Recommended Design Programs
Creating your final artwork in any of the following page layout or object oriented applications will help ensure its printability when it comes time for our prepress department to prepare your files for printing:
Page Layout Applications – Adobe In-Design CS5 Object Oriented Applications – Adobe Illustrator CS5 Using Photoshop
We do not recommend composing all your text in Photoshop. This text may not print as sharply as you think. Photoshop is a raster base program that is designed for modifying photographic images. We suggest using a layout program like InDesign in conjunction with your Photoshop files for your text. You can also use Illustrator, which is a vector-based program.
While we do not recommend using Photoshop as a layout program, we realize that many clients simply do not have any other option. Photoshop users can download the PDF templates posted on our website. You can open these files from within Photoshop. When you do so, you will be immediately prompted by a menu titled “Rasterize Generic PDF Format.” Be sure that your Resolution is set to 300 pixels/inch and the Mode is set to CMYK (or Grayscale if you are doing a Black/White layout).
You can keep the template information on a separate layer and build your artwork on subsequent layers above. Save and submit your files as a layered Photoshop (.PSD) or fl attened TIFF or EPS files. However, we prefer layered Photoshop files in the event that last-minute changes need to be made.
JPG Formats
We do not suggest having your images saved as JPG or GIF formats. These employ compression schemes that reduce image quality. We suggest that you use uncompressed TIFF or EPS formats.
RGB Images
In some cases we receive artwork that contains images in the RGB color mode. RGB stands for Red Green Blue. This is a color scheme that is used only in viewing images on screen. This color process has a wider range of color possibilities that cannot be achieved by conventional CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) printing. Particularly, vibrant blues and greens in RGB are often not very transferable to CMYK. If you submit images in RGB color, we will notify you and give you the option to convert them yourselves.
Fonts
Please embed or outline all fonts used in your document before sending your final artwork.If we don’t have the font you have used, it may be automatically substituted for an alternative font.
Font Size
For acceptable legibility, text should be no smaller than 6 points. Links
Please check all links are embedded or, if using InDesign, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P will create a package with your links and fonts. However we would prefer if you would send us an exported PDF (Ctrl+E).
Resolution
Files, including any images, need to be at least 300 dpi to print clearly, otherwise images may appear bit mapped, fuzzy, distorted or pixilated. Most images found on the internet are 72 dpi and are generally not suitable for professional printing.
We highly discourage the use of Adobe Photoshop for creating artwork. Pages created in Adobe Photoshop are generated as a bitmapped file and cannot be handled properly or printed at any other resolution than the one used at file creation. Photoshop is a picture editing application and does not offer the extensive text editing features of the page layout or object oriented applications listed above. Adobe Photoshop deserves great recognition as a photo retouching application though, and is used in that context extensively in our company. If you need to create the background as a picture, please place the text in Illustrator or in InDesign, then out- line it (Ctrl+Shift+O)
Colors
Files must be set up as CMYK for colors to print accurately. Files that are sent to us using RGB, Pantone, or spot colors will be automatically converted to CMYK which may cause some changes to your colors.
Bleed
All artwork MUST include 1/8” bleed past its final trim size on all four sides of the artwork.
A bleed is an area of your image that is outside the final cut of your printed piece. It is used to extend an image, color or line beyond the artwork edge, which enables us to cut the finished product without leaving a white line. For example, if you want your custom box background to be entirely blue, you must bleed the blue color an 1/8” past the edge of the final size of your custom box. This prevents a white line down one or more edges of your print, caused by very slight variations in die-cutting and trimming which can be ±1mm.
Print Ready File Format
Our preferred format for accepting artwork is a high resolution PDF. Submitting your order
Once you have confirmed your art meets our requirements proceed to our order page to submit your order: www.YourBoxSolution.com
