Electronic File Preparation and Submission Guide

This guide will help you prepare and submit your electronic files for manufacturing. Following these guidelines ensures a smooth process and helps avoid delays. If you encounter a problem not covered here or have other questions, please contact us directly. Improperly prepared files can significantly delay production.

We have prepared the following guide to assist you with your electronic file preparation and submission. If you have a specific problem that is not covered in this guide, or have other questions, please feel free to contact us. Improperly prepared files can cause delays in manufacturing.

Quick Checklist

• All fonts are included.
• Type is legible and crisp.
• Page layout is correct.
• Margins are set.
• Artwork matches the specified dimensions.
• All linked files, images, and fonts are placed in separate folders.
• Colors are in CMYK mode.

Bleeds
To prevent unwanted white spaces or borders, add a 1/8-inch border to all pictures and designs that extend to the edge of your artwork (known as "bleeds"). Also, keep all text at least 1/4 inch away from the paper's edge or the trim line to avoid accidental cropping.

Color Specifications
Print previews are not reliable for assessing color accuracy. Factors like monitor calibration, screen resolution, and lighting can significantly affect how colors appear on your screen. Many Pantone colors also show a noticeable shift when converted to four-color process (CMYK).

For one, two, or three-color jobs using Pantone spot colors, ensure your colors are specified as spot colors and separate correctly. You can test this by printing separations on your laser printer.

For accurate color reproduction on press and high-quality output, all digital file colors must reflect accurate color models and percentages. Please ensure all colors are in CMYK mode for optimal color accuracy.

Image Resolutions

• All images and pictures should be 300 dpi.
• Rasterized text or logos should be 1200 dpi.
• Screen values should be between 133 lpi and 150 lpi.

Guidelines by Application
The following outlines specific file requirements for different applications. For any questions, please contact our graphics department.

Adobe Photoshop

• Files should be 300 dpi at 100% of actual size for quality offset reproduction.
• Files should be saved in PDF format (embed all fonts and set the screen value to 133 lpi).

Digital Proofs
We provide PDF files as electronic soft proofs. These digital proofs are intended to show you the layout and design elements of your job, but they cannot guarantee color accuracy. If color accuracy is critical for your project, please request a hard copy proof.

Scan all transparencies and line art at 100% of final size unless the data size becomes prohibitive. In such cases, scan at 1/4 or 1/2 of the final size.