How to Prepare a Successful Print File

Preparing a print file can be a complex undertaking. Colours, layout, images, dimensions, and many other elements must all be taken into account to ensure a successful print result. We have therefore listed the technical specifications you need to follow to avoid any problems when printing your documents.

This article requires a basic knowledge of desktop publishing (DTP), using software such as Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, for example. If you are not a graphic designer, it can still be useful for passing this information on to the relevant person or persons.

1- Bleed and Margins

Printed documents, regardless of the material (paper, adhesive vinyl, banner…), are printed on a format larger than the final format, and then cut. This is what enables full bleed printing (the print extends to the very edge of the format, with no white margins as you would get from a desktop printer). However, cutting machines, however sophisticated they may be, always have a small margin of error. This means technical constraints must be respected, to indicate where to cut and to ensure nothing important is cut off.

Bleed and Crop Marks

Bleed areas, as the name suggests, are the printed portions of the document that will be lost after cutting to the final format. Allow 5 mm of bleed on all your documents. Any element that extends to the edge of the page — whether a coloured background, a line, or a photo — must actually extend 5 mm beyond the finished format. Be careful not to place anything important within this area.

Crop marks are aptly named: they are guides used during printing to indicate where to cut the document. They must therefore precisely mark the exact cutting point. DTP software will add them automatically if you tick the appropriate box when exporting a PDF. Fold marks are also useful in the case of a folded leaflet.

Margins

Beyond the aesthetic margins — which we will leave to your judgement in this article — there is a technical minimum to respect. The cutting margin of error works in both directions: so in addition to the 5 mm of bleed, allow a "safe zone" inside your document — margins of at least 5 mm. These margins should contain no important elements, and certainly no text, as it risks being slightly clipped during cutting.

These dimensions are safety dimensions — in practice, a document is never cut 5 mm off-target (1 or 2 mm at most when there is any offset) — but it is better to be safe than sorry.

2- Images

Images can be of 2 types: pixel images or vectors. Pixel images are photographs, for example: composed of a certain number of pixels, they cannot be enlarged indefinitely without eventually showing individual pixels and losing image quality. Vectors, or vector images, are illustrations (diagrams, drawings, etc.) that are not made up of juxtaposed pixels but of vectors, or Bézier curves, which allows them to be scaled infinitely without ever losing quality. Their use therefore differs when working on a print document.

Pixel Images

These images must be at 300 dpi on the final document (dpi = dots per inch). This means that one inch (2.54 cm) contains 300 dots (or pixels). An image 1000 pixels wide, for example, can therefore be used up to 8.47 cm wide. Note that the vast majority of images downloaded from the internet or taken on a smartphone are at 72 dpi (the screen resolution), meaning they can be used at a much larger size on screen than on paper.

Pixel Images (Colour Mode)

Printing generally uses 4 colours: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black — the CMYK system. The use of mixed inks reduces the colour gamut. Screens, on the other hand, use the far richer luminous spectrum, with the RGB (Red Green Blue) system, which corresponds to that of the human eye.

Make sure you create your document in CMYK and use only CMYK images and CMYK-defined colours on it. Otherwise, you may be surprised by the result at print, particularly with intense greens or blues.

The black ink in the CMYK system does not produce a very deep black, which is noticeable on large solid black areas. To achieve a truly deep black in print, use the following values: C=40% M=30% Y=30% K=100%. Do not use this black for text or fine lines, as the misregistration between the four colour dots may be visible, causing your text or line to appear blurred.

Be careful with images or backgrounds at reduced opacity: an image barely visible on screen may not print at all, or conversely may appear much darker in print. Check your PDF intended for the printer and run test prints on your own printer to ensure everything prints as desired.

Finally, be careful not to use very subtle gradients over large areas: they risk printing in visible steps if the difference between two colours is too small over too great a distance.

3- Text

Use fonts to which you hold the rights: either fonts already available on your computer, fonts you have purchased, or free fonts with no restrictions on use. Many free fonts available on the internet are either reserved for personal use only or are incomplete — so be vigilant.

Never use text at a size smaller than 5 points — this is the legal minimum; below this, your text will be illegible. The average for body text (i.e. paragraphs of readable text) falls between 8 and 12 points (8 being quite small and 12 quite large — the ideal is generally 10 points). This will depend on the font used, however.

4- Different Types of Imposition

Imposition refers to the way pages of a document are arranged for printing, before assembly (for a brochure or book) or folding (for a leaflet).

Leaflets

If your leaflet has only one fold (for a brochure, for example), remember to place pages 4 and 1 on the front (4 on the left, 1 on the right) and pages 2 and 3 on the back (2 on the left, 3 on the right). Once folded, your pages will follow in the correct order.

With multiple folds, you need to distinguish between roll folds and accordion folds. In the case of roll folds, the panel or panels that will sit on the inside of the leaflet must be slightly narrower (2 mm) to avoid bunching during folding. In the case of accordion folds, all panels must be the same width to ensure the document is harmonious once folded. Do not hesitate to make small paper mock-ups before creating your document in your software — this can help you identify the page order and dimensions if they differ.

Booklets

If your document is a brochure (i.e. folded in half, with more than 4 pages and therefore requiring a binding), always maintain a page count that is a multiple of 4. Brochures are generally bound with 2 metal staples below a certain page count (approximately 80, depending on paper thickness), then with a perfect binding above that. In the latter case, the printer will provide you with the spine width to allow for between your covers.

Summary

The document you supply to the printer must be a PDF to the X1-a standard (the print PDF standard, available when exporting a PDF from your DTP software):

• with 5 mm of bleed
• with 5 mm of margins
• with crop marks / fold marks
• in CMYK
• with images either vectorised or at 300 dpi
• with embedded fonts, which you have the right to use
• with no text smaller than 5 points

If your document is intended to be distributed in the street or in letterboxes, it must include the statement "Do not litter" and the printer's imprint.

---

We hope this article proves useful, and that you now have a better understanding of why all these constraints are necessary for printing a quality document.

Yumea offers graphic design and print services. You are of course welcome to entrust us with the creation of your documents from conception through to delivery, or to use these services separately.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

UGC, the Future of Marketing: How User-Generated Content Can Revolutionise Your Marketing Strategy

by Yumea, 7 March 2023

UGC (User Generated Content) is changing the game in the world of marketing. With the rise of social media and content-sharing platforms, the ... READ MORE

Category: News , Getting Visible Online , Social Media

Comments: 0

How to Use Instagram to Reach Your Audience and Drive Traffic to Your Website

by Yumea, 1 February 2023

Social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses looking to reach their target audience and drive traffic to their website. With more than 3.8 billion active users ... READ MORE

Category: Getting Visible Online , Instagram , Social Media

Comments: 0

7 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools You Need to Know in 2023

by Yumea, 12 January 2023

In 2023, there are many websites that use artificial intelligence (AI) to help users write content and generate images. If you are looking for tools to help you write ... READ MORE

Category: News

Comments: 0