Before you send a file
Artwork guidelines
You do not need to follow all of this. Our designer checks every file before it prints and will tell you what needs fixing. But a file that arrives right prints faster and costs less.
Print-ready artwork carries no setup charge. If a file needs work, a basic adjustment is R50 — see design & artwork.
The five things that matter
Size
Build the file at the finished size, at 100%. A business card artboard should be 90 × 50mm, not ‘roughly card-sized’.
Resolution
300dpi at final size for anything held in the hand. Large signage can go lower, because it is viewed from further away.
Colour
CMYK for print. RGB files will shift when converted — usually the bright blues and greens.
Bleed
3mm past the edge on anything where colour or image runs to the trim. Without it you get a white sliver.
Safe margin
Keep text and logos at least 3mm inside the trim. Cutting carries a small tolerance and tight text will look off-centre.
Fonts
Outline or embed them. A font we do not have gets substituted, and you will not like the substitute.
File formats
| Format | Good for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Almost everything | Our preferred format. Export with bleed and marks | |
| AI / EPS / SVG | Logos, cut vinyl, laser cutting | Vector. Scales to any size cleanly |
| PNG | Transfers, stickers, web-sourced art | Supports transparency. Check it is genuinely transparent |
| JPG | Photographs | No transparency. Avoid for logos |
| PSD / TIFF | Layered photographic work | Flatten before sending if you can |
| Word / Publisher | Documents and simple layouts | Fine for document printing. Not ideal for anything trimmed |
Job-specific notes
- Transfers (DTF and UV DTF) — the background must be genuinely transparent, not white. This is the single most common problem with apparel artwork.
- Cut vinyl and laser cutting — supply vector outlines. A raster image has to be redrawn first, which is what the setup charge covers.
- Embroidery — simpler is better. Fine detail and text below about 5mm does not survive being rendered in thread.
- Building plans — export at full scale. Plans scaled down in the file print at the wrong size, and it is not obvious until they are measured.
- Anything folded — tell us where the folds go. Panels on a folded leaflet are not all the same width.
A word on colour
Screens emit light; paper reflects it. A colour that glows on your monitor cannot always be reproduced in ink, and different materials absorb ink differently. Small variation between screen and print is normal and is not a defect.
If exact brand colour is critical, tell us before you order and we will run a printed sample first. That is far cheaper than reprinting a full run.
Not sure about your file?
Send it anyway. We will tell you honestly whether it will work, before any charge.