How to get your artwork print ready

Creating beautiful artwork, like anything in life, starts with preparation. To ensure your artwork is print-ready and turns out exactly how you want it, follow these simple steps:

Top Tips for Print Prep:

Format, Format, Format

The best format for sending artwork to a printer is a PDF (Portable Document Format). PDFs are ideal because they preserve high-quality artwork while keeping the file size manageable.

If you’re working with a design agency, they will likely provide the file in a PDF format. However, if you’re creating your own, this may be new to you. On Word, simply go to File, select Save As, choose PDF as the file type and click Save.

Leave Space for Bleed

If your artwork reaches the edge of the page, leave a bleed area—typically 3-5mm—around the edges. This allows for slight movements during printing.

Adjust for PUR Bound Books

PUR (Polyurethane Reactive) binding uses glue to hold the book’s pages together. This type of binding doesn’t allow the book to open flat without risking damage. To avoid issues with images or text crossing the spine, make adjustments to your design.

Avoid placing important visuals or text near the spine, as alignment across the spine can be tricky. If your design requires text or images that stretch across the spine, allow a 6mm gap on the inside front cover and the first page of text. While this may seem odd at first, it ensures better alignment. For read-across pages within the book, shift each page by 3mm. Remember, the binding process may cause slight movement, so perfect alignment isn’t always guaranteed.

Embed Your Fonts

Ensure your fonts are embedded or converted to vector paths. This step guarantees:

  • Brand consistency
  • A stable layout
  • The ability for the printer to use the correct fonts (even if they don’t have them in their system)

Save in CMYK

Save your artwork as a single-layer CMYK image. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is ideal for printed materials, as it controls the application of color through ink placement.

Once you’re ready, send the file to your printer and await the final product!