All artwork supplied should be based in CMYK unless a spot or Pantone colour is also specified. We can handle five-colour jobs if asked. If RGB Files are supplied they will be converted to CMYK when printing.

It is generally best that black text is generated using only the black plate. This may be a problem if you are using Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Publisher can be set up to print in process colour. Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint will print in the RGB colour space. Ask if producing your artwork is a problem, we may be able to convert it or help you convert it.

When scanning images for print, please ensure that they have a resolution of at least 300 dpi

Where designs are built up using a number of transparencies it makes a much more reliable PDF if these layers are flattened. It may be worth saving your original document with the suffix ‘unflattened’ and then saving the flattened document. Remember that if any changes need to be made subsequently you MUST discard the flattened document before re-working the un-flattened version. This will avoid having different editions in the un-flattened and flattened format.

For best results send files in PDF format, preferably v1.4 PDF. If you supply files that are RGB or unspecified spot/pantone colours they will automatically be converted to CMYK before printing, this can slightly change colours as they may appear different from what is seen on screen.

When supplying files, please allow a 3 mm uniform bleed on all sides of artwork to allow for ink or image going off the page. When positioning text, please allow 3 mm from the edge of the finished job to allow for cutting (also known as a quiet border).PDF (Portable Document Format)

is the required way that documents need to be sent to us. Once a Design is completed it must be output in PDF format ready to be printed.

Some programmes such as InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark Xpress, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher and Corel Draw have PDF converters included in them. However the lack of this facility does not prevent you producing perfect PDFs and often using an external PDF creator is better anyway

Adobe Acrobat Professional is the most comprehensive PDF authoring programme but unfortunately costs a lot. The re are many other programmes available to produce your PDF (use Google).

Flatten the design before you generate the PDF file. That means having all the design on a single layer. However this may not be desirable for future editing because, in Photoshop for example, text layers must be converted from Vector to Bitmap to merge with picture layers.

The best approach is to flatten all bitmap layers to one but leave the text as text. This will give much better quality text in the finished print.

Ensure that all pictures used in your design are either embedded or that the links to external images are valid before you make a PDF. Whilst most programmes will warn if a link is missing it frequently happens that a PDF is created containing screen resolution images because the correct file was not located. Check that all images used are CMYK and that they are at least 400dpi size for size in the document. Whilst it is perfectly possible to print from lower resolution and RGB images but the quality of the finished print will be lower.

Some fonts have licensing restrictions attached which can prevent the fonts being embedded in the PDF even if that request is made in the PDF setup. One solution to this problem is to avoid fonts with these restrictions. Another may be to change your design by selecting another font with a less restrictive licence. Another solution available in many drawing programmes (like Corel Draw!) is to convert the fonts used into curves or paths before you make the PDF file. In that case, you are not infringing the font creators right because you are not passing it on to a third party..

Check the created PDF looks as intended before you send it to us. Though the creation of PDFs is normally a foolproof process, sometimes strange things happen in their creation and it is certain that when it is least expected and most calamitous when it does happen. It is absolutely essential to check that the PDFs created look as you expect before sending them to us. The best way to carry out this check is to download the free PDF viewing programme Adobe Reader. Open your files in Reader and check they view correctly. Check the backup of double sided jobs is correct. Only after carrying out these checks should the PDF files be sent to us.