Successfully Sending Artwork to Print

When it comes to producing prints of your artwork it can be difficult to get everything to output exactly as designed. This can lead to frustration as you go back and forth with the production team at your printer. Therefore, if you are looking for ways to send quality artwork to a local print shop, you’ll need to make sure that you double check your files based on these tips. While there might be other considerations to take into place for your specific piece, we have done our best to cover every area that might traditionally come up when printing any kind of graphic design.

Bleeding & Cropping

Does the artwork you are looking to print go to the very edge of the page? Then you need to add in a bleed to make sure there is sufficient space to “bleed” over the edge. Typically, you’ll be looking for a bleed of around 1/8 inch or 3 millimeters. Also, make sure that there are clear crop marks on the image so that your printer will know where the artwork should be trimmed and what should be left in the finished piece.

Difference in Color

One thing that you need to consider is that typical printers will be using CMYK color systems. This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black. Meanwhile, a screen that the graphic design was made on will be using RGB –Red, Green, Blue. Make sure that the document you send over is in CMYK coloring otherwise you can find that the colors will not match your original design. When you do make the conversion, if you’ve already made the artwork, you may need to re-do some of the colors digitally to match them back up to the original standard.

High Resolution Image

Make sure that the image you are sending over is in a high resolution. On an image it will be viewed at around 720 DPI, a printer will be working with less than half of this – usually 300 DPI if you are going for something like a brochure. Therefore you need to use a high resolution image to make sure it appears high quality, otherwise the pixelation or lack of quality will be magnified. You will also want to avoid images that have been optimized for the internet. Most of the time these graphics are at 72 DPI which is not sufficient for printing.

Specify A Material

You always want to specify the correct material or substrate for your print. Getting this right is very important depending on the desired visual outcome and how it will be used. Get this verified before printing begins, as it can make a huge difference to the overall quality of the artwork’s finish. Ask your printer about the many different options for material. They vary greatly depending on what type of project you have.

Font Outlining

Something you might not think about is how your text is going to come across. If it’s possible, you need to make sure that all fonts within the document are converted to what is known as an outline. To do this, simply convert your text into a traditional layer the same as any other design aspect of the image – this will make sure that it prints out properly. You can do this in many graphic design programs, such as Adobe Illustrator or Quark Xpress. Not sure what you need to do? Then contact us HERE for more information. We can help you get the desired outcome for your artwork. We will make sure it turns out just as you originally intended, giving you a professional and visually appealing end product. Our graphic designers at our Chesapeake, Virginia firm are experts at getting the artwork right and ensuring that the right standards are followed. If you need help from the start we have several graphic designers here to help your idea become reality. Give us a call at 757-545-7675 or color@hackworth.co and we will do all we can to help you.