How many time have you tried to order business cards or flyers from a printer using artwork you designed yourself? How many of those time did the printer tell you that they couldn’t use your artwork? If you don’t have any design experience it has probably happened more often than not. The following “5 Point Checklist” will ensure that your artwork will be ready to send to your favorite printer.

1. Resolution

Make sure your artwork is designed at 300 DPI (dots per inch) resolution. Web graphics are only 72 DPI and are no good for professional printing. Designing your artwork at 300 DPI will ensure that your printed materials are crisp and clear!

2. Bleed

Bleed is when the image or background of your design is intended to run off the page. Without proper bleed, you may end up with uneven white borders. A standard bleed (with most printers) is 1/8″ (0.125) added to the final trim size of the finished product, which means if you are printing business cards your artwork should be 3 5/8″ x 2 1/8″ (3 1/2″ x 2″ trim size).

3. Safety

Safety is the amount of space between the edge of your artwork and any essential elements (stuff you don’t want to get cut off). You should always make sure that you leave a minimum of 3/16″ (0.0625) safety on all sides of your design, unless you like having the last digit in your telephone number cut in half, it’s up to you.

4. Color Mode: CMYK

In Printing, all colors are a made up of different percentage values of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). One of the most common mistakes made in “for print” design is choosing the wrong color mode. Monitors display graphics in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color mode by default. What you see on-screen is much different than what you get in print. Designing your artwork using CMYK will avoid unexpected results in color and save you money in reprints.

5. File Format

Ok, this part is a bit tricky depending on the design software you use. Many printers will accept all different types of file formats, but not all. Standard formats accepted are PDF, PSD, AI, JPG, TIFF, PNG or EPS. Microsoft file formats are not accepted by most printers any longer. Whichever design program you choose to use, make sure you save/export your file to one of the accepted formats. Note: If using Illustrator or Corel Draw, make sure to convert your fonts to outlines (or curves in Corel) before saving your file to avoid mismatched fonts being used. If using Photoshop, remember to flatten your file, for the same reason.

We’ve been told that our professional quality, full color printing is the best in our county. Remember to call us at 352-684-4976 and speak to a Project Manager before ordering elsewhere. By the way, if you haven’t already, post a comment about this article. We love feedback!