How to prepare artwork for professional printing

Start with the final size, not the screen

Set up the document at the exact finished size of the printed piece, for example 210 × 297 mm for an A4 flyer. Resizing a design after it has been built is the most common reason text ends up too small or too close to the edge.

Printers cut large sheets down to size, and the blade never lands in exactly the same place. Two settings protect your design from that small movement.

Bleed and safe margin

Bleed is background colour or imagery that extends beyond the finished edge so there is no thin white line if the cut is slightly off. A bleed of 3 mm on every side is the usual starting point, but some printers ask for more, so confirm it.

The safe margin works the other way: keep logos, headlines, phone numbers and anything important at least 3 to 5 mm inside the trim line. Text placed right on the edge risks being clipped.

• Trim line: where the paper will be cut.
• Bleed: artwork that runs 3 mm or more past the trim line.
• Safe area: where all essential text and logos should stay.

Resolution: why a web image looks blurry in print

Screens are forgiving; paper is not. For a sharp result, photos and raster graphics should be roughly 300 pixels per inch at the size they will be printed. A photo that is 1200 pixels wide is fine at 10 cm wide (about 300 ppi) but will look soft if stretched across a 30 cm poster.

Never enlarge a small image in your design software to make it fit. That adds pixels without adding detail. Go back to the original file, or use a vector version when one exists. Logos in particular should be supplied as vector files so they stay crisp at any size.

RGB versus CMYK

Phones and monitors create colour from red, green and blue light (RGB). Commercial printers mix cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink (CMYK). Some saturated RGB colours, especially vivid blues, greens and oranges, cannot be reproduced exactly in CMYK, so they print duller than they looked on screen.

Design print work in CMYK from the beginning so you see the real colours while you work. If your brand has an exact colour, give the printer its CMYK values or a Pantone reference, and ask for a printed proof if the colour matters.

Black, text and fonts

For body text and thin lines, use a single black ink value rather than a mix of all four inks, which can look fuzzy if the plates are slightly misaligned. Large solid black areas can use a richer mix; ask your printer what they recommend.

If you send an editable file, include the fonts or convert text to outlines, otherwise the printer's computer may substitute a different font. The simplest option is to export a PDF with fonts embedded.

Exporting and checking the file

Most printers prefer a press-ready PDF. Export at full quality with bleed included and, if the printer asks for them, crop marks. Open the exported PDF and zoom in on every edge and every piece of small text before sending it.

• Document is the exact finished size, with bleed added.
• Important text sits inside the safe margin.
• Images are about 300 ppi at print size.
• Colour mode is CMYK, and brand colours are specified.
• Fonts are embedded or converted to outlines.
• Spelling, phone numbers, prices and dates are proofread by a second person.

Ask the printer first

Every print shop has its own machines, paper and tolerances. A two-minute message asking for their bleed, colour mode, accepted file types and preferred PDF settings will save a reprint. If you are buying a template from the marketplace, check that the listing includes print-ready formats before you download.