How to prepare your artwork — Step by Step guides

Follow these steps to ensure your artwork is set up correctly and will print exactly as you intend.

Step 1: Set up your document to the correct size

Create a new document at the exact finished size of your product. For example, for a standard business card the finished size is 90 × 55mm. Check the product page for the exact dimensions required.

Add 2mm of bleed on all sides, making your overall document size 94 × 59mm for a business card. Bleed is the extra artwork that extends beyond the trim edge — it prevents white edges appearing after cutting. See Bleed in the glossary for more detail.

Step 2: Work in CMYK colour mode

Set your document's colour mode to CMYK. Commercial printing uses the four CMYK inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). If you work in RGB, colours may shift when converted for print — particularly bright or fluorescent colours. See Colour Modes for more detail.

Step 3: Use high-resolution images

All images in your document must be at least 300 DPI (dots per inch) at the final print size. Low-resolution images — such as images downloaded from websites (typically 72 DPI) — will appear blurry or pixelated when printed.

To check if an image is high enough resolution: divide its pixel dimensions by 300 to get the maximum print size in inches, then multiply by 25.4 to convert to millimetres.

Step 4: Keep important content within the safe zone

Keep all important content (text, logos, key images) at least 2mm from the trim edge. Trimming can vary by up to 2mm, so anything too close to the edge risks being cut off.

Step 5: Outline fonts (or embed them)

If your design application supports it, outline all fonts before saving your PDF. This converts text to outlines so it prints exactly as designed, regardless of whether the font is installed on our system. If you cannot outline fonts, ensure they are embedded in your PDF.

Step 6: Do not include printer's marks

We do not require crop marks, registration marks, colour bars or any other printer's marks. Please turn these off when exporting. Instead, simply include the bleed amount in your file name — for example: My_Design_2mmBleed.pdf.

Step 7: Save as PDF

Export your finished document as a PDF file. We only accept PDF format. Use a print-quality export preset (PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 are ideal). Ensure images are embedded and fonts are embedded or outlined.