Getting Your Files Print-Ready

If any color or image touches the edge of your finished piece, extend it 0.125" past the trim on all four sides. A 5" x 7" postcard is built as a 5.25" x 7.25" file.

Cutting has a small natural tolerance. Bleed keeps a thin white sliver from showing up along an edge. If your design has a white border all the way around, you don't need bleed.

Text, logos, phone numbers — anything you can't afford to lose stays at least 0.125" in from the finished edge so it can't be trimmed off.

That's 300 DPI at the size the piece actually prints, not at whatever size the image opens on your screen. An image pulled off a website is usually 72 DPI and will look soft and blocky in print. Posters and banners are the exception — see those pages.

Your screen shows color in RGB and can display colors ink can't physically reproduce. Bright blues, vivid oranges, and neon greens shift the most. Convert to CMYK before sending so you see the shift and can adjust, rather than being surprised by the printed result.

Need an exact brand color? Send us the Pantone (PMS) number.

Export as PDF/X-1a or Press Quality. Outline or embed fonts, embed images, flatten transparencies. We accept native Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop files, but a properly exported PDF is faster and leaves less room for surprises.