Print Service Guidelines

Please keep in mind the below guidelines when requesting a quote from us to print your work. The below are industry best practices and will result in the best possible result for your print order. Orders that do not adhere to the practices will not be eligible for reprint if you are not satisfied with the result.

Best Practices

  • It is your responsibility as the supplier of the artwork to ensure the artwork is both of a printable standard and implements best design practices in its construction allowing for print tolerance.

Variable Data

  • If your artwork has pages with different data on each page, such as envelopes with addresses or guest names being printed onto invitations, you will need to provide the artwork set up already with as many pages as you have data.

  • For example, if you are printing 100 envelope addresses, your file would include 100 pages.

Borders

Printing involves a machine feeding a printing substrate through the print mechanism. This feeding can create slight movements of the card during the print process. This movement is unavoidable, and must be taken into account when designing your printed work for the best result. Follow the below guidelines when using borders:

  • Line borders must be placed at least 5mm from the edge of your artwork, ideally closer to 10mm

  • Solid Borders that run to the edge of the artwork must have 3mm of bleed

  • Borders on both sides of the page should be avoided. The movement of the artwork on both sides of the page will make the trim uneven on one side once the printed pieces are cut down.

Solid Areas

  • Large solid areas are best avoided when printing onto premium stocks. Choosing to print large solid areas may result in banding on the surface of the print material, as well as colour variances due to the toner not adhering uniformly across a heavily textured card surface.

  • Best practice is to not use large solid areas, or to select one of our coloured card stocks if you are looking to print your design onto a primarily one colour background.

Digital Printing

  • For the best result, provide your artwork as a high resolution print ready PDF

  • All elements should be in the CMYK colour space 

  • Fonts and elements must be outlined

  • Any images must be at least 300dpi

  • The print file dimensions must match the dimensions of the item ordered (e.g. A5 size document for A5 printed card), with 3mm bleed where required.

Digital Printing in White Ink

  • When printing with white ink, provide artwork at 100% black. 

  • Do not mix colour and white ink elements on the same design.

  • We do not recommend printing onto a lighter coloured stock with white ink (e.g. Azure Blue or Duck Egg) as there will not be enough contrast to see the print result clearly enough.

Envelope Printing

  • Please keep in mind we cannot print envelopes full-bleed. This means your artwork must finish at least 10mm from the edge of the envelope on any edge.

  • Ensure you have set your artwork up correctly with the correct number of pages for the number of addresses you would like. If you would like us to create the envelope printing design, choose from one of our selections on our website.