Design Formats Explained
Author:
Adam Prew
Published: 11/09/2013
We recommend...
When supplying your artwork please ensure it is high resolution, at least 300dpi and above. We also require the majority of artwork to have 2mm bleed which will be trimmed during production. For artwork that doesn’t require any changes, we would ideally like flattened JPG's, TIFF's or outlined PDF’s or EPS's to avoid missing fonts.
PDF's are best...
Every day we are increasingly working with more and more vector files such as EPS's and PDF's. Both of these file formats ensure a greater quality end result, therefore we highly recommend you supply us with one of these file types. PDF is rapidly becoming the preferred file format and PDF-x is now a Print Industry Standard - take a look at our PDF-x guide document for further information.
Useful Resources...
Our All about Acrobat 7 document will provide you with essential information when using this design tool. If you are interested in PDF's then read our PDF workflow, and PDF-x explained documents. The facemediagroup.co.uk artwork help file(zipped) is also a great place to find all the essential information you need to product high quality artwork ready for print.
PDF-x: The Industry Standard
PDF-x is becoming the Print Industry Standard because regardless of which design software you use, PDF-x should be the ultimate setting you save/print your work to. Saving your artwork in this way ensures the correct colours are present for the press, images and fonts are embedded (no default replacements) and no trim/cut errors or resolution problems occur.
Ensuring correct colours...
If you need an exact colour match, we advise you purchase a Spyder, or something similar - to ensure your screen is calibrated. Another essential would be a PANTONE bridge guide. This is Über important, as it shows, realistically, what 'spot colour' converts to in 'CMYK' - also it shows the CMYK breakdown. (Actually... get this... if your a designer... then you probably already have one ;)
Design Templates
See the resources at the bottom of this page for a list of our available design templates.
Template formats explained
- All our templates are available to download as either EPS files or JPG files.
- All measurements are in millimetres. With regard to print, we always measure width first, then height.
- All our templates include the correct bleed (2mm on each side).
The JPG files are set up in RGB. They will need converting to CMYK and flattening to make the file print ready. Ideally, copy the layout by tracing or placing guides onto the canvas - then delete or white box the whole of the canvas (white box is probably best, so you can refer back to original layout).
The EPS files are set up in CYMK colour profile. You'll need to take care that any images brought into the EPS are CMYK and embedded once your artwork is complete. The fonts also need to be outlined/converted to curves to avoid font issues when we process your files. Remember to delete all the guide lines and template text so it doesn't get printed (except where we have added branding to the greetings cards, we'd appreciate it if that stayed).
How can I download the templates?
Scroll to the bottom of this page and locate the product you are looking for - you will then find a list of templates available to download for the associated product.