It is necessary to follow a certain number of rules during development and submission of files in order to avoid potential problems, and so that a given job is executed as quickly and easily as possible. Following these simple rules will ensure your document is processed, printed and delivered without delay.
SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS
For design, use only graphic applications, namely: Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and QuarkXPress, and never programs like Word, PowerPoint, etc. Such applications have many limited elements and conducting the printing process after using them is difficult and uncertain.
COLORS
Before beginning with design, check if you are using the CMYK color palette and not some other (most common error is related to the use of the RGB color palette, thus a problem occurs, specifically, what you see on screen is not identical to what is printed).
RESOLUTION
One should be concerned about resolution only if PhotoShop is used, and in order to achieve the maximum visuals, it is necessary to work with a 300 dpi resolution at the ratio of 1:1.
DIMENSIONS
After defining what you wish to do, and after determining the file dimensions, it is necessary to add 3 millimeters to every side of the desired dimension.
For example, you are designing a business card which when cut needs to be 9cm x 5cm. It is then necessary to create the so-called “bleeds“ in such a way that you add 3mm to all four sides so that your business card will have dimensions 9.6cm x 5.6cm.
Also, all important textual and graphical elements should not be inserted at the very end of the design; rather, they should be inserted within the area where cutting is made to a desired dimension. If you have a background that needs to extend from edge to edge, it needs to extend within the 3mm margins.
Three millimeters should not be added only in case if that you do not have some background color or objects which extend to edges of the business card.
In general, this rule related to the dimensions of the document should ALWAYS be applied regardless of a specific product and the desired dimensions of the item being printed.
For all other questions related to preparation of files for print, contact operator:
+381 (11) 7150 748
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
PhotoShop
Do not submit the source file with a PSD extension if you are using Photoshop. Instead, save the file in PDF format (press quality).Corel Draw
If you are using Corel, it is not essential to save the document in some other format. You may submit it in the CDR format (it is only important to convert all text to curves, rather, do not submit the font. The best option is to submit it in the PDF format as “press quality”, and to adjust the size of the PDF document according to the page size in the CDR format.Adobe Illustrator
If you are using Illustrator, it is necessary to submit the document in the PDF format. It is possible to submit the file in the “ai” extended source file, but the fonts must be converted to curves, and the pictures must be embedded.InDesign and QuarkXPress
Submit files in the PDF format.DOCUMENTS WITH MULTIPLE PAGES
If you have, for example, an N number of photographs, pictures, invitation cards, it is necessary that you arrange and submit them in a single file.
In order to do this, you may use applications such as InDesign, QuarkXPress or Corel Draw since they have the capability of having multiple pages in a single document.
Let’s assume, for example, that you wish to print 100 different photographs. The procedure would be that you arrange all 100 photographs in any one of the above listed software applications and to submit one document which contains the 100 photographs.
The most common mistake that occurs in this case is when, considering the previous example, a document is created, one photograph is inserted and the document is saved. Then, a new document is opened and a second photograph is inserted, and so forth, so that eventually we have 100 documents each containing a single photograph.PAPER FORMATS
The paper formats on which we print are the following:
- A3 (420mm x 297mm)
- SRA3 (320mm x 450mm)
- SRA3+ (320mm x 488mm)
Regarding each paper format, it is necessary to consider that during printing there exists a margin, namely the surface on which nothing is printed, and it is 5mm on all sides regardless of the paper format in question.
FONTS
While working with text in a document, the system fonts should not be used (fonts installed with the operating system) since they have Cyrillic characters. Instead, True Type fonts should be used; for our characters, YU fonts.
If system fonts are used, the characters š, ć, ž, č and đ will be visible on screen, however, after the printing process, they will be replaced with blank spaces or some other unwanted characters.BROCHURES/CATALOGS/LEAFLETS
Namely, everything that contains more double-sided prints and that needs to be eventually bound in one of the possible ways, and be folded properly. For example, if a catalog contains 8 pages, it is necessary to arrange all pages in a single document and in the correct sequence. In the specific case of this eight-page catalog, the sequence of pages in the document would be as follows:
For all other questions related to preparation of files for print, contact operator:
+381 (11) 7150 748
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.