Your Artwork Before It Prints: Resolution, Colour and Margins

Most printing problems do not happen at the press; they happen in the file that reached us. Five minutes before you send it can save you a whole reorder. Resolution: send the file at 300 dpi at the final print size. An image 1,000 pixels wide is enough for a phone case and nowhere near enough for a canvas 70 cm across. A picture sent through a messaging app has been compressed twice before it arrives, so send the original from the camera or from your design software. Format: PNG with a transparent background for graphics and logos, PDF for anything with text in it, JPG for photographs only. If the design uses an Arabic typeface, convert it to outlines or send the font file with it, or it will be substituted when the file is opened. Colour: screens work in RGB and printing works in CMYK, so very intense colours - neons, electric blue - come out slightly calmer on fabric and paper. That is a difference between systems, not a mistake in production. If a colour is critical, tell us and we will match it as closely as the material allows. Margins: leave three extra millimetres on every side if the design runs to the edge, and keep important elements at least five millimetres inside the trim. Cutting moves a little, and that margin is what stops a corner of the design being lost. Finally: the digital proof we send is not a formality. Check the spelling, the dates and the size on it - once you approve it, the file goes to press exactly as it is.