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File Preparation Tips
Accurate Colour
All monitors are colour calibrated differently. The colour you see on your monitor may be different than the colour that is printed. The only way to ensure accurate colour is to use a professional pantone process book. See pantone swatches.
What is a "bleed"
"Bleed" is the term for printing that goes right to the edge of the paper. Printed pieces that have a white
border or white around the edges, DO NOT bleed. If you have images or backgrounds that you want to print (bleed) off the edge
of the paper, then you must design your job larger than the final CUT SIZE. We create bleeds by actually cutting through the
enlarged image/background.
This just means any area of ink (even a line) that "runs off" the edge of a print job. Thus, "bleeds off" means that the job was
printed on larger size paper and cut down to the finished size.
What does "dpi" mean?
Explaining dpi
The term dpi refers to "dots per inch." DPI is often synonymous with ppi or "pixels per inch." It is a
standard way of describing an image's resolution. When printed, an image with a high resolution contains more pixels, or dots,
than an image with a low resolution. For example, a 1-by-1-inch image with a resolution of 72 dpi contains a total of 5184 pixels
(72 pixels wide x 72 pixels high = 5184). The same 1-by-1-inch image with a resolution of 300 ppi contains a total of 90,000
pixels. Higher-resolution images reproduce more detail and subtler color transitions than lower-resolution images.
Using too low a resolution for a printed image results in pixelation - output with large, coarse-looking pixels and jagged edges.
Using too high a resolution increases the file size and slows the printing of the image; furthermore, the device will be unable
to reproduce the extra detail provided by the higher resolution image.
Adjusting dpi
Increasing the resolution (the dpi) of an image should be done by resampling the original (e.g. re-scanning the original
photograph at a higher dpi setting). Increasing the resolution by other means (e.g. modifying it in Adobe Photoshop) only spreads
the original pixel information across a greater number of pixels; it rarely improves image quality.
What happens to image quality if I scan my image and then increase its size?
Image resolution for raster images depends directly on the number of pixels per inch and is a direct reflection of the image
quality. (See also: What are the basic types of electronic images?) The final image resolution is also directly related to the
final size of the scanned image. For example: Scan a 1" x 1" image at 300 dpi (dots or pixels per inch) resolution.
Then scale it to 200% of original size (the image is now 2" x 2"). The 300 original image pixels are now stretched
to cover twice as much area as before and the resulting printing resolution is 300 pixels per two inches (or 150 dpi)...half of
the desired quality. This will result in a poor quality image.
Ideally, images should be scanned at the desired output size so the image does not have to be scaled. However, following the
formula below when scanning your image will result in the desired image resolution when scaling an image: (desired final width of
image ÷ width of original image) x desired final dpi = scan dpi
What do you mean when you say a graphic must be "high-resolution?"
Your graphic image must be high-quality or high-resolution. In our case, this means it must have at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Anything lower than 300 dpi will not print with accurate color and clarity and may appear fuzzy or jagged when printed.
PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM (or PMS for short)
An international method of making sure that all specified colours used in printing, publicity etc are very similar. Colours are specified as numbers, i.e. PMS 032, PMS 300 etc., sometimes followed by the letter U or C. The letters simply mean how the same ink colour looks on either uncoated stock or coated stock as the colours often look totally different on each.
