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When preparing artwork for print, it is essential to know what you’re doing. If you supply the artwork incorrectly, you will delay your project and most likely incur additional fees. There are a few errors that even designers make when producing artwork.

Supplying artwork without bleed – Most people don’t know what bleed is or why it’s important. However, this is design for print 101. Bleed is that “overspill” of your artwork that is usually 3 or 5mm on each side. Bleed is necessary because when an automated guillotine cuts the paper to size, you don’t want your text chopped off and you don’t want any white edges showing.

Using the RGB colour profile – This is probably the most common design mistake of them all. When you supply artwork, ensure that it is CMYK and not RGB colours. The RGB colour profile is for screen (computer monitors etc) and the CMYK colour profile is for print. The printer will use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black plates in order to output the design. In many cases, if you try to convert an RGB image to CMYK before printing, there will be a visible colour difference.

Not supplying fonts with the artwork - There is no better way to delay your job than to forget that your printer will need accurate fonts. Assuming that your printer will have the font that you have used is a big mistake. If artwork is created in programs such as Illustrator and Quark, it will be necessary to either convert the text to outlines or supply the fonts used in the design.

Using low resolution images – Sometimes a designer will sneak a 72 dpi image in with the rest of the 300 dpi design. If the image is small, like a logo, they (or you) might think that they can get away with it. Often, the results will be a pixelated mess. Low resolution images taken from web pages are not suitable for print. Always select images that are originally 300 dpi and do not try to increase the resolution of 72dpi image to 300 dpi in Photoshop.

Of course, any experienced designer should not make the mistakes above. If you don’t have a design background, being aware of these issues from the outset will save you and your printer a lot of time. It is always good to double check that your artwork does comply before sending it off for print.