Creating Artwork for print

What is bleed?

Bleed is a printers term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet BEFORE TRIMMING. In other words, the bleed is the area we trim off before presenting you with your lovely printing! It is impossible to print exactly to the edge of the paper so, to achieve this, it is necessary to print a slightly larger area than is needed and then trim the sheets down to the final size without leaving unprinted edges on the final job.

Safe Zone / Margin

The ‘safe zone’ is a gap between the edge of the sheet and where we recommend you place any text or images you wish not to be trimmed in to. We usually recommend 5mm inside the paper edge (after trimming).

Proofing

If we are creating the artwork for you or if you have requested a proof, it’s essential that you thoroughly check the work before we print. Although our standard PDF proofing procedure is quick and easy, it is mainly for checking text and layout. If you require an accurate colour proof for your order, you should mention this as soon as possible as colour proofs are charged extra. We recommend colour proofs if the colour accuracy of the order is paramount as viewing PDF proofs on Smart Phones, Tablets, Laptops or desktop computers may not show the colours how you’d expect as they are not calibrated devices.

Black is Black, isn’t it?

When printing in 4 colour process (full colour), we print black at 100% unless your artwork is set otherwise. If you want a truly deep black for your order, we recommend making a rich black (setting the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to 40% and the black at 100%). This makes a truly delicious black.

Borders

Borders on work can look great, or they can look awful. Our advice is to avoid borders on small items, such as business cards, as even half a millimetre movement when trimming can make the borders look uneven and unprofessional.

Embed, Embed, Embed

If is essential that when you supply your artwork to us, you embed the fonts and images.

Watermarks

When you are creating watermarks in the background of your design, we would recommend setting the percentage to between 5 – 10%