When you order custom posters, roll up banner stands or other custom products, you will be asked to upload a PDF file containing your layout. All of these products have downloadable templates for you to set up your artwork. To make sure that your PDF can be printed properly, it must meet certain quality criteria. If a PDF file looks good on screen and prints nicely on your home printer, that is no guarantee that it will also print properly on a printing press.
There are international standards that specify how a PDF file can meet the requirements for professional printing. Our guidelines are inspired by such a standard: the GWG_SheetSpotHires_1v4 specifications for general offset and digital printing. By meeting these guidelines, you are sure your document can be printed properly, and because we need to spend less time altering or correcting the file, it will move faster through our shop.
General guidelines
Pages
- Your PDF files must contain all the pages that need to be printed. These pages must be in the correct order. The document size should be the same as the trim size of the final piece.
- All the pages within the PDF document must have the same size.
- There should be no empty pages. Pages may not contain annotations (sticky notes) in the area that will be printed.
- If the design calls for images or color bleeds, there should be a minimum of 3 mm or .125 inches on all sides of that trim.
- The recommended PDF file format is PDF/X. We accept either PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 files. Professional page layout applications such as Adobe InDesign and Illustrator can export layouts using this file format.
Images
- 1-bit images sometimes referred to as line-art, should have a resolution of at least 550 PPI. Ideally, the resolution is 800 ppi or higher.
- Grayscale and color images should have a resolution of at least 150 ppi. Ideally, the resolution is 225 ppi or higher.
- The above guidelines do not apply to small images that are less than 64 pixels wide or high, such as icons.
- Convert all images to CMYK
Text
- All fonts should be embedded or outlined in the PDF file.
- The ‘Courier’ font should not be used in the PDF since this font is often used as the default substitution font if the application that generates the PDF document does not have access to all fonts. It is no problem to use other Courier variations, such as ‘Courier New’.
- All 100% black text that is smaller than 10 points should be set to overprint.
- The white text should not be set to overprint since this would make the text invisible on the printed page.
- Text cannot be smaller than 5 points. If text is colored, it should not be smaller than 8 points since it is very difficult to print such text with all the colors aligned properly.
- If the text contains at least 85% black and also contains cyan, magenta, and yellow, the total ink coverage should not exceed 280%.
Lines
- White lines or paths should not be set to overprint to avoid them not being visible on the printed page.
- Black lines with a thickness of fewer than 2 points thick should be set to overprint.
- Colored lines should have a thickness of at least 0.25 points. If they are colored with just one process color, they should be at least 0.124 points thick.
Colour
- The total ink area coverage should not exceed 320% for any square surface that is larger than 15 mm.
Application-specific guidelines
Adobe Photoshop
Please do not create documents in Adobe Photoshop. Unless you are very careful, the text is stored as an image in a Photoshop document. This causes it to be printed slightly blurred. Editing images in Photoshop for inclusion in a layout is obviously no problem!
Adobe Illustrator
When possible, please outline all your fonts.