Guide to Supplying Artwork
Everything you need to know about supplying artwork files correctly
File Formats Accepted
- Press ready PDF - with fonts embedded, for best results high resolution 300dpi
- Quark Express – supply fonts and images
- Illustrator – fonts converted to outlines
- Freehand – fonts converted to paths
- Photoshop – layers flattened, at least 300 dpi, JPEG or Tiff
- Corel Draw – fonts converted to Curves then export as Illustrator AI
- Indesign - fonts converted to outlines
Different Formats
If you wish to submit artwork created using a program not listed above we will try to accomodate you but please call us to discuss first on +44 783 8549 494
Supplying Native Files
When supplying native files e.g. Quark Express, please ensure all elements, document, images and fonts are in one folder and please compress using Stuffit or similar to .sit or zip files before sending.
Supplying PDF Artwork
We prefer all artwork to be supplied as high-resolution PDF format.
PDF's are rapidly becoming the standard file format for transmitting files for printing, but it is important to prepare your PDF file in the correct way
Correct Preparation of PDF Files
When creating a PDF in Acrobat Distiller, there are job options which must be set for commercial printing. These include default resolution, compression settings and font embedding. Please ensure you choose high resolution. Compression settings for colour and greyscale should be downsampled to 300dpi with "auto compression" set on high. Bitmapped (monochrome: i.e. line art) images should be set at 600dpi. Font embedding should be set to "embed all fonts."
Bleed
One of the most important elements in artwork for printing! Please ensure there is 3mm bleed all round the PDF, i.e. save the PDF with 6mm added to each measurement (i.e. for A4 usually 210mm x 297mm, save as 216mm x 303mm). Crop marks may be included if you wish. If your artwork is supplied without bleed we may not always be able to add it on for you and you may have to amend and re-supply the artwork.
CMYK not RGB Please!
Please ensure that all embedded images are CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) files. RGB images may look good on your screen but final output to print is always in CMYK. One should be aware that files converted from RGB to CMYK may alter the colour composition significantly!
Microsoft Office Files
If you are creating a PDF from a MS Publisher or Word file, care must be taken to ensure spot colours are created correctly in your original documents. Do not set to RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colours as they cannot be printed as such.
Supplying EPS Files
Any other file formats not listed above must be saved as an eps or jpeg. If there are any changes to the job, you may have to amend and re-submit the artwork as we may be unable to change it. Ensure your files have bleed and crop marks and please confirm the final size of the artwork and supply a hard copy for reference.
Bleed and Crop Marks
All artwork must have 3mm bleed if you require the image to bleed off the edge of the paper.
Crop marks should be included if artwork does not fill a whole page area (i.e. no bleed). They should be 5mm long, 3mm outside of the page area and coloured in the colour 'registration' to ensure they appear on each colour separation. Please ensure that artwork is supplied at the correct finished size required. If this is not possible, please inform us to allow time for amending the artwork.
Artwork Amendments or Re-submission
Our prices include "pre-flight checking" your artwork and submitting a PDF proof for your approval. We will correct any easy to rectify issues that we spot as part of this process - free of charge.
If we need to amend your artwork or you need to re-submit corrected files to us this is charged extra at £15.00 each time, which includes an additional PDF proof. More extensive amending or correcting is charged dependent upon the amount of time required to rectify.
Imposition
Please do not supply imposed pages or "printers pairs" because our workflow includes imposition software to impose correctly for our printing processes.
Booklets
If you are supplying a document with multiple pages, please try and make the front and back cover of the document a separate file, and supply as single pages in page order. Also, please remember to allow for "creep" - we suggest you keep all text and copy at least 5mm away from the trimmed edge.
Fonts
Include all fonts you have used in the file. Whilst we have an extensive font collection, there is no guarantee the version you have used matches ours. This can create problems with line lengths and spacing of the type. alocalprinter.com assumes all fonts supplied are licensed and takes no responsibility for embedded fonts.
Lineart and Images
Scanned colour and greyscale images should be 300dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output. Images should be submitted as TIFF's, JPEG's or EPS. Lineart (bitmapped) should be 600-1200dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output.
Screens
Screen tints may range from 99% down to 1%. From a practical printing viewpoint, anything above 90% or less than 5% will generally not be visible to the naked eye.
Sending Artwork by Email
Please address it to with any relevant information regarding the job. Maximum file size preferred by email is 20mb. Files larger than this should be sent on disk or by using one of the many file sharing sites that are now readily available and allow you to send large files normally free of charge.
FTP Upload
You can also FTP upload artwork directly to our server as part of the online ordering process.