ARTWORK
YOUR KEEP-ME GUIDE TO SUPPLYING YOUR
ARTWORK FOR THE BEST POSSIBLE PRINT
AT-A-GLANCE
Hold on there tiger!
Before sending us your artwork, have you?
Checked the paper size is right?
Set your colours to CMYK?
Made sure your images are 300dpi?
Added a 3mm bleed and crop marks?
Embedded your fonts?
Saved your artwork as a PDF?
Proofread your document?
zestprinting.co.uk
Read on for
more detail...
PAPER SIZES
When you set up your artwork files, make sure you use the right
dimensions for the paper size you want to print, and have a think about
the type and weight of your paper too. Texture, coatings, lamination and
paper colour will all have an impact on your final print.
A6
A4
A5
A1
A2
A3
A1 841mm x 594mm A4 210mm x 297mm
A2 594mm x 420mm A5 148.5mm x 210mm
A3 297mm x 420mm A6 105mm x 148.5mm
Because toner/inks are transparent, the
type and colour of the paper you chose
for your job may affect the final printed
colour of the job itself. So, if your job
is printed on an off-white paper for
example, your colours could look
slightly darker than you expected. They
might also look different if you print
them on coated and uncoated paper.
BUSINESS CARDS
85mm x 55mm
Please add 3mm of bleed to each edge
if you need the printing to go right
to the edge of the paper.
zestprinting.co.uk
So, if you ask us to print full-colour
letterheads on 120gsm bond (uncoated)
and full-colour business cards on
400gsm silk (coated), any common
colours may appear different on the
final print.
Gloss and matt lamination will have
a noticeable effect on your printed
colours, so please bear this in mind
when you’re designing. Ask us if you’re
not sure what the effect will be. We’re
always happy to help.
CMYK
CMYK is a colour setup that stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key
(Key stands for black). It is important that your artwork is set to CMYK so
that it matches our printing machines, as their inks are made up of these
four colours. This will make the best possible colour match.
If your job is full colour, please ensure
that you work entirely in CMYK. Do not
use RGB, Pantone or colours which are
specific to the program you are using.
Similarly, if your job is spot colour,
only use those spot colours.
You cannot rely on screen
representation of colours instead refer
to printed CMYK or Pantone sheets for
colour selection (we have these available
at our office). There is no need for you
to apply any colour profiles to images
as these will almost certainly not match
those required for our presses.
If your program does not support
CMYK or Pantone, we can often
convert your colours before printing.
Please discuss this with us when
ordering (and see File Checking below).
When selecting a programme to
create your artwork do note that some
programs (e.g. Microsoft Word and
PowerPoint) do not support CMYK or
professional Spot Colour choices and
this will affect the final output.
If you are concerned about specific
colour matching for a house colour
company logo, for example, please
discuss this with us.
zestprinting.co.uk
C
M
Y
K
HI-RES
Unlike on-screen applications, your images for printing need to be
much larger and higher resolution. All this means is that within an inch
square there are more dots making up the image. The golden number is
300dpi (dots per inch), that way you’ll guarantee pin sharp images when
we print them. There’s a little bit more to it than that, so read on...
The lower the dpi the worse your
image(s) will look when printed,
so please bear this in mind when
scanning, manipulating or sourcing
images for your project.
Images and logos saved from websites
are most likely to be between 7296dpi and are therefore unsuitable for
printing. Our design team can help
you!
We always recommend trying to use
the most professional images that you
can get hold of, as low quality images
can only downgrade your designs.
zestprinting.co.uk
We are happy to purchase images on
your behalf, we have an account with
www.fotolia.com
Search the site for an image that best
fits your needs, send us the reference
number and we will supply you with
the image for a small cost. Alternatively
there are many companies supplying
stock images online. Here are a few you
might want to consider:
www.shutterstock.com
www.istockphoto.com
www.thinkstockphotos.co.uk
BLEED &
If you require colour or images to go right to the edge of the page you
must provide 3mm of additional artwork to all sides, this is called bleed.
Otherwise you risk a white edge appearing at the edges.
Crop marks show us where the edge of your artwork
is so that we know exactly where to trim it.
So, please ensure all jobs have 3mm bleed and
crop marks especially when images, colour or
text go right to the edge of your page.
To create a bleed simply extend your image(s),
colour(s) or text 3mm over the edge of the page.
When creating a PDF for print, please ensure
your PDF page size is large enough to
incorporate the bleed i.e. if your flyer is A5
with bleed, make your PDF page size A4.
Find out more
BLEED SIZE
(ADD 3MM)
91mm x 61mm
MY
LOGO
Happy Customer
ARTWORK SIZE
85mm x 55mm
e: [email protected]
t: 01234 567 891
CROP MARKS
zestprinting.co.uk
FONTS AND
When sending artwork to print the fonts used must be embedded into
the PDF or EPS document for our printers to understand them correctly.
This used to be quite complicated, but nowadays it is relatively simple to
create a PDF as it automatically ‘embeds’ the fonts used, assuming that
they are the correct format of font... if in any doubt, contact our team
and we’ll check them for you.
We have a wide selection of fonts in
our library and you are welcome to visit
the office to look through the printed
version of the ‘bible’.
Or, call us to see if we have your
house font in our library.
If we don’t have the font you require
we are happy to purchase fonts
on your behalf.
We use www.myfonts.com
www.myfonts.com
Search the site for the font that best
fits your needs, send us the font name
and style and we will purchase it for an
additional cost.
zestprinting.co.uk
Tips for top print:
For PDFs, ensure you embed all fonts
when making your PDF.
For EPS’s ensure you convert all fonts
to outlines when making your EPS.
Your minimum font size is best set
to 5pt. Please use 100% black if text
is between 5 to 7pt.
Find out more
ARTWORK
The term ‘artwork’ is used as a catch-all term for supplied files, for
everything from spreadsheets to digital photography, so if you are a legal
secretary supplying a Word-created document you are covered by the
term as much as a Graphic Designer who supplies us with PDF’s
We have many programmes to help us get the best from
your supplied files; see below for a complete breakdown of
the versions we currently support.
Versions of Programmes we support:
Adobe CS
Remember, the
best way to send us
your file is as a PDF!
InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat PDF
Microsoft
Word, Excel, Powerpoint
QuarkXpress 7.5
zestprinting.co.uk
SUPPLYING
Creating a booklet is a relatively straight forward process as long as a few
basic rules are followed. Your booklet pagination should be in multiples
of 4 only, so 4, 8, 12 and so on. The cover is always page 1 and we require
one PDF containing all pages. Here’s a bit more detail...
The page total of your booklet will be
divisible by 4; we understand that not
every booklet will contain an even
number of pages that matches this
and we may be required to add a blank
page or two to make it work. The most
common places for blank pages are on
the inside of the covers and at the back
of the booklet - if you would prefer
them elsewhere you can add them to
your PDF as blank pages.
Please supply your booklets in singlepage format running in the correct
order from start to finish i.e. a 20 page
booklet will run from pages 1-20, page 1
being the front cover and page 20 being
the back cover.
The closer you get to the centre pages of
a booklet, the more has to be trimmed
from the page edges. Our imposition
software does make allowances for
this. However, it is recommended that
you do not have text, page numbers or
images closer than 5mm to all edges.
Please do not supply your files imposed
as printers pairs or spreads; instead
supply work 1-up and we will impose
the work before printing.
Find out more
zestprinting.co.uk
Find out more
CREATE
PDFs are, in most cases, the best format for you to
provide your artwork in. The file sizes are relatively
small and our printers understand PDFs. As long as
you make sure images are 300dpi and all colours are in
CMYK, of course.
We request all your artwork to be
supplied as high resolution, 300dpi.
When faced with the various options
these are best for commercial printing:
• Resolution should be set to High
Resolution
• Compression Settings for both colour
and greyscale should be set to 300dpi
• Auto-compression set as maximum
• You should embed all fonts
• Create your PDF with 3mm of bleed
and crop marks
If you have the opportunity view your
PDF with Output Preview open before
submitting it for print as this gives the
most accurate representation of how
the file will look once printed, and may
flag up errors that aren’t visible without
Output Preview open.
If you are using Adobe Acrobat Pro
X you can find Outlook Preview by
following:
Tools> Print Production> Output
Preview
(for other versions of Adobe Acrobat
instructions may vary)
zestprinting.co.uk
Find out more
PACKAGING
InDesign is arguably the best desk top publishing tool out there.
It allows you to export PDFs, EPSs, among other formats, and you can
package the file along with all the used fonts and images,
we’ll take care of the rest...
Please ensure all fonts and images used
in your artwork are supplied to us in
a separate folder using the Package
function under the File menu. Zip
the folder and then send it to us by
using the ‘Send Us A File’ button on
our website. You can find this on the
homepage on the top right corner of
the Zest website, or by going to
http://zest.wetransfer.com
zestprinting.co.uk
It is good working practice to
include a screen shot of the artwork
or a PDF but not essential - it allows
us to check the artwork we receive
against it so we can be sure nothing
has moved or is missing.
PROOF
PERMISSIONS
QR CODES
One of the most overlooked part of the process,
making it look pretty is one
thing, checking for spelling
mistakes is another...
Please ensure you have
permission when using
copyrighted material in
your design
We are happy to print QR
codes and barcodes but we
cannot take no responsibility
for them
Although we pay close attention
to detail when supplying printready files it is your responsibility
to ensure spelling, grammar and
contact details are correct before
sending them to us for printing.
e.g. cartoon characters, maps,
and other companies logos or
trademarks.
Note: certain items, for example,
bank notes, are unable to be reprinted by law.
Reprints are liable to charges.
zestprinting.co.uk
If you supply a job containing
a QR code without a bleed, we
will need to enlarge your job to
create bleed which will, in turn,
enlarge any QR codes present on
the artwork and this may cause
issues with use.
t: 01323 638 838
www.zestprinting.co.uk
e: [email protected]
12 Grove Road, Eastbourne,
East Sussex BN21 4TJ
United Kingdom
© Zest Printing 2014