embedded - preferably set to curves or outlines prior to saving / exporting as an EPS, and that you include document thumbnails. Transparency resolution should be set to High. All files should also be in CMYK colour mode and have all relevant bleeds and crop marks (lines around the edges identifying where the bleed ends and the actual artwork begins).

TIFF or JPEG

For Tiff files, save or export at 300dpi in the CMYK colour space. By default - each time you save and reopen a JPEG, the quality reduces. Save or export the JPEG at 300 - 400 dpi and turn compression & smoothing to zero. Do NOT use GIF or BMP files for print artwork. In-Design & Quark Express Please do not send native format artwork to us especially In-design or Quark files as these are essentially ëlay-outí programmes. Export as PDF with all fonts as curves or outlines.

Microsoft Office / Publisher etc.

Please do not send these native format artwork to us as they are not suitable for anything outside of Desk top publishing. There are issues with the PDF files created within these also which can lead to corruption within the file. Download the free PDF print driver and use this instead.

This refers to the number of 'dots' that will be printed in an inch (i.e. the quality of an image). For best results, print files should always be prepared at 300 dpi. Be careful when using graphics from the internet as they are usually much lower quality (72 dpi). Images can be re-sampled by artificially increasing the dpi (resolution) but this can lead to ëfuzzyí looking pictures.

If you are using Photoshop or Photopaint to create your artwork, it is imperative that you select the correct resolution before beginning the design.

If there is a lot of text in a creative document ñ it is best to use a vector generating program such as Corel Draw and Illustrator for example, and use the bitmaps and images for background.

Bleed is an essential part of creating artwork for print. Professional designers will always extend (or 'bleed') background elements and images beyond the edges of the document by an additional 2mm minimum. This prevents unwanted white borders around the edges of a printed document.

The guillotine operator cuts the print to size from a large printed sheet and it is not possible to cut exactly along the edge of the design. The operator will cut ëintoí the artwork to make sure there are no un-wanted white edges to the printed items. The Bleed allows for this operation without interfering with the main design elements. As a rule, it is best to keep all text or important images well away from the edges of the print, as much as 6 ñ 10mm where possible.

We have general templates available to download which can assist in this however, if you are not sure call the office and talk to one of the studio staff for clarification.

There are two main colour spaces which you will find in most design software. These are CMYK and RGB. CMYK stands for Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K), and is for print use, whilst RGB represents Red, Green and Blue, and is used mostly for screen or web applications ñ although digital print and large format printers can emulate this very accurately.

All artwork for lithographic print MUST be in CMYK colour format. Any artwork that is supplied in RGB will be converted to CMYK, but please note that the colours may change radically when this conversion is carried out. Ideally the artwork should be designed using CMYK format from the outset, rather than being converted later in the process although this may limit some Photoshop / Photopaint effects and treatments.