Artwork Requirements
Required
For your artwork to be produced accurately and as intended, please ensure that our artwork requirements below are followed. This applies both to artworks your company has created, and artworks supplied from a third-party or end user. For more detailed instructions, please see our artwork setup guide.
All artwork must be supplied:
- According to, or on, our product templates (if applicable). Template-specific requirements are included on each product page and within the templates.
- With 5mm bleed for standard banners and prints (when scaled to full-size). For double-sided banners or fabric items, other bleed amounts are required. Any bleed should not be overlapped by crop/bleed marks, colour bars, or any other registration marks.
- If your particular order/artwork is colour-critical, it must be provided well ahead of time in order for us to perform tests and colour-matching. This must be stated as required when ordering, as this is not a service we provide as standard. Placed order/payment required. Find out more.
- Using the artboard/page boundary to indicate the finished size. If crop marks are used, they should be outside of any bleed areas.
- With each artwork/design as a separate file or page
- With each file name including the finished dimensions and a description (eg. “3m x 1m Description.pdf”), also including the quantity if applicable (eg. “3m x 1m Description x 6.pdf”)
- At the correct width-to-height ratio
- In CMYK colour mode
- With all images embedded
- With all fonts converted to outlines/curves/shapes
- With all visible in-canvas template elements removed
- With no keylines/trim lines present
- Where applicable on our product design templates, artwork must not be provided on non-printing layers, and must only be provided on the 'Design' layer
- Informing us how many unique designs should be present for your order
Accepted file formats:
- PDF (preferred)
- EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
- AI (Adobe Illustrator)
- PSD (Adobe Photoshop, recommended flattened)
- TIFF (recommended flattened)
- JPG/JPEG (recommended high-resolution)
Once your artwork is ready to upload, please use our upload service, Filemail. However, if you experience any problems with Filemail, please try uploading your files with either WeTransfer or TransferNow.
Not Accepted
Artwork not supplied to our requirements will likely render an unsatisfactory result or delay your order.
Artwork:
- Without the required bleed
- Without the finished size indicated by artboard/page size (or crop marks)
- With multiple artworks/designs on one page
- At an incorrect width-to-height ratio
- On a product template that has been altered/scaled/distorted from our original
- On an old product template that has since been updated/replaced
- In RGB colour mode
- With missing links or images which are not embedded
- Artworks on different layers within the same file
- Without fonts converted to outlines/curves/shapes
- Protected by a password
- Surplus to requirements or not required
Unaccepted file formats:
- INDD (Adobe InDesign)
- QXP (Quark Xpress)
- CDR (Corel Draw)
- SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- GIF
- PNG
- BMP
- DOC/DOCX (Microsoft Word)
- XLS/XLSX (Microsoft Excel)
- PPT/PPTX (Microsoft Powerpoint)
- PUB (Microsoft Publisher)
Non-Adobe-native Applications
Artwork created in non-Adobe applications (such as, but not limited to CorelDRAW, SignLab (CADlink Suite), AutoCAD, Serif PagePlus and Canva) can cause output issues. If provided artwork was designed with, or exported from a non-Adobe application, please advise us, ensure to follow all of our artwork requirements, and use a modern PDF generator.
Check Before Sending
Before sending your exported/generated files to us, check the resulting PDF file in Adobe Reader/Acrobat. This especially applies in cases where non-Adobe applications have been used to create or export the artwork, or where artwork templates containing non-printing layers have been used.
Pantone Colours and Colour Matching
Please note that Pantone colours with effects applied (such as transparency), will often not print as intended and may result in a solid colour. When using effects and transparency, please only use CMYK colours.
While our software is able to handle the conversion of Pantone colours to CMYK, due to the various factors involved, such as printing methods, substrate qualities and lighting, the result will not always be as intended.
For these reasons, if you or your client would like to match to a specific colour, we encourage you to first order a small test print on the desired material. This could contain either a small version of the entire artwork, or a collection of different colour values/Pantones. This would then be delivered to you, and a decision can be made on the result.
If a real order has already been placed and colour testing is to be performed, please note the real order will be held until any decisions are made on colour(s).
Notes
Please note that we cannot be held responsible for issues contained in the supplied artwork itself such as spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, RGB colour mode, overprint, resolution, missing fonts, missing images and layers set to non-printing. To avoid these issues, please ensure your artwork adheres to our requirements. Artworks faililng our requirements may delay your order.
If artwork cannot be used to produce what has been ordered, we will advise you of this and request how you would like to proceed.
If an artwork size is different to the ordered size, the ordered size always takes precedence. This is due to the fact that artworks from our customers are supplied in a variety of scales.
With subjective issues of quality such as image resolution, we will sometimes advise you if the quality is extremely low, though again, we cannot be held responsible if the artwork is supplied in such a manner and isn’t suitable for your needs.
