| I have worked in the printing industry for years | | | | Adobe Photoshop Image (.psd) |
| now and I keep helping customers all day long, | | | | Adobe Illustrator Artwork (.ai) |
| and they all seem to have the same problems | | | | What if my image is not 300 dpi? |
| with their artwork, after a short discussion and a | | | | I recommend that all images and artwork be a |
| few laughs, usually their problems are simple little | | | | minimum of 300 dpi, if it is not it will most likely |
| mistakes that can be easily solved and avoided, in | | | | be rejected by the printer, and then you will have |
| an effort to help, I have written this article to | | | | to redo it, blah, creating an image from scratch in |
| provide a little insight into the printing industry for | | | | 300 DPI is so much easier than trying to correct |
| newcomers. | | | | an image that is not 300 DPI, and the final |
| Your artwork should be started with a new file | | | | product will be so much better. |
| and you should select “300” as the DPI | | | | What is Bleed? |
| (dots per inch) mode, and you should select | | | | Professional printing machines cannot print right to |
| “CMYK” mode and never “RGB”, | | | | the edge of a sheet of paper. To create that |
| also your artwork should be saved at 300 dpi | | | | effect, the printer must use a sheet which is |
| resolution and CMYK mode before you send | | | | larger than the document size. Then the printer |
| them to us for printing. RGB files cannot be | | | | prints beyond the edge of the document size (1 |
| printed on professional four color presses. Not | | | | 16 inch which is 0.0625 inch), then cuts the paper |
| every RGB color has a CMYK equivalent and the | | | | down to the document size, so always give |
| result could be more than just subtle color shifts | | | | yourself a little extra room by keeping important |
| and will just look “Weird” or “off”. | | | | images and text away from the border, and |
| Your artwork must have a Bleed (0.0625 inch | | | | allowing your background to go past the edge. |
| past final document size) around the entire design | | | | What is a Safety Zone? |
| which is required for cutting and also keep a 0.125 | | | | The safe margin is an imaginary line inside the |
| inch safe zone around your design. | | | | document from the edge of the document size (1 |
| Which file formats are preferred? | | | | 8 inch which is 0.125 inch). Safe margin can contain |
| High Res Acrobat Portable Document Format | | | | pictures and should not contain text, when a |
| (.pdf) - Preferred | | | | printer cuts a stack of 1000 papers at a time, |
| Tagged Image File Format (.tiff) - Recommended | | | | sometimes the cutting blades drift a bit, this |
| Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) - Recommended | | | | safety zone allows for the blades to drift without |
| JPG image format (.jpg) | | | | cutting off anything important. |