We want your files to print perfectly.

We want your graphic files to print without fuss and look exactly like you meant them to. We’ll be honest with you – of the small number of jobs that don’t print as expected, the overwhelming majority are from files supplied to us. Even if you’re a seasoned professional and are used to supplying files for print, please read these guidelines anyway – our process is likely to be different to what you’re used to. If you’re designing something complicated, please call us before you start or look at our ‘How To’ guides.

What happens when we receive your file?

Upon receipt of your PDF, we’ll perform an automated FileCheck of your file to ensure that it meets our production requirements. Our FileCheck is industry leading, and will correct many common issues ready for print.

Sometimes we can’t correct a file, such as a low resolution image, and in this case we’ll contact you to confirm how to proceed. If we have to make manual corrections to your PDF, a small fee may be incurred.

I don’t have a PDF, can you work from my native file?

Yes, absolutely. We prefer PDF files, but if you don’t have one then we’ll be able to work with your native files. Please call us to discuss your project further.

Here are the common metric page sizes.

Contents

1. About CMYK (process) colour
2. Converting to CMYK
3. Be careful with colour
4. Getting the best from CMYK
5. Colour Tolerances
6. Ink Levels

About CMYK (process) colour

Your computer, scanner, digital camera and monitor create images using combinations of just three "RGB" colours:

• Red,
• Green, and
• Blue.

Printing presses use four different colours to print these images:

• Cyan (light blue),
• Magenta (pinky-red),
• Yellow, and
• Black

This set of inks is known as "CMYK ", or "process colour".

Converting to CMYK

At some stage of production, RGB images and colours must be converted to CMYK.

Your PDF file needs to be supplied in CMYK process colour, not RGB, Index or as Spot Colours. We can do the conversion for you to CMYK, but you will have more control of it if you manage the conversion before creating your PDF.

When converting to CMYK, it's important to be aware that some RGB and Spot Colours don’t have a direct CMYK conversion. As such, some colour shift may occur.

Conversions on images from RGB to CMYK are best done using software such as Photoshop and you should do this before sending your file to us.

If you don’t perform the conversion yourself, our process will apply an industry-standard profile RGB to CMYK conversion meaning that colours may not print as expected.

Be careful with colour

To create a good solid black, use rich black instead (see Getting the most from Black for more details).

Don’t use four-colour black and it’s best to avoid solid colours of only one ink (i.e. pure cyan, magenta, yellow or black) as these can be susceptible to slight “banding”. Using rich black avoids banding.

You’ll get the best reproduction from colours that are made up of one or two inks (i.e. magenta and cyan etc).

When using lighter shades, avoid tints that contain less than 5% of either Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black, as they usually print much lighter than they appear on-screen and you may be disappointed with the outcome. For best results, use tints containing 5% to 30%.

Getting the best from CMYK

Try to avoid large areas of the same colour – this is where colour issues (banding, ghosting etc.) becomes most noticeable. Try to break up large areas of colour with alternate elements or add a background image.

Vignettes or gradient fills are best avoided – they have a tendency to show ‘banding’ and look unprofessional. The Adobe® website offers some advice on gradients if you wish to use them.

Colour Tolerances

You can produce fantastic results with full colour process, and without breaking the bank. It pays to bear in mind that colour variation is inherent in any print process and you shouldn’t expect a perfect match to your chosen colour.

The examples below will give you an idea of how your chosen colour may actually look when printed. We’d be delighted to explain this in more detail – just ask.

Ink Levels

To get the most from your print, we've set some recommended maximum ink levels:

• For coated papers (such as business cards, flyers and leaflets), we recommend a maximum of 300% total ink coverage,
• For uncoated papers, we recommend a maximum of 225%.

More information on ink levels can be found in Avoiding Set Off.

To optimise your images you'll need to consider the final size your images will be used at. Photographs should be 300-350dpi at the size you are going to use them. There’s no point taking a postage stamp sized image at 300dpi and then blowing it up to a A4 size. Conversely, photographs at more than 350dpi will have no effect on the actual printed quality and will unnecessarily increase file size and
processing time.

Image settings for best results

• All images should be converted to CMYK, and then saved as psd TIFF or JPEG files;
• Photos should be scanned at 300dpi at 100% size;
• Line-art images should be scanned at 800 to 1200dpi at
  100% size;
• TIFF and EPS files are saved without any image compression (not JPEG, LZW or ASCII encoded);
• Any extra alpha channels are removed;
• Ink coverage below total ink limit.

Folded Leaflets

Artwork for Folded Leaflets is the same as regular flat products. The artwork is to be designed 'flat', showing more than one panel per designed page, with essential elements avoiding the folds and edges. You don't need to supply us folding guides for our standard folds - please contact us if you are designing a file that needs custom folding.

Download one of our Folded Leaflet InDesign Templates to base your design on. The fold marks and quiet zones provided in the design templates are to help with design, and do not appear on printable artwork.

File Supply

The outside design should be supplied as page 1 and the inside design as page 2. You can supply two seperate PDF files or 1 PDF with 2 pages.

PDF Page 1 (Outside)                                  PDF Page 2 (Inside)
End Panel, Back Panel, Front Panel     Inside Left, Middle, Inside Right

 Example of an A4 Folded Leaflet (A4 Roll-Folded to DL)

Our most popular folds

Approved Custom Folds

If you require an Approved Custom Fold from the list below please contact us. Custom Folds carry an additional cost and add 1 working day to your order.

    •    A2 to A5 - A2 concertina folded to 148x420mm, then half folded to A5.
    •    A3 to DL - A3 half folded to A4, then roll or Z folded to DL.
    •    A3 to A5 - A3 landscape half folded to 420x148mm, then half folded to A5 landscape.
    •    A3 to A6 - 4 panel concertina fold, then half folded to A6.
    •    A4 to A7 - 4 panel concertina fold, then half folded to A7.
    •    A4 to 99x105mm - 3 panel roll or concertina fold, then half folded to 99x105mm
    •    A4 half folded to A5 and half folded again to 74mm x210mm

Prohibited folds

• Gate folds
• Cross fold then half fold (e.g. A2 cross fold, then half fold to A5)
• A1 to A5
• A2 to DL
• A2 to A6
• A5 roll folded
• 6 panel DL Roll Fold - 594x210mm roll folded to 1/3rd A4
• 6 or more Folded Panels (Except 6 Panel DL Concertina Fold)

Supplying Custom Folds

Please supply your files using a 1.5mm bleed. We do not require Crop/Trim Marks or Folding Guides to be present on your artwork, just email us the panel dimensions your require, with the measurements taken from left to right for page 1 only.

For example:
Custom size = 287 x 210mm (290 x 213mm including 1.5mm bleed)
Finished Panel Dimensions = 89mm (End Panel) / 99mm (Middle Panel) / 99mm (Front Panel).

Check panel sizes

A mistake commonly made with Folded Leaflets is to design incorrectly sized panels for the product’s fold type, resulting in the product looking unusual, e.g. short front panels, panels missing their folding line, front-to-back misalignment, and even mixed-up panels. Please ask us for a template to avoid fold alignment issues.

Keep essential elements away from edges and folds

Respect the Quiet Zones by keeping text at least 4mm away from the folds – these Quiet Zones are identified on the Quiet Zone layer of the templates.

‘Front cover panel’ backgrounds

We recommend that ‘Front cover panel’ backgrounds should overlap the fold. When designing Folded Leaflets with a front panel background that is close to the fold, ensure that the picture overlaps the fold by 1 mm. This allows for production tolerances when folding, and prevents a contrasting stripe (from the adjacent reverse panel) from showing on the front face of the finished Folded Leaflet.

Cracking

When paper is folded, its interlinking fibres are compressed on one side and stretched on the other. If the outer fibres lose their hold on each other, we see this as 'cracking': an opening out of the paper on the outside. This will be more visually apparent where the design includes a dark colour across the fold. If dark colours are required please upgrade to a Laminated Product which will help to reduce the appearance of cracking. (This also affects Folded Flyers which go through the same process)

Indicate the front panel

To indicate your intended front panel to us, just add a 0.25pt red keyline around the outer three edges of your front cover. This won't be visible once your folded leaflet has been printed.

Create a physical mock-up

We'd recommned that you produce a working mock-up of the design yourself (there is no requirement for this to be sent to us though). This often gives an indication of what makes a well-balanced layout, and might also catch layout errors.

Perforated Folded Leaflets

Folded Leaflets with Easy Tear-off Panel

Some Folded Leaflets can have a perforated easy tear-off panel, the sizes available are: A3, A4, A5, 2 panel DL, 3 panel A5, 3 panel A6, 4 panel A6, and 4 panel DL. Advice on artwork and file supply is the same as Folded Leaflets above.

There are 3 options for the position of the perforation;

• Front panel;
• End panel, or
• In half.
   

The template below for a 3 panel fold has the front panel as the tear-off panel, indicated by a 0.5pt green dashed line on the page edge.

We have templates available that are specific to Perforated Folded Leaflets, please ask us for a copy.

Perforated Leaflets

Standard perforation positions

Perforated Leaflets are the same as our range of 150gsm Gloss and 170gsm Silk flat Leaflets, but with an added perforation.To indicate your choice of perforation, please add a 0.5pt green dashed line to the page edge.

There are 2 fixed half perforation options available:

• Half Perforation - Parallel to the long edge of the page
• Half Perforation - Parallel to the short edge of the page

The ‘Half Perf’ options will always be dead centre of the short or long edge. This example on the right shows the green dashed line on the right short side of the page, this will have a perforation applied to  the centre of the page parallel to the short edge of the page.

The 1/3rd Perforation is always made parallel to the short edge and is available on A3, A4 and A5. The position of the perforation for each size is:

• A3 Perforated at 140mm from specified short edge
• A4 Perforated at 140mm from specified short edge
• A5 Perforated at 140mm from specified short edge

Custom perforation positions

Please ask us if you want a different position for your perforation.

Lamination & Special Finishes

When supplying your files it's important to supply the first page of your PDF as the front/outside. This is the side we apply our Gloss Lamination to. Matt Lamination is applied to both sides as standard on our 400gsm stocks.

Our Spot UV, Foil and Windowed/Shaped cards are also supplied with the finish on page one of your PDF.

Cover picture overlaps crease

When designing greetings cards with a front panel background that should touch the fold, ensure that the picture overlaps the fold by 1mm.

This allows for production tolerances when creasing, and prevents a contrasting stripe (from the adjacent panel) showing on the front face of the finished card. Remember to manage your customer’s expectations that there may be part of the front design just visible on the back.

Cuts parallel to the crease

Folding products on heavy board (e.g. greetings cards, folding business cards, etc.) now contain die-cut lines to form the two cuts parallel to the centre crease. This should help the edges to meet up correctly when folded. Do not remove these lines.

Landscape Greetings Cards

When viewed flat, the inside artwork needs to read upside-down relative to the front.

Windowed Christmas Cards

Our Windowed Christmas Cards allow for a simple cut-out shape on the front panel.

Please see Die Cuts for more information.

Framed Canvas

As the canvas fabric has to be tensioned around a wooden frame, extra bleed is required. On the template, the product size is the area that will be visible of the front of the canvas. Anything within the large quiet zone will disappear from view once the canvas is mounted.

Framed Canvas files must be supplied with the dashed red 2pt keyline which will appear on the reverse of the frame once the canvas is finished, but the quiet zone markings must not appear on the submitted PDF. If the quiet zone is present on the submitted graphic file then it will be printed.

Artwork Position

On our templates the area within the purple guides is the front of the canvas, the area outside is the side and part of the canvas that will stretch behind the frame.

We recommend placing a generous white border around the image if you're unable to bleed the image to the document edge

The alternative is to bleed the image to the edge so that the image appears on the front and sides of the canvas once printed.

Ink limits for canvas prints are recommended not to exceed 225% total area coverage. Please do not embed any colour profiles as this may affect the colours in your file when it is printed.

Getting the most from Large Format Posters

Suggested use: at a distance

Large Format posters are designed to be viewed at a distance, (usually of at least 1 metre). 

This means that images supplied or Large Format products do not need the high resolution required for litho printed items. We recommend that you provide images for Large Format Posters at a maximum of 150 dpi.

The reproduction of any image will not exactly match a litho print of the same image.

All products should be handled with care. Minor scratching and creasing can occur during production. Please remember that these products are intended for viewing at a distance; these minor scratches and creases are not visible at these distances.

Use of colour

To create a good solid black, use rich black (see page Error: Reference source not found). Do not use four-colour black. Ink limits for Large Format are the same as for uncoated litho printed products (225% maximum recommended).

To produce a colour-neutral black, greyscale images intended for Large Format output should be converted to a four-channel CMYK format. 

When ordering posters with a lot of image or solids at the top and/or bottom with a lot of white space in the middle, there is a probability that the poster can curl at the top and bottom due to the inks altering the tension of the substrate.

Font use in Large Format products

Small text can become illegible at larger distances. We recommend that you keep your text size to a minimum of 14pt. Overlay your text in a vector-based artwork application like InDesign or Quark XPress, rather than a bitmap-based photo-editing application like Photoshop.

To get the best from our process, black can be produced in two ways.

The first method is single colour black, made from 100% black ink. This is ideal for small areas less than 2cm square such as text or logos.

On areas of over 2 cm squared in size, single colour black can appear washed out and uneven. This is because the rollers on printing presses roll the ink off over a large area.

The alternative is rich black, which consists of 100% black and 40% cyan. A rich black should be used on larger areas to ensure an even, dark coverage, as the second ink colour disguises any inconsistencies. However, rich black should never be used on small text as any tiny deviance in registration will lead to a blurred effect.

Be aware that the higher the percentage ink coverage, the longer the drying time required. This is particularly true of uncoated stocks such as letterheads.

Black will inevitably appear duller on uncoated stock because of the
absorbency of the paper. This absorbency also means that any fine detail reversed out of black may disappear. We do not recommend less than 6pt text, for example, on uncoated stock.

You may think that it would be okay to have ‘three or four colour’black text as long as the total ink coverage is less than 300%. You’d be wrong! Black text should never have more than 140% ink coverage. “Four colour black” text is virtually impossible to print, will look blurred and may cause sheets to stick together.

Also be aware that black within a photograph as a background may have a different CMYK make-up to other parts of your design. This will be noticeable when printed, even if not on screen. Placing a photograph with a black background over a black area in InDesign®, for example, may reveal a difference between the two shades of black when printed.

To overcome this, take a sample of the black that the background is required to match in an application such as Photoshop (use the colour picker tool). Then simply mix the matched colour in, say, InDesign® – paying careful attention to the overall ink coverage.

The images in your artwork are really important, so this section expains how to optimise them to ensure good reproduction.

If you are sourcing photographs yourself, save them as either EPS or TIFF files as this will preserve the colour and clarity of your images - if you use JPG format then ensure that they are saved on the Maximum setting. If you are scanning a previously printed item, such as a magazine photo (obviously with permission from the copyright holder) or an old brochure you will need to ‘de-screen’ the image, blurring it slightly to avoid a moiré effect (see your scanning software manual for more details).

Consider the final size your image will be used at. Photographs should be 300-350dpi at the size you are going to use them. There’s no point taking a postage stamp at 300dpi and then blowing it up to a A4 size – for scans use your image editing software to help you calculate the output resolution. Conversely, images supplied at more than 300dpi will have no effect on the actual printed quality and will unnecessarily increase file size and processing time.

Don’t enlarge or reduce your bitmap images in your drawing/vector software (such as Illustrator) – it’s always best to use an image-editing application such as Photoshop for this task.

Black and white line art that has been converted to a bitmap (i.e. a logo) should be saved at 1200dpi for best results. Any lower, and the logo may look blurry. Pay careful attention to the CMYK makeup of any ‘black’ in your logo. The automatically-created Photoshop black, for example, is made up of varying percentages of CMYK. You may need to adjust the colour settings in your application to get a sharper black that is made from 100% black ink.

Colour Settings

Colour settings and ink limits are applied when you convert your RGB images to CMYK in Photoshop, e.g. when selecting Image > Mode > CMYK.

We’d recommend setting up the following colour presets to ensure your images print exactly as expected:

• Coated, and
• UnCoated.

These settings are applied directly to the image; you do not need to embed the colour profile at the 'Save As’ stage.

To create these presets in Photoshop, select Edit > Colour Settings > CMYK > Custom CMYK and then copy the screenshots below, then saving each preset for future use (e.g. one for Coated, and one for  UnCoated).

You'll need to select the required preset each time you edit a Coated or UnCoated image. These settings are applied when converting RGB images to CMYK, and when adjusting the ink limit of existing CMYK images.

Converting RGB Images (to apply settings)
Select: Image > Mode > CMYK

Converting CMYK Images (to apply settings)
Select: Image > Mode > Lab > CMYK

You may need to apply a medium or maximum Black Generation setting, depending on the image. For more advice on converting images, please give us a call.

Make sure that any alpha channels are removed and that there is no compression present in your image files. LZW and ASCII encoding should be avoided. Don’t use DCS files, LAB colour, Duo-tones or Tri-tones either – convert them all to CMYK.