Full-color edge-to-edge
printing ("Full Bleed Printing") gives your
printed materials an impressive look only a
professional printshop can offer and its easy to
achieve by following a few simple
guidelines.
If you are just starting your
design, we offer a wide variety of product
templates with these guidelines already set-up
for you.
Cut Line
The cut line is where your
product will be trimmed to, once the bleed area is
removed. But please remember, due to cutting
tolerances of printing, the cut may shift up to
1/16 of an inch in any direction.
Safe
Area
A safe
area is a margin within the cut line which will
prevent text or type from being cut off. It is
imperative that no text or essential parts of your
artwork come within 1/8” of the trim line. Due to
mechanical tolerance during the cutting process,
any content within 1/8” of the trim line may be
cut off.
Bleed Area
A bleed area is when
an image extends beyond the cut line of the
printed product. If your image is not white on all
four sides, you MUST include an extra 1/8” (.125”)
to each side of the file. This allows for that
extra 1/8” (0.125") on each side of the card to be
trimmed after the printing is complete. For
example, if you are ordering a 3.5” x 2” business
card, you would set your artwork size to 3.75” x
2.25”.
When submitting your
files to be printed, there are a few simple
mistakes that can sometimes delay the printing of
your job. Avoiding these issues will ensure that
your job is printed as timely as possible.
Issue: Whenever you want an image or color to
print to the edge of your printed piece, those
images or colors must extend 1/8" past the cut
line of your
artwork. Result: When
this card is printed and cut, white strips of
unprinted paper would appear at the edges of the
card.
Correct -
1/8" Bleed on all sides
Best Practice: By extending the images and color near the cut
line 1/8" past the cut line, you ensure your
card will be trimmed properly.
Image Resolution
Incorrect - Low
Image Resolution
Issue: The
image of the car is low resolution, perhaps
because it was simply saved off a
website.
Result: When
this card is printed, the image would have very
poor quality.
Correct -
All images are 300dpi
Best
Practice: By using larger,
high-resolution, images to begin with, you're
able to achieve a terrific amount of image
detail in your final printed
product.
Safe Area
Incorrect -
Objects outside of Safe
Area
Issue: Important text and photo objects are
outside the safe
area.
Result: When this
card is printed, the objects close to the trim
line may be cut off or appear too close to the
cut line.
Correct -
Objects well within Safe
Area
Best
Practice: By keeping important objects
within the safe area, you ensure that no
important text is trimmed off during the final
cutting process.
Color Mode
Incorrect -
Submitted in RGB Color Mode
Issue: Files were not designed in the correct
color mode for print
(CMYK).
Result: When
this card is printed, the color does not
translate properly to the 4-color process of a
professional printing press, which results in
colors appearing dull and washed out compared to
how they viewed on screen.
Correct -
Submitted in CMYK Color
Mode
Best
Practice: By converting the color mode
to CMYK for all graphical elements you are
using, you can see a more accurate view of the
colors in your art, and make any necessary
changes before uploading your files for
print.
Rich Black
Incorrect - Large
solid area not Rich Black
Issue: This artwork includes a large solid
area defined with black ink
only.
Result: Due to ink
coverage in the offset printing process, the
solid black area will appear to be a washed out
gray color.
Correct -
Large solid area with Rich
Black
Best
Practice: For all areas of solid black,
set the color values to the following
combination for the best result. C: 60% M:
40% Y: 40% K: 100%
Borders
Incorrect -
Border near the Cut Line
Issue: The artwork includes a border right at
the edge of the card's cut
line.
Result: Due to
mechanical tolerances of the cutting process,
the border will not appear
symmetrical.
Correct -
Border well within Safe
Area
Best
Practice: By moving the border within
the safe area, you ensure that the border will
appear symmetrical after the card is
trimmed.
Whenever submitting a digital
file to ANY printer, it is important to be working
in the proper color mode or color space. Most
design or layout software gives you the option of
working in RGB or CMYK.
RGB, which stands
for Red, Green, Blue, is the primary colors of
light. Digital cameras and scanners typically
produce RGB files. This can be an important detail
for many fine artists and photographers to remember
since color can be a major issue. Computer
monitors also display in RGB so please DO NOT
gauge how your colors will look by what you see on
screen.
A printing press however, uses a
different color space. This is referred to as
CMYK, or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. It can
also be known as 4 color process. A continuous
tone is created by combining different values of
these 4 colors.
It is VERY IMPORTANT to
convert EVERY RGB file to CMYK. Unfortunately, in
this process, some RGB colors may appear to
convert to a ‘washed out’ or dull CMYK color. The
following diagram shows a good example of what
could happen with a few color conversions while
working in a VECTOR or layout based program such
as Illustrator, InDesign, Quark, Corel Draw or
Freehand:
If you are using a pixel image
edited in a program such as Photoshop or Corel
Photopaint, a conversion from RGB to CMYK will not
have such a drastic difference on-screen. Most
images or photos that are very vivid will only
show a slight difference, but in the end, would
make a huge difference when printed. On the press,
an RGB image would be very washed out, whereas,
the CMYK would print very true. The following
example shows the difference between an on-screen
display of an RGB image, and that same file when
its printed on press. If converted to CMYK you
will notice a slight color shift on-screen, but
the end result will print so much better than a
dull RGB file:
The above material and images
illustrate so of the most common color mistakes
that our clients can make. Please work in CMYK
throughout your file to ensure proper color. You
can always alter the values on vector objects or
increase color saturation on an image to get the
closest match.
Another common problem can
be the color BLUE. When selecting a blue swatch or
making up the values for a blue, people tend to
add too much magenta into the file. Although the
color may be to your liking on-screen, the end
result usually looks PURPLE. Please see the
illustration below for proper color values when
making up your blue colors:
One last piece of color advice
that we can give you is to convert EVERY spot/PMS
color that is used in your document to CMYK/4
color process. This will eliminate most
transparency or layer issues when passing through
our RIP (Raster Image Processor) device. In most
of these programs, you can navigate to the Window:
Color menu and either delete the swatch or
right/control click on the swatch and choose
Convert to Process. You can also consult with the
file preparation section on our website for more
details.
Our Calendar template
is provided either as; Adobe InDesignCS3 (*.indd),
InDesign Interchange for InDesign CS and CS2
(*.inx), or Adobe Illustrator PDF (*.pdf). These
are multi-page templates that allow you to insert
your photos for each month. If you want to edit
the calendar grids, we suggest opening the PDF
pages individually in Adobe Illustrator.
A 3/8" margin
must be left along the top edge of the envelope so
that the press can grip the envelope during
printing. If requested, the bottom edge can be
used for the gripper.
The front and back
template files are named as such for a left-side
tab card. If a right-side tab is desired, simply
exchange the back and front files.
Due to the variable nature of
sticker sizes, we do not have templates for
stickers. If the size of your sticker matches any
of the above product sizes, you can use that
product's template for your sticker. For
specifications on creating your artwork files,
please refer to our Preparing
Your Files section.
template.jpg
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Full-color edge-to-edge
printing ("Full Bleed Printing") gives your
printed materials an impressive look only a
professional printshop can offer and its easy to
achieve by following a few simple
guidelines.
