For best results please supply your files as:

• Format: PDF saved in ‘press quality’, ‘PDF/X-1A’, or ‘for printing’ settings

• Layout: Individual pages in reading order 

• Safe Margin: 4mm  

• Bleed: 3mm (edge to edge colour printing only)

Format

Our ideal file type is a PDF saved in ‘press quality’ settings. Press quality means fonts are embedded and all colours are converted to CMYK, and so it’s the most reliable way to print what you see on screen.

Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) are not reliable to print from, as they can change layouts and fonts on different computers. To make a PDF please click ‘Save As’ and select PDF for the file type. In Excel you might have to print to a PDF (choose PDF as the printer) to make a file that we can use. Please check your PDF to make sure it looks correct before sending it to us. 

We only use PDFs, so any other file type has to go through a conversion process, which takes extra time and might change the fonts, images, colours or layout. 

For posters (A2+) that are images (eg: photographs or art), we’d prefer RGB JPEG or TIFF files.

Layout

Please save your file as individual pages in reading order, and don’t arrange it for printing in any way.

For an 8-page booklet, page 1 would be the front outside cover, page 2 would be the front inside cover, and page 8 would be back outside cover.

For 20 A6 table names, please give us either a 20-page PDF or 20 individual files

We don’t actually print on A4, so it’s not helpful to have files arranged on an A4 sheet.

Please also don’t put any fold lines or cutting lines in your design, as they are not needed and won’t look good when printed.

Safe Margin

It’s best to have a safe margin of at least 4mm+ on each side of your design. This means not putting any important text or borders too close to the edge of the sheet, otherwise they risk getting cut off.

For posters and signage, the safe margin needs to be 10mm, and for PVC banners it needs to be 40mm (so that no part of the design is covered by the eyelets). 

Bleed

If you’d like colour printing edge to edge (known as ‘full bleed’), your PDF must be saved with 3mm bleed. This is not really possible to do in Microsoft Office documents, you need to use a design program like Adobe Indesign, CorelDRAW, or Canva. 

3mm bleed means that the page size of your PDF must be larger by 6mm on each dimension. It should just consist of background only, as it will be cut off.

As an example, Business Cards measure 85 x 55mm, so we need a PDF with a page size of 61 x 91mm, which we cut down to 85 x 55mm:

We can print large posters at any size, but for everything else our workflow is based on standard international paper sizes, and it’s best to stick to these:

A0: 841 x 1189mm (with bleed = 847 x 1195mm)

A1: 594 x 841mm (with bleed = 600 x 847mm)

A2: 420 x 594mm (with bleed = 426 x 600mm)

A3: 297 x 420mm (with bleed = 303 x 426mm)

A4: 210 x 297mm (with bleed = 216 x 303mm)

A5: 210 x 148mm (with bleed = 216 x 154mm)

A6: 148 x 105mm (with bleed = 154 x 111mm)

A7: 105 x 74mm (with bleed = 111 x 80mm)

Business card: 85x55mm (with bleed = 91x61mm)

If any of this is too technical, we can try to help, as long as no text is too close to the edge. For best results please keep plenty of blank space (background) around the edge of your design, because this will be trimmed off.