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Apparel Store

Artwork Guidelines

At Print City, we’re committed to delivering print and design solutions that meet the highest industry standards. To ensure your project turns out just as you’ve envisioned, it’s crucial that your artwork files are prepared correctly. Our guidelines are designed to streamline the printing process, from initial design to the finished product, all while maintaining the quality you’ve come to expect from us.

Whether you’re looking to print business cards, develop signage, or create custom apparel, following these guidelines will help us help you achieve the best possible results. Our local creative team in Murray Bridge is always available to offer expert advice if you have any questions or need further clarification.

Please take a moment to review these important guidelines before submitting your artwork. Doing so will ensure a smooth process and an exceptional end product.

Supplied at the correct trim size (mm)
With 3mm bleed on each edge
Supplied in CMYK (or PMS colours)
Image based artwork 300dpi
Text based artwork 600dpi
Design elements kept within 3mm margin
Single page scrolling PDF (not spreads or paginated)
Creating a Print Ready PDF in InDesign is easy!
Simply set up your file at the correct trim size (mm) with 3mm bleed and a 3mm margin.
Keep text and design elements you don’t want cut off within the 3mm margin. This is to help avoid disappointment with the 1-2mm variance with the guillotine when cutting your order down to size

Under ‘General’ make sure ‘Pages’ is ticked and not ‘Spreads’

If exporting artwork for a booklet, please select to export your PDF in ‘Pages’ rather than ‘Spreads’. This is to ensure we have the correct running order of pages in the booklet.

Under ‘Marks & Bleed’ make sure to tick ‘Use Document Bleed Settings’ & ‘Crop Marks’.

Under ‘Output’ there is a button that reads ‘Ink Manager’, open the ‘Ink Manager’ window and make sure to tick ‘All Spots to Process’. This will convert any Spot Colours in the artwork to CMYK.

Note: Please disregard the last point if your artwork is required in Spot Colours.

Converting Spot Colours to CMYK can cause a variance in colour – it is recommended that you request a hard copy prior to approval to ensure you are happy with any colour change.

The easiest and fastest way to send us your files is as a Print Ready PDF. Not only are PDF files complete (with no missing fonts or links) but they hold true colour management, trapping and open pre-press information. A correctly exported file is generally so small in size that it is a breeze to send them over the internet via our ftp and e-mail services – without any loss of quality or data.

We prefer to work in PDF format, however if you are unable to provide us with this format we can also work with a number of files from programs such as Word (.doc, .docx), Publisher (.pub), Powerpoint (.ppt), Photoshop (.psd), Illustrator (.ai, .eps) and InDesign (.indd, .idml). We cannot work with Coral Draw native files (.csr).

We require your artwork to have a minimum of 3mm bleed on each edge.

Business Cards, Swing Tags & Stickers require 3mm bleed due to their small size.

Bleed refers to the printing that goes beyond the trim edge, which allows for movement on the guillotine when trimming your product down to size. You will need bleed on any coloured background or image that touches the edge of your artwork.

Bleed ensures that when your artwork is cut down to size, there won’t be a hairline white edge where an image or background colour ends. The 3mm of bleed will need to be added to each edge of your document. So for example, if your artwork is A4 (210x297mm) with bleed included, the total size of the artwork is 216x303mm.

The minimum resolution recommended for print is 300dpi. Anything less than 300dpi may be low resolution and may not print with the desired clarity you were after. If your artwork is predominately text based, we recommend 600dpi to ensure you achieve the sharpest looking text.

The resolution displayed on the web is 72dpi. This means that images saved from the internet/Google may not be suitable for print because the resolution could be much lower than the 300dpi minimum we recommend. We wouldn’t normally recommend sourcing your images from Google due to copyright reasons and image resolution, but if you are using images from Google for print make sure you make use of the search tools and refine the size of the image you are looking for.

Always make sure to read your artwork proof carefully, and make sure we haven’t noted that your artwork may be low resolution and unsuitable for print. We can provide you with a hard copy sample of your work, expressed to your door if you are uncertain about the clarity and resolution of your artwork.

If colour matching is a requirement of the job, then you must let your Print City Representative know at the beginning of the job and specify which PMS colours, or otherwise provide us with colour samples.

The colour represented in the artwork proof on screen (RGB) can vary to the final printed product (CMYK/PMS/SPOT). Colours on your artwork proof are NOT guaranteed to be an accurate representation of the final printed product. Colours will also vary when printed from a desktop printer. If colour matching is a crucial component to your design, we strongly urge you to request a hard copy sample prior to approving your proof.

We have a range of templates of different products for you to download and use as a guide when creating your own artwork. These templates can be downloaded from templates page.

Our templates are in a .zip folder which contains a PDF instruction sheet, an Illustrator Template (.ai) and an InDesign Template (.indd & .idml). Unfortunately we do not provide set artwork templates for you to enter your details into. Nor do we provide templates for Word or Powerpoint as we do not recommend designing artwork for Print in these programs.

SCODIX looks best when you follow some basic design fundamentals where often LESS can be MORE when adding SCODIX to your design. There are a few rules to follow to achieve the best result when applying SCODIX.

SCODIX – Trim Areas

SCODIX High Build cannot bleed outside of trim area. (Please leave 3mm from the edge of the SCODIX application to the product trim area)

NOTE: This restriction does not apply to 450+ NVS Cards – this product can bleed the Scodix outside of the trim area.

SCODIX – Score Lines

SCODIX High Build cannot be applied over the score/fold areas of a Presentation Folder. (Please leave 3mm from the SCODIX application to the product score/fold area).

Supplying Final Artwork

When supplying final artwork, SCODIX artwork should be supplied as a single PDF, including all other pages, with a 100% Spot Colour named ‘Scodix’.

Things to Avoid

For the best effects, avoid applying SCODIX to thin lines, small text or finely detailed artwork.

How to Setup Your Files

Open your artwork in Indesign or illustrator
Create a new layer for the SCODIX separation
Select the elements you wish to enhance and duplicate them to the new SCODIX layer
Create a new colour swatch and name it ‘Scodix’
Select colour type “Spot Colour”, and convert all SCODIX elements to this spot colour
SCODIX elements are all set to 100% Opacity
Export all pages and the SCODIX layer as a single PDF with all trim marks.