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How to send your file

Getting the print you want

You can send your ready to print pdfs to us via our wetransfer page

If you are uncertain about preparing artwork to comply with our guidelines, please contact us for an artwork preparation or design quote. This will ensure the best possible print quality and you’ll be more likely to meet any deadlines you may have.

wetransfer.com

ARTWORK FILE TYPES

ADOBE ACROBAT PDF FORMAT

PDF files are our preferred choice for fast turnaround of work. Fully ‘Portable Document Format’ this file retains all of the intended information in a stable layout format. However, it is imperative that you create PDF’s as ‘High Quality’or preferably PDF/X-1a, with bleed, crop marks and fonts embedded (more information below) and follow our imported photos guidelines, as faults in PDF’s cannot easily be ‘fixed’ later in production if you get it wrong.

PHOTOSHOP FILES

These should be supplied as 300dpi (400dpi if they contain text) CMYK.TIF files with LZW compression off. Layered Photoshop files with text still rely on fonts and as such should be saved as Photoshop PDF files. Documents should also be created with bleed.

ADOBE INDESIGN FILES

These are accepted if ‘collected for output’ or ‘packaged’ so that all the related files and fonts are included. Pages must be set up to the correct size and with bleed. Any missing fonts or linked images will render the file un-printable

MICROSOFT WORD, EXCEL, PUBLISHER AND POWERPOINT FILES

Microsoft Office applications are by far the most readily available to most customers but are in many ways problematic for printing as they rely on system information that does not embed in the document and are non-indexed RGB colourspace. This means that page styles, layouts, fonts, tables, etc. can reformat when opened on other computers. Where possible, these files need to be converted to PDF format to ensure they print correctly. Please note that these programs do not conform to modern pre-press standards and onscreen colour reproduction and layout is not guaranteed. We can also accept other files and formats, but please ring and check first if timescales are critical as they may take longer

Printers use a whole range of different terms, many of which have a long history. Some of the ones we use the most are;

  • Bleed An area of the document outside of the final printed page that allows us to trim accurately to the finished page size.
  • pp For example 4pp, this refers to ‘printed pages’ in a booklet or leaflet - not the number of sheets.
  • 4/4 (or 4/0, 4/1, 1/1, etc) This indicates the number of colours per side. We use four colour process so 4/4 means ‘four or full’ colour both sides. 4/1 would be colour on the front and one colour (assumed to be black) on the reverse.

If a printer tells you something you don’t understand, always ask for clarification. When we provide quotes we do so in such a way that the defined product is clear and understood by both parties.The following illustration shows some terminology as it applies to a page.