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.