File Setup

What Size should my document be?
All documents need to be final size with bleeds included.

How should my document be laid out?
Documents should be one up with  no imposition or duplicates. Double sided documents should be on separate pages or separate files.

What resolution should my pictures be?
300 DPI or dots per square inch is considered the gold standard of quality when creating images for print.  Anything lower may result in “pixalated” or jagged images and blurry text.

What are bleeds?
Bleeds are when your images/color appear as if they are bleeding off the page. When we print bleeds we need additional images/color to go past the cut. This allows us to cut into it without leaving any white left over. We have a resource tab dedicated to explaining document bleeds and how to create them. It can be found here.

What color space should I be creating and saving my document in?
Since commercial printers use four color process it is strongly recommended that the color space to use is CMYK.

File Types

What file format should I send?
PDF documents are the preferred file format. Usually what you see is what you get.

What is a PDF?
PDF stands for portable document format and is fully explained following this link.

What kind of PDF do you prefer?
We prefer a PDF/X-3. This format works well with our job flow and our digital printers. You can also use the Press Quality setting.

What other formats do you accept?
If you cannot create a PDF we also accept Jpeg, Pub**, PPT**, Doc**, Docx**, and all of the Adobe Creative Suite native files*.
*Please note that if you send native files please make sure you package all fonts and graphics before sending. **Reformatting may occur with any Microsoft office application.