Artwork guidelines

• Add 0.125" bleed on every edge

  Extend any background colour or image past the trim line by an eighth of an inch on all four sides. Trimming moves fractionally from sheet to sheet, and without bleed that movement shows as a thin white sliver along an edge.

• Keep text 0.125" inside the trim

  Anything closer to the edge than an eighth of an inch risks being cut. Logos, phone numbers and page numbers are the usual casualties. Borders are the riskiest design of all — a border that is even slightly off-centre after trimming looks like a mistake, so we generally advise against them.

• Supply artwork at 300 DPI

  Images need to be 300 DPI at the finished size, not at thumbnail size scaled up. Large-format work — banners and signs viewed from a distance — can be supplied at 150 DPI at full size. A file that looks sharp on screen at 72 DPI will not look sharp on paper.

• Build in CMYK, not RGB

  Screens emit light and print reflects it, so the two cannot show the same range of colour. Bright RGB blues, greens and oranges shift noticeably when converted for press. Converting yourself means you see the shift and can correct it; leaving it to us means you see it on the proof instead.

• Outline or embed your fonts

  A font that is not embedded will be substituted by whatever our system has, which changes line breaks and spacing without warning. Convert type to outlines, or embed the fonts when you export.

• Set rich black for large solid areas

  Black built from a single ink looks washed out across a large panel. For solid black backgrounds use roughly 60C 40M 40Y 100K. Keep plain 100K for body text — rich black on small type causes registration fringing.

• Flatten transparency before you send

  Drop shadows, glows and blend modes can render differently in prepress than they did in your design application. Flattening on export means what you approve is what prints.

Not sure your file is ready? Read how to prepare it or choose "I would like help with the design" at checkout.