Screens represent art files differently than physical prints do. So its common for files to arrive at a commercial printer without the correct formatting or proper design for press ready print.

'Print Ready' means the file has been saved, sized, designed, formatted and properly setup for the printing process. Looks can be deceiving and many files that look great on screen are actually unfit for the printing process in their current state.

To avoid delays and any back and forth frustration, familiarize yourself with some basic terminology - it's likely to come in handy during the print production process.

Full bleeds(the grey dashed line, pictured above) ensures that print documents won't end up with empty paper-colored borders. Bleeds are simply an additional space (ours are 1/8") added to all sides of an artboard. This small added space accounts for natural movement of the paper during production and the final trim.

If your file contains artwork with color that touches the edges, then yes, bleeds are required.

To add bleed settings to your artwork, simply add 1/8" to all sides of your document size. The size of the bleed stays consistent regardless of the files dimensions. If your final print size is to be 5" x 7", adding bleeds will increase the document size to 5.25" x 7.25" in preparation for printing.

Width:  5" + .125" left side + .125" right side = 5.25"

Height:  7" + .125" top side + .125" bottom side = 7.25"

After increasing the document size, pull the color that sits along the original edge of the file across the additional 1/8" empty space on each side. Your artwork, background and any design elements should consistently flow across the bleed area. No stretching - just a smooth continuous flow. 

To set up Bleeds:

• Adobe Illustrator > File > Document Setup > Bleeds
• Adobe Photoshop > Image > Canvas Size > Increase Height & Width each 6 mm
• Adobe Indesign > File > Document Setup > Bleed & Slug
  
  

Crop marks (solid black corner lines, pictured above), commonly referred to as trim marks, are short, thin, solid, horizontal and vertical lines placed just outside of the trim area at the corner of each page. These small lines when properly added to your artwork will print and act as a guide indicating to the printer precisely where to trim the paper.

To set up Crop Marks:

• Adobe Illustrator > Print > Marks and Bleeds > Trim Marks
• Adobe Photoshop > File > Print > Printing Marks > Corner Crop Marks
• Adobe Indesign > Export PDF > Marks and Bleeds > Marks > Crop Marks
  
  

The safety area (pictured in yellow above) of a file is the 1/8" inside the trim edge. Ideally, there should be no important text or images inside the safety area to ensure that nothing of importance is lost during the printing and trimming process.

To avoid pixelated, blurry or distorted prints, the standard DPI for images and artwork is 300 DPI. This means 300 tiny dots of ink will be deposited to fill every inch of print. Typical presses cannot accurately reproduce resolutions above 300 DPI, which is why 300 dpi has become the industry standard. 

Helpful guidelines to follow when considering print resolution:

• Simply enlarging the original image size will NOT do the trick - this lowers the overall image resolution and will result in poor quality print. 
  
  
• Don't rely on web based imagery, avoid google search images, saving images from your website, social media, etc. Anything in and on the web is 72 DPI = poor quality print. 
  
  
• If you have no choice but to use a web image, know that the ONLY way to increase the DPI of an image is to make the image much smaller. Look for a web image with large dimensions to increase the odds that it can be made print worthy.
  
  

Setting aside spot colors (for another day), there are two main modes for mixing color in design, RGB and CMYK. 

RGB color mode is actually light mixed to create and display digital images. RGB colors display vibrantly, but are incapable of reproducing the same colors as CMYK inks. If you print files that were meant to be viewed digitally, the outcome will look much different than what you've viewed on screen.

CMYK color mode is actually varying amounts of four primary ink pigment colors mixed to create all print. It's vital that your design files are set in CMYK to print properly.

To set up CMYK color:

• Adobe Illustrator > File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color
• Adobe Photoshop > Image > Mode > CMYK Color
• Adobe Indesign > File > Document Setup > Intent: Print

It's best practice to outline any fonts in your design before sending to print. Outlining fonts means the text no longer reads and edits as text, but instead identifies as shapes, like artwork. This allows a printer to successfully print your project even if they don't have your chosen fonts on hand.

The preferred file type for print is typically PDF files, widely preferred because of their preservation features of fonts, layouts, etc. Other acceptable file types may include EPS, JPG, TIF, PSD depending upon your print provider.