Almost every reprint we see traces back to one of five file problems. None of them are difficult to avoid once you know they exist. We preflight every file free and flag these before printing, but understanding them saves a round trip.
1. Bleed
Printing presses cannot print reliably to the exact edge of a sheet, so anything meant to run off the edge is printed slightly oversized and then trimmed down. Bleed is that extra margin.
The standard is 0.125 inches on every side. A 3.5 x 2 inch business card is built as a 3.75 x 2.25 inch document, with the background extending all the way to that larger edge. Without bleed, tiny variations in cutting leave a thin white sliver along one side.
2. Safe margin
The inverse problem. Keep all text and anything you cannot afford to lose at least 0.125 inches inside the trim line, and preferably 0.25 inches. Cutting has a small tolerance, and text sitting right against the edge will look off-center on some pieces in the stack even when the cut is within spec.
3. CMYK, not RGB
Screens emit light and mix red, green and blue. Presses lay down cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink on paper. The two do not cover the same range of color.
The colors that suffer most are bright saturated blues, vivid greens and neon oranges. An electric blue that glows on your monitor can print noticeably duller. Converting to CMYK yourself before sending means you see the shift and can adjust, rather than being surprised by it.
If exact color matters, such as a brand color that must match across a card, a banner and a storefront sign, ask about a Pantone spot color or request a hard copy proof on the actual stock. A digital proof on your screen cannot show you what the ink will do on paper.
4. Resolution
Images need to be 300 DPI at their final printed size. That last part is what trips people up. A 300 DPI image looks perfect at 2 inches wide and falls apart when stretched to 8 inches, because the pixels get spread thinner.
A photo pulled from a website is typically 72 DPI and often only a few hundred pixels across. It will look fine on screen and unacceptable in print. There is no software that genuinely adds detail that was never captured.
Large format is the exception. A banner viewed from twenty feet away can be built at 100 to 150 DPI at final size, because your eye cannot resolve the difference at that distance.
5. Fonts
If we do not have your font installed, your file may open with a substitute and the layout shifts. Two ways to avoid it: outline the type, which converts letters into vector shapes, or embed the fonts when exporting your PDF. Outlining is safest, but keep an editable copy since outlined text can no longer be edited.
Which format to send
- PDF is best. Export with bleed and crop marks, fonts embedded or outlined, images at 300 DPI, CMYK color.
- AI, INDD and PSD are fine. Package the file so linked images and fonts travel with it.
- EPS works for vector logos.
- High resolution JPG or TIFF is acceptable for photographic work with no text.
- Please avoid Word, PowerPoint, Canva screenshots and anything pasted into an email body.
A note on Canva
Canva is fine for design, but export properly. Choose PDF Print, tick the crop marks and bleed option, and select CMYK if your plan offers it. The default PNG or standard PDF export has no bleed and will need rebuilding.
Just send it
If any of this is unfamiliar, send the file anyway. We check every file at no charge and tell you exactly what needs fixing before anything reaches the press. That is a normal part of the job, not an inconvenience.
Need this printed? We are on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.