Artwork Setup and Graphic Design

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Simply Print offers professional design services to help you bring your print project to life. Whether you need a business card, brochure or sign, we have the experience and talent to impress!

Supplying your own artwork

Simply Print takes pride in checking and recommending adjustments to your supplied artwork where possible to help make your print job simple and stress free.

Artwork set up and guidelines

File Format

All files supplied as print ready artwork must be saved in PDF format with CMYK colours, fonts embedded or converted to outlines, a minimum of 2mm bleed and images preferably at 300dpi or higher resolution. Other file types such as jpg, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Word Documents are not print ready and require additional prepress work to convert to a print ready format, which will incur additional costs. PowerPoint and Publisher files cannot be used and must be saved in PDF format before supplying to Simply Print (Print output quality from these programs cannot be guaranteed).

Bleed & Margins

Bleed is the buffer zone around your artwork that allows for artwork to print to the edge of the product. Simply Print requires a minimum of 2mm bleed on standard printing and 5mm on books and wide format jobs. Any background colours or images that are placed on the edge of the page must be extended past the page edge to the appropriate bleed margin.

For the same reason that bleed is required, a safe area margin inside the trim size is required to ensure that no important information gets trimmed off. The minimum margin is 3mm but we recommend 4mm.

Colour

Like all commercial printers, we require your file to be in CMYK format. RGB colours are not supported and when converted to CMYK, they can lose their vibrancy. For this reason, all artwork should be supplied in CMYK to minimise variation in colour from what is expected and what is produced. If your artwork is RGB and converted by Simply Print to CMYK, we cannot guarantee any consistency in the colours printed.

Image Resolution

For the best possible image quality, images used in your artwork should be 300dpi. Anything lower will result in a loss of clarity. Please note that saving a 100dpi image at 300dpi to achieve a larger size will not improve the quality of the final printed image.

Fonts

All fonts used in your artwork must be converted to curves/outlines in the print ready PDF. If a file is printed without fonts converted to curves/outlines there is a high chance that the appearance of the text will change.

Paper Sizes

At Simply Print, we like to advise the best paper size for your print project. Getting the size right can save you money and make the planning process easier.

Choosing the correct envelope is also vital to match your printed material.Sizes are listed below to help you decide easily.

The A Series paper sizes

The A series is the most widely used paper size and format for office stationery, business publications, as well as communication and promotional materials. It consists of a logical set of paper sizes that are defined by the International Standard for paper sizes ISO 216. In fact, you’ve most likely used an A series size paper many times, perhaps without realising it. A4, one of the formats in this series, is considered the most common paper size in the world outside the United States, Canada and Mexico. A0, the largest in this series, measures 841 x 1189 mm.

A Series	Size
A0	841 x 118.9 mm
A1	594 x 841 mm
A2	420 x 594 mm
A3	297 x 420 mm
A4	210 x 297 mm
A5	148 x 210 mm
A6	105 x 148 mm
A7	74 x 105 mm
A8	52 x 74 mm
A9	37 x 52 mm
A10	26 x 37 mm

The B Series paper sizes

The C Series paper sizes

Other popular sizes

Type	Size
11B	90 x 250 mm
DL	110 x 220 mm
DLX	120 x 235 mm
C3	324 x 458 mm
C4	229 x 324 mm
C5	162 x 229 mm
C6	114 x 162 mm
C7	81 x 114 mm
C8	57 x 81 mm
C9	40 x 57 mm
C10	28 x 40 mm
B3	353 x 500 mm
B4	250 x 353 mm
B5	176 x 250 mm

C6 size envelope fits and A4 size sheet, or A3 folded in half.

C5 size envelope fits and A5 size sheet or A4 folded in half.

DL envelope fits and A4 folded in three parts.

Simply Print Templates

Simply Print templates are perfect if you want to supply your own artwork to us, and to ensure it’s “print ready”. Our templates can be downloaded and used with all professional graphic arts programs like Illustrator, Indesign or Freehand. Not suitable for Microsoft programs such as Publisher, Word or Excel. If you need any advice on how to supply your print ready artwork, please don’t hesitate to contact us.