About one order in six is delayed because the artwork was not ready for print. None of the fixes are difficult, and all of them are faster before the sample than after.
Start from our dieline
Ask for the dieline before you design. It shows cut lines, fold lines, glue areas and the safe zone for text. Artwork built on a guessed template almost always needs to be moved.
Add 3 mm bleed
Backgrounds and images must extend 3 mm past every cut line. Keep text and logos at least 3 mm inside it, and 5 mm away from folds on rigid boxes, where the wrap turns over the board edge.
Work in CMYK and name your Pantones
Convert images to CMYK and set brand colours as named Pantone spot colours. A logo left in RGB will print duller than it looks on screen.
Outline fonts, embed images
Convert text to outlines and embed linked images at 300 dpi or higher. Send a PDF together with the editable AI file.
Put finishes on separate layers
Foil, spot UV and embossing each need their own layer, drawn in solid black and named clearly. That is what the tooling is made from.
Our prepress team checks every file against this list at no charge and sends back a marked-up proof within one working day.