File preparation
Practical guide to preparing files for digital print: PDF format, minimum resolution, CMYK colour space, colour profiles, bleeds and trim marks.
Working on Mac or PC makes no difference: the tips below apply to both.
Which format to send us
The best document for print is a high-resolution PDF (Acrobat 4.0 or later); we accept files of any kind anyway (or at least we try).
For layout we recommend:
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- CorelDRAW
If you lay things out in Word, Publisher or other office programs, you risk a noticeably lower print quality — especially on images.
Resolution and dimensions
Export the file at 1:1 scale with a resolution:
- no lower than 300 dpi for small format print
- no lower than 120 dpi for large format print
Colour
Digital cameras, scanners and monitors reproduce colour using the RGB space (red-green-blue, the primaries of visible light). Our printers, on the other hand, use CMYK inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, key/black) to reproduce colour.
This means many RGB colours visible on screen cannot be reproduced in print, especially particularly bright ones. Even Pantone colours are only partly reproducible in four-colour process (CMYK).
So: always work in the CMYK colour space.
Colour profiles
The colour profile is the file that translates your document for the print system.
- For RGB files use Adobe RGB (1998)
- For CMYK files use EuroScale or FOGRA
Bleeds and trims
Always leave a 3 mm bleed on all four sides for any element that runs to the edge of the page, and keep text and important elements 5 mm away from the trim.