Before placing your order on atlantagraphicsandprinting.com, ensure your design files and artwork are setup correct for optimal results, size, printing clarity, and color matching.
Proofing Your Artwork
Design File Instructions
Use the below information to help you in setting up your graphic design files and artwork for printing.
1. A .125 inch bleed MUST be allowed for cutting. Bleed means your artwork must be larger than the finished size, and exceed the edge of the material.
2. The size of the printed material will closely match the document size that is listed on the product page. After the document has been cut, there is about a +/- 1/8 inch variance
3. The Front and Back of your material should be setup and delivered to us as two separate files; do not create both sides in a single file.
4. Design files should be setup and exported at 300 DPI (dots per inch) resolution.
5. Files must be saved in the CMYK color profile format.
6. If your artwork calls for true or rich Black, the areas should be composed as a combination of CMYK values – C 60%, M 40%, Y 40%, and K 100%.
7. We request you send your files as JPEG or PDF, but we support all standard design file formats:
Adobe Photoshop (.PSD) – FLATTENED
Adobe Illustrator (.AI or .EPS) with the fonts converted to outlines/curves
Adobe InDesign (.INDD) Exported as a PDF
We also accept the standard industry formats: .EPS .PDF .TIFF .JPG
Print File Preparation
Size – The size of the flyer, brochure or other printed material should be set in the graphic design program. For example, a 4″ x 6″ flyer should be placed in the design application on a 4″ x 6″ canvas. For all files, an entire 1/4 inch (.25 inches) border containing no critical or necessary text / graphics) MUST be included, and will be the bleed area for cutting purposes. So in the example of the 4″ x 6″ flyer, the final artwork size should be 4.25″ x 6.25″.
The only deviation from this 1/4 inch addition to all artwork is in the bleed area of business card design files. For business cards, size them at 3.625″ x 2.125″. The added bleed area in this case is 1/8″ (.125 inches). if you have any questions regarding file size and setup.
*The resolution for ALL files should be set at 300 DPI (ppi) minimum.
Color Mode – All files should be converted to CMYK and be a minimum of 300 DPI. If you or your designer was creating your artwork in RGB color mode, then convert the color mode to CMYK before submitting it to us. All of our printing is done in CMYK.
Fonts: All type (fonts) MUST be converted to outlines (paths). If you submit non-flattened Photoshop or Illustrator design files and we do not have the fonts that were used, the design program has no choice but to substitute the fonts. To avoid this, ensure the fonts used are flat, rasterized, which is accomplished by converting the font to “Outlines”.