Artwork Guidelines & Helpful Tips
Artwork Guidelines
If you are unsure if your design is ‘artwork’ ready, just email us your logo or design, explain your requirements and we’ll be happy to help and advise. However, if you have artwork already produced, we have provided the following information and guidelines to help you get the most out of your design.
Cutline
We use a specific cut line for all of our stickers and we ask that you use our cut line where possible when submitting your own designs by email.
Bleed
Any parts of the design which are intended to print to the trimmed edge of the sticker should be extended 1mm beyond the cut line to give a ‘bleed’ (which allows for tolerance in the production process).
Fonts
In most cases, fonts are not required in the artwork as any text on the sticker will not change. To make things simple, please convert all text to outlines (curves) when sending sticker designs to us by email.
If you do need to include the font, we have a large library on our system. You might want to check with us when submitting your order if your design uses a rare or obscure font. If it is not subject to any licensing then why not attach the font with your artwork and we will add it to our collection.
If you supply us with a particular font and point size we can replicate this. However, make sure that when you design your own sticker it is created actual size otherwise point sizes will be meaningless.
Submitting Files
We can accept logos and designs via email in almost any format, but if the sticker has been designed using a vector based program it is always best to prevent rasterising the design. As such, our preferred file formats are listed below:
- .eps
Other common file formats include:
- .jpg
- .jpeg
- .doc
- .pub
As previously mentioned, we can open almost anything.
Colours
Your labels or banners will be printed using a CMYK process. These four colours combine together to make up every colour that you see in your artwork when printed.
No matter what program you are using, we ask that you use the CMYK colour format for your artwork. If you are to use any special colours within your artwork, ensure these are Pantone® colours only.
Colour Differentials
There are many different kinds of monitors and also manufacturers, each have their advantages and disadvantages. What we see on our screen is very close to what gets printed. When we send you a PDF file for approval, it is more than likely there will be some colour shift, how much, depends how far out of calibration your monitor is. If you have a colour critical job, the ONLY way to ensure that it looks as intended is to pay for a small number before going for the whole order, otherwise you will need to go with what you see on screen and appreciate there might be some difference. You can avoid some of these issues if you are using spot colours in your artwork.
Using Pantone® Spot colours
If you have a colour critical job and want us to produce a colour accurately, you will need to setup your artwork using Pantone® spot colours. You will need an application that will support spot colours such as CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. We will use the CMYK Pantone® matching system to print your labels or banners. Please note that there are many Pantone® colours that cannot be matched in CMYK colours. If you use a Pantone® colour that cannot be matched, it will be converted to the nearest CMYK colour.