Artwork
How to get the best from your Artwork
You can download our Technical guide here
Please email artwork to studio@tooseyprint.co.uk
A few tips on getting the best from your artwork
To make things really easy we will take your artwork in any common format, including Word, Publisher and most graphics packages. For a small charge we will convert them into print ready pdf files ready for the press.
How to get the best from your Artwork
Here are a few things we think might help you to achieve the best from your artwork, particularly when dealing with pictures.
Pictures placed on the web are usually GIF's and sometimes JPEG's. Don’t worry about the name, only that collectively they come from a graphics construction known as Bitmaps. There are limitations when it comes to printing GIF's because they are not designed for printing, only for viewing on a screen.
Bitmap images are made of little dots (pixels) of a specific size. If you try to resize the image upwards these dots can become distorted and you lose the definition of the image.
Pictures downloaded from the web
GIFS on the web are almost entirely fixed at 72ppi (pixels per inch), but to print a really clear image we need 300ppi, otherwise known as high resolution. Therefore images from websites or that have been created for website use are useless for printing - they will look very fuzzy - known as pixellated.
Digital Photographs
Fortunately you can change the print size of digital photos... usually with little or no loss in quality. If you want to do this, look in your photo editing software for an "Image Size," "Resize," "Print Size," or "Resample" command. When you use this command you will be presented with a dialog box where you can change pixel dimensions, print size, and resolution (PPI).
RGB or CMYK?
Everything that you see on your computer screen is created out of the colours Red, Green and Blue - RGB. They work together to create bright, vibrant and vivid colours.
If you are sending us any sort of artwork file created in Publisher, Photoshop or one of the common graphics packages you must change your artwork from RGB to CMYK.
Once altered to CMYK the colours you see on your screen will seem a bit flatter and with less 'zing', so don't be suprised if what you see was not quite what you expected - it is one of the small side effects necessary to make your artwork print beautifully.
Text 'Safe Area'
When you are including text within your design it is a good idea to ensure that there is a 'safe area' of at least 5mm to the edge - this allows for some movement of the material when it is being trimmed and also makes it much easier to read!
Bleed
Bleed is a term that refers to ink that prints all the way to the edge of a trimmed page - so if your design calls for ink to extend right to the edge of the paper (the "trim"), your ink is "bleeding" off the page and you need to build a bleed margin into your artwork.
Printed pieces that have a white border or white around the edges DO NOT bleed, but if you have images or backgrounds that you want to print right to the edge of the paper you must design your job larger than the final finished trimmed size.
To achieve a full bleed document we need to actually cut through this area of extended image/background.
To create bleeds, make your document larger than the final finished cut size. Generally we require that you make your document 3mm larger
on all four sides to leave enough bleed area for us to trim into.
but if in doubt, give us a call!
Please email artwork to studio@tooseyprint.co.uk
