Artwork files and Completed Designs submitted to ProtoPrint or Brant Service Press for printing are assumed to be accurate and complete as supplied. As the customer, it is your responsibility to submit files for every part of your job. Our setup costs do not include time to create missing parts of your projects. It is also your responsibility to proof your layouts; any corrections that need to be made after we receive your files may result in additional charges.
We will check your supplied files and correct any minor technical errors to ensure they are ready for print production. If there are significant problems with your files, we will work with you to address them. You will always receive a proof to review before we print your work.
Our goal is to help you get the best possible final product and sometimes that means questioning the quality of the files we receive. This is done to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the final product that you receive.
COMMON QUESTIONS
WHAT IS BLEED?
Bleed is the printed area that extends beyond the finished size of your work. We require 1/8” bleed area on all sides. For example, if your flyer is 8.5 x 11” and you want the background colour or image to go right to the edges, the artwork will need to be 8.75 x 11.25” (your required 8.5 x 11” PLUS 1/8” on all four sides). This additional 1/8” will be trimmed off to give you your desired finished size. If your background is red, the red will need to extend the full 8.75” x 11.25”. Once the job is printed and trimmed, you will end up with an 8.5” x 11” flyer with the red colour ‘bleeding’ off all four sides. The same applies if using a background image. The image MUST extend the full 8.75 x 11.25”. When using background images, keep in mind that 1/8” will be trimmed off on all sides. Please position background images accordingly.
WHAT IS A SAFE AREA?
A safe area will ensure that all your important information is intact once a job has been trimmed. If you supply an artwork with type or images placed too close to the edge, there’s a risk that it will be inadvertently chopped off during the trimming process. Please ensure all relevant text and images (with the exception of background images) are placed at least 1/8” from the finished edge of your artwork.
IS IT OK TO USE INTERNET IMAGES IN MY ARTWORK?
Artwork created for the web should not be used for printed work, because the Web and commercial printing have substantially different needs. For commercial printing, you want a lot of technical data: images should be 300 ppi, uncompressed, in CMYK color. For the Web, you want your images as small as possible for quick downloading: 72 ppi, compressed, in RGB or indexed color. If you use one of these tiny Web images in your printed work, images will be very pixilated or “jagged”, and the color quality will be poor. Your logo may look great on your website, but asking us to download that image to use on your business cards will not give you the result you’re after and it will not be the quality of work that we pride ourselves in providing.
WHAT PROGRAMS SHOULD I USE TO CREATE MY ART?
When being supplied ‘ready to print’ art, we would prefer to receive a high resolution PDF.
When that’s not possible, we accept artworks created in Quark Xpress, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, CorelDRAW. PLEASE ensure that all images and fonts are present. When possible, we recommend converting text to curves when supplying ‘ready to print’ art. This will reduce the risk of text problems. If we need to edit the text, however, you will need to supply the font. When in doubt, make a list of which fonts were used in the document and we will be able to let you know which ones, if any, we’ll need you to send. To expedite the printing of your job, we recommend sending all fonts as a precaution.
We will not use word processing programs such as Microsoft Word to create artworks, nor are we willing to work with such files. If you’ve created your artwork in such a program, you’ll need to convert it to PDF before sending.
WHAT ABOUT MY NOVEL?
Unlike for other artworks, Microsoft Word is a perfectly acceptable format for supplying your manuscript. We will format it into the correct page size for your book and send you a PDF proof before printing.
WHAT IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS?
We are happy to address any additional questions you may have regarding submission of your files. Please contact us with your inquiries.
