You will often hear or see printers requesting print-ready artwork. But, you’re probably left asking yourself, what does this actually mean? In short, it means “press-ready” and if not supplied correctly, could end up costing you. If you don’t have a designer on hand, we have a quick solution for you at MAVDIGITAL!
Grab your pen and paper, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions.
Has it been designed to the correct size?
If you have a file that you have designed as an A5 but now want it as an A4, there may be issues. Generally, a text only file would be fine as long as the text is embedded. But what about images or rasterized elements? If an image is 300dpi in an A5 file, it will be close to 150dpi in a larger file. This means that the image will now be degraded and may look pixelated or fuzzy. No one wants that.
Next, what about your text?
Normally when saving your PDF, your software will throw out a warning if the text cannot be embedded. If the text is not embedded, when the file is ripped for print, the font may be replaced with a default font, changing the text format and characters. Converting all your text to outlines or curves will ensure that you don’t have that issue.
Don’t forget your colour profile.
This is a big one. Ensure that your artwork has a CMYK colour profile instead of an RGB to avoid unexpected colour results.
Have you supplied your file with bleed?
If you have colour or an image that runs right to the edge of your design – you need bleed. Bleed is normally 3mm on all products under the size of A2 and 5mm on products bigger than A2.
As paper is a physical product and is fed through a machine, ever so slight anomalies can occur in the print process. These are very minor and hardly visible to the human eye. And, during the trimming process, the paper can move ever so slightly and if you have no bleed, you may end up with a thin white line on the edge of your print. That’s why you need bleed.
Finally, is your file in the correct format?
High Res PDF or jpeg (CMYK) at 300dpi is essential.
A high resolution PDF will ensure that images are clear and text is sharp. But, a jpeg will suffice as long it has a CMYK colour profile and it was saved at 300dpi.
So, that’s the crash course on print ready artwork!
If you have any questions about the process or would like to hear about our services, don’t hesistate to get in touch with us. Happy printing!
