Basic Artwork Setup
General rules of thumb to keep in mind no matter what type of order you will be producing.
We recommend that you supply your artwork in a PDF format. This is one of the most secure formats and required by every printer you will encounter.
Bleed
A minimum of 2 to 3mm print bleed is required on all edges (see image above). Paper stretches, expands and moves throughout the print process. If we do not have bleed you will run the risk of having nasty white edges when the document is cut to its final size.
Margins
Please do not supply information any closer than 3mm from the edge of the document otherwise you will run the risk of it being cut off when we trim the document to size.
Crop Marks
Always supply crop marks (see image above) this allows us to determine what the final document size needs to be you will need to offset your crop marks to 2.117mm when exporting your PDF. This can be found on the “Mark and Bleeds” panel. Please do not supply centre registration marks. As pretty as they are they are a nightmare to deal with.
Creep
For saddle stitched documents only, the thicker the document the more the centre pages start to ‘creep’ out. This is an unavoidable occurrence so it is best to speak to us about your order directly.
Gutter
For perfect bound books when you open the document you will have a certain amount of visual area lost on the left hand margin. Once again it is best to speak to us if you are concerned and we can advise you on how much margin to allow for your order.
Adobe PDF Print Export Settings
