How to supply your artwork
Are you a beginner who is new to designing artwork for print or a pro who just needs a refresher? Or do you just need to be sure you're doing it right? If so, this page should outline the issues you need to consider when supplying your artwork to us to avoid unwanted errors or delays in production:
How to setup artwork for print
If you've never created artwork before heres some quick steps on how to get started;
1. Open a new document using your favourite software or online designer tool (i.e. Canva)
2. Create your page to the correct size for the print you are creating, and if possible, add guides to keep your details within a 'safe area'
3. Let your artistic talent flow! Add your text, imaages and colours to bring your design to life
4. Save or export your design as a .pdf file to keep everything in place and as it should be.
Different ways to create your artwork
These are the most common ways our customers create their designs;
Design online
You can google search for 'online design tools' and lot of options will be available. We recommend the widely used 'Canva' website for designing your artwork online
Adobe creative suite
If you're up for a challenge or a more experienced designer then you might like this suite of apps used by professionals. Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign are all popular with designers and offer a huge range of features.
CorelDraw
A personal favourite of ours has a large range of features while offering options for both bitmap and vector designs.
Microsoft Word, Publisher or Powerpoint
Another popular choice with less features but a more friendly interface comes bundled with some Microsoft Office packages.
Other tools
Depending on what you have to hand, you can pretty much design your artwork in anything as long as you remember to export or save as a .pdf 'Print ready' file (not a low quality .pdf).
Top tips for supplying your artwork
Adding bleed
To make sure there are no thin white borders around your design after we’ve printed and trimmed it, it’s a good idea to ‘bleed’ out the background of your artwork design to create a thin 3mm border around the edge of your design.
You can either do this by adding an extra 6mm to both the height and width of your document when you set it up, or let our online proofing tool add this automatically when you upload your artwork to the website.
Note: Make sure to keep important elements such as your text within the safety area so we can ensure none of that critical content is cut.
Printing colours
Have you ever noticed that the colors from a home or office printer don’t quite match what you see on your screen? That’s because computer screens display colors using RGB (red, green, blue), whereas printers—including our commercial presses—use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).
If you’re working in Adobe Suite, you can switch your document to CMYK mode for a more accurate preview of your final colors. For any other software, our website will convert everything to CMYK automatically and show you how your design will print when you upload.
Font and layers
While we accept most formats for print, we strongly recommend that you save or export your file as a.pdf. This flattens, converts of embeds all elements of your design - specifically fonts and images thaat might be on top of other items in your design for instance. This stops them moving or printing unexpectedly.
Resolution
In printing, resolution is measured in DPI (dots per inch), which indicates how many tiny ink dots fit into each square inch of your image. The higher the DPI, the sharper and clearer your printed result. We recommend using images at a minimum of 300dpi, and if your software allows, export your entire design at 300dpi as well.
The obvious stuff
Sometime you can get so wrapped up in your design you miss the obvious, and this is the stuff we don't check such as spelling, grammar, names, prices and dates etc. so always double double check the obvious stuff.
How to supply your artwork
We have our very own custom built software, designed to revolutionise online print ordering and simplify the process. Unlike our competitors who have traditionally required 'print-ready' files for the last 30 years, we've brought about a game-changing shift.
When you place an order with Cheapestprintonline.co.uk, you no longer need to possess the skills of a qualified graphic designer or decipher 'print-ready' terminology. Thanks to our innovative FILE PREVIEW SOFTWARE, you can now effortlessly craft your own design on your computer. You can then seamlessly upload nearly ANY FILE TYPE directly to our website, and instantly preview it on your screen. This means you get to see precisely what your final product will look like.
Our software empowers you to resize, rotate, or crop your image right on your screen until you're completely satisfied. Additionally, our software will automatically convert all your colours into a printable format known as CMYK. This conversion from RGB to CMYK may result in slight colour variations, but rest assured, our software ensures your design is print-ready and will look great when produced.
Summary of design recommendations
1 : Make sure your text and any important images are at least 3mm away from the edge of your design when creating it, we recommend avoiding the use of borders also as do all commercial printers.
2 : If your design has a background image or colour, make sure it goes right to the very edge of your design, if its not 100% to the edge your print may have ugly white slithers. We do not require bleed on your files , our software deals with this so all you need is a file at the size of your product, for most sizes our file uploader will resize automatically for you.
3 : Ensure your design and all images used are at least 300dpi, this will avoid pixelated images and print . If in doubt, try zooming in on your design and see if it still looks clear.
4 : If you are supplying solid blacks, please use a black make up with a 'shiner' of Cyan = 60%, Magenta = 60%, Yellow = 0% and Black =100%. , using just 100% black can result in washed out looking print. Also note that any tint less than 5% may not show up on the print.
5 : If you are using Yellow in your artwork, please check your proof carefully after your upload as the conversion can result in a 'green tint' to your yellow. If this is visible, do NOT approve your proof to print.
6 : Please be aware that printed colours do not match colours shown on your screen/monitor due to the difference in RGB and CMYK processes.
7 : All files should be provided as SINGLE pages (i.e. not spreads) so our software can imposition them to our specification. If you have artwork with multiple pages on each page , ensure you choose our file assist service , we can break them apart for you into this service.
8 : We STRONGLY advise against the use of borders as these may be uneven when guillotined due to the limitations of print. If you opt for our File Assist service we reserve the right to remove or extend borders or extend backgrounds to give us bleed and produce a better product.
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