Artwork guidelines

PREFERRED Press-ready PDF, PDF/X-1a ALSO TAKEN AI · INDD packaged with links and fonts · layered PSD at full size

NOT FOR PRODUCTION Word · Publisher · Canva screen exports · PowerPoint

A press-ready PDF removes almost every variable — fonts, links, and color are already locked into the file. Everything else has to be opened, checked, and rebuilt, which is where jobs go wrong.

BLEED 0.125 in all four sides · 0.25 in for banners SAFE Keep text and logos 0.125 in inside the trim TOLERANCE ≈ 1/16 in either direction on a gang run

Cutting is mechanical and stacks shift slightly under the blade. Bleed absorbs that movement. Without it, a stack of 5,000 comes back with white slivers on the edges of the ones at the bottom.

BUILD IN CMYK RICH BLACK 60C 40M 40Y 100K for large solids SMALL TEXT 100K only

Expect some shift from what you see on screen — a monitor emits light and paper reflects it, and no amount of calibration fully closes that gap. A hard proof is the only way to know exactly.

MOST WORK 300 dpi at final size 24 × 36 + 150 dpi is acceptable UPSCALING Adds pixels, not detail

Resolution is relative to finished size and viewing distance. A banner read from thirty feet does not need what a business card read at arm’s length needs.

OUTLINE all type, or EMBED the fonts in the PDF

Missing fonts get substituted silently. The job does not fail — it prints, in the wrong typeface, and nobody catches it until the box arrives.

FOLDED and DIE-CUT products need the template first

Ask for the die line before the layout is finished, not after. A folder or a folded brochure built on a flat rectangle has to be rebuilt, and that is a redraw, not an adjustment.

BLEED · RESOLUTION · COLOR MODE · FONT EMBEDDING · TRIM SAFETY

Every file gets looked at on all five. If something will not print well, you hear about it before the job goes on press — that is the whole point of ordering through a person instead of a web form.