THE ESSENTIAL ARTWORK GUIDE. To find out more go to

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1 THE ESSENTIAL ARTWORK GUIDE To find out more go to

2 introduction Most of us have been there... the person on the other end of the phone starts babbling on about how your document contains low resolution images and they need to be at least 300dpi and there s no bleed on it and there s a support file missing from page 6 and the fonts only contain the screen version which means blah, blah, blah... Understandably you glaze over after dpi and now you re wondering what to have for tea this evening. Many of our customers have little or no involvement in the production of artwork for print, which is a very different ball game to web, report and display artwork. There are lots of variables that all have to be in their place in order for a job to print successfully. Often, what looks fantastic on screen, isn t necessarily viable for print and the reason can be any number of contributing factors. We have produced this guide to try and expel some of the myths that surround artwork for print. We aim to answer all those annoying little niggles that often crop up, prolonging the printing process, making it more painful than it needs to be and threatening your deadline. kate harber design manager E design@severnprint.co.uk SEVERN Ashville Industrial Estate Bristol Road, Gloucester GL2 5EU Within this guide you will find useful hints and tips to help ensure that the artwork you supply hits the ground running and gives us no reason to call you other than to complement you on your expertly prepared artwork. For some of you this may be a case of teaching you to suck eggs but we hope that you will find some subjects of interest. If you should come across a problem that isn t covered in this guide, please give us a call and we will endeavour to answer your queries personally. This might be a good time to mention that should you wish to avoid reading this guide and indeed preparing artwork all together, we offer an innovative design service that provides a creative solution to every brief, no matter how big or small. T F E info@severnprint.co.uk

3 contents software 2 document setup 3 bleed & crop marks 4 colour 5 fonts 6 images 7 file formats 8 use of FSC logo 9 PDFs 10 checklist 11 jargon buster 12 FOR HELPFUL HINTS & TIPS, PAPER & ENVELOPE SIZES, TEMPLATES & INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS ABOUT THE BEST WAY TO CREATE YOUR ARTWORK VISIT OUR RESOURCES BOX AT the essential artwork guide 1

4 software This subject is, like many things in life, a matter of personal taste. We each have our own preferred software, many of which we can accept. However, our preferences are as follows: Artwork documents and projects, i.e. brochures, stationery, display items, postcards etc; Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign or Print Ready PDF (see pg10) Vector Graphics, i.e. logos, motifs, background graphics, frames, display text etc; Adobe Illustrator Photographs, i.e. scanned images, digital photography, photo montages etc (see pg7) ; Adobe Photoshop Text documents, i.e. digital text for insertion into existing documents & new artwork; Microsoft Word, WordPad, TextEdit, SimpleText, NotePad or similar As mentioned previously, we are able to except most formats but deviations from the software listed above can often create problems as they are not provided for in our standard workflow. This is not to say that the above software are the industry standards but they are considered Severn standard. If you are unsure as to what software you should be preparing your artwork in or you want to know if we can accept your existing artwork, please give us a call and we will be happy to advise you. 2 the essential artwork guide

5 document setup Occasionally customers will supply A4 sized artwork in the centre of an A3 document. Although this can be easily remedied by our clever mac operators, there are times when it can cause havoc. Very often clients are simply being helpful by adding bleed and crop marks within the printing area. In some cases, such as when we print the file direct to the digital printer and no imposition is required (not often!) it s very straightforward. However, if we have an A4 12pp brochure placed in the centre of a document with a page size of A3, we will have to resize the document page size to A4 before we can rip it and impose the artwork for printing. Simple! I hear you say, and 50% of the time you would be correct, but it s always best to remember that the more adaptations we have to perform to your artwork the greater the chance of mistakes being introduced, and nobody wants that. When setting up your document the page size must be the exact size of the trimmed and finished object, there are exceptions such as folders and items that include multi-folds but we will be happy to advise you about those on an individual basis. smaller document size within in a larger page size with crop marks placed within the print area The document size must not include additional measurements for bleed or crop marks, as they must exist outside of the printing area (see pg4). In software such as InDesign when you are creating the document it gives you the opportunity to add bleed separately to the document size using additional options. If you are unsure of the options available in the software you are using, please call us and we can take you through it step by step. document size within correct page size with crop marks placed outside of the print area the essential artwork guide 3

6 bleed & crop marks Bleed is necessary when the artwork extends right to the very edge of the page. Without bleed, when the job is trimmed, you will be left with a white edge to your printed item. To avoid this we use bleed, an overlap of no less than 3mm extending off the edge of the artwork, so as when the job is trimmed the artwork extends neatly to the very edge with no visible white margins. Document with crop marks BUT without bleed (orange line shows page edge) When a customers is unable to add bleed we have two options; the first is to trim the job under size, cutting into the artwork itself - as a result the job will be smaller than intended once finished; the second is for our mac operators to add bleed, this can be done by cloning the outer edges of the artwork. Although neither of these solutions are ideal, they are our only options when the original artwork isn t available or editable by the customer. Crop marks, also known as trim marks or registration marks appear at the corners of your artwork and are an indication to the print finisher of where to trim your job. When artwork is supplied in its original form, as a native InDesign or Quark file, we will add the crops marks when we output the job. If you are supplying a print ready pdf however, you must ensure the crop marks are already in place on the file when you send it to us. Document with crop marks and correct bleed (orange line shows page edge) 4 the essential artwork guide

7 colour It might not seem like that big of a deal but the colours used in your artwork and more importantly, the way they are set up to print, can have drastic effects on your printed items. The most important thing to remember when setting up your artwork is that what you see on your screen is not a good enough reference for what will print. Everyone of us have fiddled with the brightness and contrast on our screens, and as a result they will all display colours differently. If you ve chosen a glorious sunshine yellow by using a picker or slider in your software, it could all be an illusion if your screen hasn t been calibrated correctly. Which means when we print it, you could end up with a drab mustard colour or something even worse. For the best results you need to match your colours to something more reliable like a pantone reference book or CMYK mixer chart. The secret is to trust your eyes rather than your screen (with exception of colour blindness, in which case phone a friend ). All joking aside, all too often we have seen customers disappointed with the results of their supplied artwork. It is also key to remember that if it s printing in CMYK you must choose and set your colours using CMYK. Artwork supplied in RGB and then converted to CMYK can throw up unexpected results. The same rule applies for Pantone, although Pantone colours can sometimes be matched almost exactly by CMYK some, once converted, can differ drastically. All jobs in the Severn workflow are required to be proofed, even if just for internal checking. If you refuse the chance to pass a colour proof or alternatively don t supply us with sample prints to match to, no amount of good intention on our part could save this potential colour disaster. We will always advise that you allow enough time within your print schedule to receive a proof and make any required adjustments. PANTONE Reflex Blue CMYK Reflex Blue RGB Reflex Blue For the best results speak to your customer service advisor or account manager and find out how the job has been quoted (i.e. full colour, spot colour or both) and they will be able to advise you on the best colour format for your artwork. the essential artwork guide 5

8 fonts This is an example of how type can appear if elements of the font are missing Fonts can be tricky. If you have created your artwork using a font that we don t hold in our extensive font library, we will be unable to output your job. It is important that you include the relevant fonts when you send us your artwork. The best way to do this is to perform a collect for output or package your job. This will create a folder that contains your document, all the links (i.e. graphics and images) and your fonts. There are licensing laws that prevent you from sharing your fonts with other users, as each set must be purchased for individual use. However we do not take copies of your fonts for personal use and therefore no laws are broken. The supplied fonts are used for the express and sole purpose of outputting your job and then discarded. Another way around the font issue is to convert all your text to paths. This removes the font information from the document and treats the text as a vector graphic. Remember, if you choose this route you must save a copy of your document with the fonts first, as once the text has been converted to paths and the document saved you will be unable to undo this or edit any of your text. ALWAYS create two separate documents so you can go back and edit your text if needed. Once you ve got the hang of converting text to paths it can double your design repertoire. It enables you to use text as a box which you can then insert images into and apply striking effects. Be warned: if you don t follow either of the above routes when supplying your artwork you could receive an entire job with missing text, uneven line endings and even worse, printed in the ultimate substitute font - courier!!! 6 the essential artwork guide

9 images Resolution. What is it? In simple terms its the number of dots within an area or line, usually dots per inch (dpi) or pixels per inch (ppi), to be used when printing the image. You can resample an image to change the number of pixels and therefore the size or resolution of the image, but they must maintain a consistent relationship. As size is increased the resolution decreases and vice versa. If you attempt to increase the resolution independently of the size you are in effect just cloning existing pixels, this will not increase the quality of the image. The higher the dpi the better the quality of the image when printing. By taking images from websites, not only are you breaking copyright laws if you don t own the originals (tut tut), but you are also more than likely downloading a low resolution image. Web designers decrease image size and resolution to around 72dpi to make viewing them on the internet speedier. This is suitable for screen viewing (known as screen resolution) but the results for printing are disappointing and will often lead to pixelation of the image. Here at Severn we require a minimum resolution of 300dpi for Litho printing. We can produce suitable results with less resolution for Digital printing. Once you have your 300dpi image, it must be placed at no more than 100% size in your document. A 300dpi image placed at 150% actually decreases the print resolution to only 200dpi. Remember the size and resolution are relative, as the size goes up the resolution comes down. If you are packaging or collecting your fonts using the software you can tick the option to do the same with your images. This will avoid the problem of missing images, please always make sure you include all of the files you ve used. Low resolution image High resolution image Vector images aren t resolution dependent, which is why we encourage their use wherever possible. For example if you have a logo as a vector graphic, you can resize the image to print at almost any size without the quality deteriorating. the essential artwork guide 7

10 file formats People often ask which format they should save their document in? The best rule is to stick to the native file format for the software you are using. i.e..indd file for InDesign;.qxd file for Quark;.ai file for Illustrator;.psd file for Photoshop etc. If you are supplying a print ready PDF (see pg10) then obviously you will need to save your file as a.pdf. When supplying logos or graphics that will be applied over the top of allover solid colours or in some cases over images, it is best to supply them as vector graphics as these naturally have a transparent background and you won t have to contend with the white box area around the placed logo/ graphic. You can create a transparent background within your Photoshop images using cutting paths but these must be created and saved correctly or alternatively using a layered.psd file. You can supply images in almost any format as we can convert them for you, but remember the rules around colour conversion and check with us first, as in some cases you may incur extra charges. We advise that you resave all your images as CMYK 300dpi.tiff files before placing them in your artwork. For those of you that design for both print and web, don t fall into bad habits by using your web files in your print artwork. Where possible avoid supplying files as.png,.gif etc. 8 the essential artwork guide

11 use of FSC logo The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo serves to identify the paper used to print your job as coming from an FSC approved source. There are strict limitations on the reproduction of the FSC trademark and associated logos. However, provided that the following guidelines are adhered to, approval of the usage of the FSC logo should be straightforward. We hold a variety of FSC logos whose use is dependant on the paper stock selected and its credentials. All the logos consist of the essential elements including the Severn certificate registration code. The logo must be reproduced at a minimum size of 10mm from the top of the tree to the bottom of the lettering. The logo must be as clear and distinct as possible using either black or a dark colour on a white or light coloured background, or reversed out in white of a black or dark coloured background. There is quite a lot of flexibility in how the logo is composed and we can supply both horizontal and vertical versions for you to include in your artwork. Alternatively, we can add the logo to your artwork once it has been supplied as long as enough space has been allowed. You cannot use any of Severns supplied FSC logos when using any other printer. For further information about FSC papers or for a copy of our recommended paper swatch contact your customer service advisor. Support responsible management of the world s forests. the essential artwork guide 9

12 PDF s The invention of the PDF has been both a joy and a horror for Severn. It has enabled us, through varying technologies, to send customers proofs without the need to print and post them, keeping their costs and our environmental impact down to a minimum. A PDF that has been created correctly can be output in a quarter of the time of standard artwork. If however, the PDF is not what we call print ready and requires intervention from our mac operators, or editing by the customer themselves, the process can be lengthened indefinitely. The intention of the pdf workflow is for the customer to provide a print ready PDF that includes bleed and crop marks (see pg4) and is high resolution. The file must also be proof passed by the client so as to minimise the chance of there being any amendments. Your PDF must be centred with crop marks, all fonts must be embedded, images must be a minimum of 300dpi, no RGB or LAB colour profiles and all pages must be supplied as single pages not spreads or printers pairs. Where possible we will avoid making amendments to PDF s as we risk the introduction of errors by altering the file. For further help producing PDF s contact your customer service assistant. 10 the essential artwork guide

13 checklist While creating, or before supplying your artwork, check through this simple list to make sure you haven t missed anything. correct document size min. 3mm bleed correct colour mode package fonts high resolution images crop marks print ready PDF the essential artwork guide 11

14 jargon buster Artwork. Original illustrative copy or layout ready for reproduction at prepress stage. Author s Corrections. Corrections made by the author on page proofs, that alter the original copy. The cost of making such alterations are charged by the printer, in contrast to printer s errors or house corrections. Bleed. The part of an image that extends beyond the Trim Marks on a page. CMYK. Letters which stand for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (K). K is used for black to eliminate confusion with blue. Full colour printed images are made up of these component colours. Colour Mark Up. Specifications on a piece of artwork to a printer, showing the required colours for the item to be printed. Colour Separation. Division of colour into basic elements eg CMYK or flat pantone by a process of scanning or page make-up from a computer. Separate printing plates are needed for each colour. Crop Marks. Small lines that show the document edge essential for register and trim. Desktop Publishing. (DTP) The creation of artwork and print from your computer. Requires special software and a fairly powerful PC or Apple Macintosh. Dot. The basic element of halftone. DPI. Dots per inch which indicate the resolution of images. Duotone. A photograph printed using two colours. EPS. Encapsulated Postscript File. A file format that can be read across different programmes. Fit. The alignment and registration of individual images or plates within a page. Folio. Page numbers. Font. A set of letters, numbers and symbols that share a unified design. The design is called a typeface. Four Colour process. A method of printing in full colour by colour separation producing four colour plates for printing in cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Graduation. The smooth transition from one tone or colour to another, or the range of values between black and white. Halftone. Process by which continuous tone is simulated by a pattern of dots of varying size. Impose or Imposition. To arrange pages so that when the sheet is folded the text will read continuously. JPEG. Joint Photographic Experts Group. A type of file format. Layout. Overall design of a piece of printed work. Machine Proof. A proof of the job from the printing press. Monochrome. An image made up of varying tones in one colour (also duotone). OPI. A process in which low resolution files are replaced automatically by high resolution files. 12 the essential artwork guide

15 Original. Any matter or image intended for reproduction. Pagination. The term given to numbering the pages of a book. Pantone matching system (PMS). A registered trade name, system of colour matching used in computer software, paper and inks. PDF. Portable Document Format. A type of file format. Plate. A sheet of metal holding the image from which an impression is produced. Postscript. A registered trade mark of Adobe Inc., It is a page description language which describes the content and layout of a page. Process Colours. The printing inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. RGB. 3 colour split (red, green, blue). RIP. Raster Image Processing. Making the dots that make up a halftone from a page description language such as postscript. Register Marks. A set of fine line crosses or other suitable devices added to original artwork to provide reference points for accurate subsequent multi-colour printing or finishing. Resolution. The efficiency of a computer graphic in reproducing fine detail. Retouching. Methods of altering the image on a computer or physical artwork, photography to change or alter an image. Repro. Pre-press camera work, scanning and film make-up. Sans Serif. Term used to classify a wide range of typefaces as those which are devoid of finishing strokes. Screen Ruling. The number of lines per inch (or centimetre) on a halftone or tint screen, equal to the number of dots per inch on the printed image. Serif. Short stroke at the ends of stems, arms and tails of characters. Severn. Call or us at info@severnprint.co.uk Spot Colour. A colour that is printed not using four colour printing, but printed using self-coloured inks such as Pantone. Swatch. A colour specimen. TIFF. Tagged Image File Format. A type of file format. Tint. The effect of the mixture of white to a solid colour or the effect achieved by breaking up colour into a percentage using dots, which allow white paper to show through. Trim Marks. Marks incorporated on a printed sheet, which indicate where the paper is to be cut or trimmed. Typography. The design and layout of type. X-height. The mean height of lower case letters, such as c, e, o and x. SEVERN Ashville Industrial Estate Bristol Road, Gloucester GL2 5EU T F E info@severnprint.co.uk

16 DESIGN & ARTWORK MAILING & FULFILMENT DISPLAY PRINT CROSS MEDIA TRADITIONAL PRINT PERSONALISED PRINT SEVERN Ashville Industrial Estate Bristol Road, Gloucester GL2 5EU T F E info@severnprint.co.uk