Preparing artwork for print

The short version

• PDF exported at the finished size, with 3 mm bleed on every side and crop marks
• Text, logos and anything important at least 3–5 mm inside the trim
• Images 300 dpi at the size they print; colours in CMYK, with any Pantone reference named
• Fonts embedded or converted to outlines
• Foil, Spot UV and dieline each on its own layer or as a separate file
• Saddle-stitched booklets supplied as single pages in reading order, in a multiple of four
• Every language the piece carries supplied as live text, not as an image of text

File format

A print-ready PDF is the most reliable thing to send. Export from the program you designed in using its print or press preset — in Adobe applications that is PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 — so that fonts are embedded, images are kept at full resolution and colour is handled as the press expects. We can also work from native InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop files with fonts and links packaged, and from other formats with more preparation on our side.

Bleed and safe area

A sheet is printed larger than the finished piece and trimmed down, and the trim can move by a fraction of a millimetre. Anything that runs to the edge — a background colour, a photograph, a rule — must therefore extend 3 mm past the trim line on every side, so a slight shift never leaves a white sliver. That extension is the bleed.

The same movement works inwards: keep text, logos and anything that must not be clipped at least 3 mm, and preferably 5 mm, inside the trim. On a business card that is a large proportion of the card, which is why crowded cards so often look mis-cut when they are not.

Colour

Work in CMYK. Screens show RGB, and the brightest RGB colours cannot be made from ink, so an RGB file converted at the last moment loses them without warning. If a brand colour has to match something already printed, give us the Pantone reference or send a printed sample — not a screen value — and tell us whether it prints on coated or uncoated stock, because the same ink reads differently on each.

For large areas of black, plain 100% black prints as a dark grey. A rich black — black with some cyan, magenta and yellow underneath, for example C60 M40 Y40 K100 — prints deep and even. Keep small text and fine lines in 100% black alone, so they stay sharp.

Resolution

Photographs and other raster images should be 300 dpi at the size they will print. An image that fills a screen comfortably is often only a few hundred pixels wide and will print soft and blocky at postcard size. Logos, type and line work should be vector wherever the original exists — a vector logo stays sharp at any size and is what a foil die or Spot UV plate is made from.

Fonts

Either embed fonts in the PDF (the press presets do this) or convert type to outlines before exporting. A file that references a font we do not have will be substituted with something else, and the substitution is not always obvious until the proof.

Foil, Spot UV and other finishing layers

A finish is applied from its own die or plate, so it needs its own artwork: a separate layer or file containing only the areas to be foiled or varnished, in solid black at 100%, positioned exactly where they fall on the printed design. Do not paint the area gold or make it glossy to indicate foil — that only leaves us to guess which parts are printed and which are stamped. Fine hairlines and very small type do not hold in foil or varnish; the foil page and the Spot UV page cover what does.

Packaging and die-cut work

Packaging artwork is laid out on the dieline — the flat drawing of every cut, crease and glue tab — and the dieline stays on its own layer so it can be removed before printing. Keep text and logos clear of creases and cut lines, extend colour past the cut as you would past a trim, and remember that a glue flap is hidden once the box is made up. If you do not have a dieline, send the internal dimensions or a sample of the product and we draw one before artwork starts; see the packaging page for what that involves.

We do not publish downloadable dielines. A carton template is only production-ready once it has been checked against the board, the forme and the press it will run on, so it is drawn for each job rather than offered generically.

Booklets and multi-page work

Supply single pages in reading order, at the finished page size with bleed — not printer spreads. We impose them for the press. A saddle-stitched booklet is made from folded sheets, so its page count is a multiple of four; if your content lands between, say, 12 and 16 pages, tell us and we will suggest the nearest workable extent. Say which pages must face each other.

Text in Sinhala, Tamil or Arabic

Send every language as live, editable text rather than as a picture of text. We typeset and proofread Sinhala, Tamil and Arabic here, and live text can be corrected, re-broken across lines and spaced for its script; an image can only be placed as it is, errors included. Arabic reads right to left, so its position and panel order are decided at layout stage — send all the wording at the start, and say which language leads.

Sending files

Email files to contact@xpresssolutions.lk, quoting your name and the job, or paste a shared-drive or transfer link into the quotation form. Files are not uploaded through the website. A PDF proof comes back before anything is made; production timing runs from the approval of that proof. Ask when you enquire if you need a printed colour proof as well.