Artwork Preparation Printing Guidelines

Ensuring your artwork is “print-ready” is a key aspect in making sure your print job with Lane Communications runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Having a “print-ready” file also helps us deliver the product result you are looking for to maintain your brand integrity.

If you have the background skills in file preparation, this can be an easy task. However, if you’re new to preparing files for professional print production, getting help from Lane Communications and our team of printing experts before submitting your file is advised. We have prepared the following guidelines below to assist but if you still have concerns, please feel free to get in touch with your Lane Communications Account Manager.

General guidelines for supplying print-ready artwork:

• High-resolution, press-ready PDF
• External bleed of at least 3mm (5mm for booklets)
• Include crop marks, fold marks
• Internal bleed of at least 3mm
• Image resolution of 300dpi
• Use of CMYK colours
• Text conversion to curves/outlines, or embedding of fonts
• Rich black is recommended C40, M30, Y30, K100; use plain 100% black for text

High-resolution, press-ready PDF

Adobe Illustrator files, Photoshop files, InDesign files, Microsoft Word docs, PowerPoint docs, Publisher docs, etc in their native formats are not print-ready files. PDFs are the only reliable and acceptable industry-standard format for print-ready files.

All pages for the job need to be supplied as single pages (not spreads) and within the same file.

Exceptions to the above rule are booklet covers that have a spine. This artwork should be set up as spreads with the appropriate spine-width allowed for in the overall page size. Allowances should also be made on the internal pages for the spine-width and an additional space to the left and right of the spine. For precise information on how to set this up, please contact your Lane Communications Account Manager.

Internal bleed of at least 3mm

Allowing for a minimum of 3mm internal bleed helps reduce the chance of any essential elements of your job being trimmed off during the printing process.

Include Crop marks and Fold marks

These inclusions are very helpful for us while the job is in production and by including crop marks, fold marks, and registration marks in your print-ready PDF it prevents any guesswork and ensures precise cutting.

Image resolution of 300dpi

In most cases to ensure any images print crisp and clear, make sure the image resolution is set to 300dpi at its printed size. There may be some exceptions to this rule depending on the desired job outcome so please discuss your job with your Lane Communications Account Manager. Make sure all images used have a CMYK colour profile.

Use CMYK colours

With the advancements in digital print technology, most print jobs are printed digitally in CMYK. There are exceptions to CMYK, such as envelopes, which are mostly printed in Spot or PMS colours. We can print PMS colours for other jobs, but it is rarely required, and best discussed with your Lane Communications Account Manager before preparing artwork.

Any special varnishes such as spot UV are to be identified as additional overprinting spot colours within the print-ready file.

Text conversion to curves/outlines, or embedding of fonts

Convert fonts to curves/outlines or embed them if you have the right to do so. This guarantees that the final printed product will be produced exactly as you intended.

Rich black is recommended C40, M30, Y30, K100; use plain 100% black for text

For large areas of black, we recommend using a rich black CMYK setting of C40, M30, Y30, K100 Rich black ensures the area prints dark and intense, rather than potentially washed out. However, use 100% black for text to avoid any misalignment issues.

Getting your file to Lane Communications

If your file is too large to email (over 10mb), you can upload and share it with us using an online file-sharing website such as WeTransfer. This process is safe, simple, and secure and will notify you when we have received and downloaded your file.

Assistance with preparing print-ready artwork

Artwork preparation is a specialised area and not everyone can be an expert. Software like Microsoft Office simply doesn’t have the capabilities to produce print-ready files and even industry-standard software packages like the Adobe Creative Cloud applications can be challenging to navigate without a background in design and artwork preparation.

If you would like some help from us at Lane Communications when preparing artwork for your next print job please get in touch and we will be happy to help.

These artwork preparation guidelines are available to download.