How to Supply Print Ready Artwork
Print ready means the file goes to the press as supplied. Nothing is converted, resized, extended or guessed at on the way.
Almost every reprint traces back to one of four things: colour left in RGB, no bleed, low resolution, or a missing font. This page is the standard Western Press prints to, so a file that passes it prints the way it looked on screen.
Supply CMYK, not RGB
Presses print with cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Screens emit red, green and blue light, so an RGB file always looks brighter on a monitor than it can print.
Left in RGB, the file is converted by an algorithm at the press, and the algorithm does not know the brand. Converting it yourself is the only way to see the result before the client does.
Two working rules that separate a clean file from an average one:
- Strip stray percentages. A 2 or 3 per cent value in a channel muddies the colour. A lime green wants cyan and yellow, nothing else.
- Keep total ink coverage at or under about 240 per cent. Add the four channel values together. Heavy coverage sets slowly, marks, and can offset onto the sheet above it.
For large solid black areas use a rich black, 60C 40M 40Y 100K, rather than 100K on its own. Keep body text at 100K only, or it goes soft wherever the registration moves a hair.
Bleed: 3 mm is the minimum, not the ideal
Bleed is artwork extended past the trim line. If a colour or image runs to the edge of the finished piece, it has to run past it.
A guillotine cuts hundreds of sheets in one stroke, and a stack of paper moves. Within about a millimetre nobody notices; that is normal print tolerance. Without bleed, the same millimetre becomes a white sliver down one edge of the whole run.
Supply 3 mm of bleed on all four edges. Five millimetres is common on larger formats and never causes a problem.
Crop marks
Crop marks, also called trim marks, are the fine lines outside the artwork that show the finishing team where to cut. They mark the finished size, with the bleed outside them.
Set the marks to sit clear of the bleed. In InDesign and Illustrator that is the offset value in the export dialog; a 3 mm bleed wants an offset of at least 3 mm.
The safe zone
The safe zone is the reverse of bleed. Keep text, logos and anything that must not be clipped at least 5 mm inside the trim line. The same millimetre of movement that bleed protects against will clip a border set hard on the edge.
On a folded piece keep them clear of the folds too. Fold setup has its own page: folded brochure sizes and artwork.
Resolution: 300 dpi at final size
Images need to be 300 dpi at the size they print. An image that is 300 dpi at A6 is 150 dpi once it is stretched to A5, and a screenshot from a website is 72 dpi before you start.
Logos and type should be vector wherever possible. A vector logo is sharp at any size; a JPEG of a logo is only ever as good as the day it was saved.
Fonts
Embed the fonts or convert them to outlines. A font that is not in the file is substituted at the press, and the substitution reflows the text. Outlining is the safer of the two for anything with a licence question.
Send a PDF, not a JPEG
A PDF keeps text and logos as vectors and carries the bleed, crop marks and colour settings inside it. A JPEG flattens everything to pixels, so the type softens and the bleed is guesswork.
Export a press quality PDF with fonts embedded, CMYK colour, 3 mm bleed and crop marks. One file per job, pages in reading order, and for a folded piece supply the flat sheets as printer spreads.
Sizes are on the paper sizes guide, flat and finished sizes for folded work are on the folded brochure guide.
Pre flight checklist
- Document set to the trim size. For a folded job, the flat size.
- Colour is CMYK. No RGB, and no spot colours unless they were quoted.
- Total ink coverage at or under about 240 per cent.
- 3 mm bleed on all four edges.
- Crop marks on, offset beyond the bleed.
- Text and logos at least 5 mm inside the trim, and clear of any fold.
- Images 300 dpi at final size. Logos vector.
- Fonts embedded or outlined.
- One press quality PDF, pages in reading order.
Would rather have it checked? Every product has a Check Artwork option at the cart, a flat fee, for files you want looked at before they print.
Common questions
What is bleed in printing?
Artwork extended past the trim line so that a colour or image still reaches the edge after the sheet is cut. Standard bleed is 3 mm on every edge.
How much bleed do I need?
3 mm on every edge is the minimum. Five millimetres is common on larger formats and is never a problem.
What are crop marks?
Fine lines outside the artwork that show where the finished piece is cut. They sit at the trim size, with the bleed outside them.
CMYK or RGB for print?
CMYK. Presses print with four inks, and an RGB file converted at the press will not match what you saw on screen. Convert it yourself before you export.
What resolution do images need for print?
300 dpi at the size they will print. Enlarging an image lowers its resolution, so check it at final size, not at the size it was supplied.
Can I supply a JPEG?
A PDF is better. A JPEG turns text and logos into pixels and cannot carry bleed or crop marks reliably.
What does print ready mean?
A file that goes to the press as supplied: CMYK, 3 mm bleed, crop marks, 300 dpi images, fonts embedded, exported as a PDF at the correct size.
Trade printing, priced for people who resell it
Western Press prints for resellers, designers, agencies and brokers. Trade accounts only, no public sales, so your buy price stays yours.