How to Prepare Print-Ready Artwork: The Complete Guide

Submitting the wrong file format or forgetting to add bleed is the single most common reason for print delays. This guide covers everything you need to know to get your artwork right first time — whether you're a seasoned designer or setting up your first business card in Canva.

CMYK vs RGB: Why It Matters

Your screen displays colour using RGB (Red, Green, Blue) — mixing light to create colour. Printing uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) — mixing inks on paper. These are fundamentally different systems, and some RGB colours (especially vivid greens, electric blues, and neon pinks) simply cannot be reproduced in CMYK ink.

If you submit RGB artwork, the printer converts it to CMYK automatically — but the colour shift can be noticeable. Bright purples may turn muddy, vivid greens may dull, and neon colours will lose their intensity. Always convert to CMYK before exporting your final file. In Photoshop: Image → Mode → CMYK Color. In Illustrator: File → Document Color Mode → CMYK.

Resolution: 300 DPI Is the Standard

DPI (dots per inch) determines print sharpness. For most print products — business cards, flyers, leaflets, booklets, stickers — the industry standard is 300 DPI. At this resolution, individual dots are invisible to the naked eye, producing crisp text and smooth image gradients.

Lower resolutions produce visible pixelation. A photo that looks sharp on screen at 72 DPI will appear blurry and blocky in print. The exception is large format printing: posters, banners, and signage are viewed from a distance, so 150 DPI is the minimum (and 100 DPI is acceptable for very large PVC banners).

Bleed: The Safety Net for Trimming

Bleed is the area of artwork that extends beyond the trim line. After printing, sheets are guillotine-cut to the final size. No guillotine is perfectly accurate — there's always a tiny variation of 1-2mm. Without bleed, you'd see thin white strips along the edges where the cut wasn't perfectly aligned.

The standard bleed for most print products is 3mm on all edges. For PVC banners and large-format signage, this increases to 25mm to account for eyelet positioning and hem welding.

In practice, this means if you're designing an A5 flyer (148×210mm), your document should be set up at 154×216mm (148+3+3 × 210+3+3). Extend background colours, images, and patterns all the way to the bleed edge.

Safe Zone: Keep the Important Stuff Inside

The safe zone is the opposite of bleed — it's the area inside the trim line where you should keep all critical content. Text, logos, phone numbers, and anything you can't afford to lose should sit at least 5mm inside the trim edge.

This accounts for the same guillotine variation that bleed handles on the outside. A logo sitting 2mm from the trim line might get partially cut off if the blade shifts inward by 2mm.

Accepted File Formats

The preferred format for professional printing is PDF — specifically PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4, which embed all fonts and images into a single portable file. Other accepted formats include:

PDF — preferred, embed all fonts, CMYK, 300 DPI images
AI — Adobe Illustrator native (outline all fonts)
EPS — Encapsulated PostScript (outline all fonts)
PSD — Adobe Photoshop (flatten layers, CMYK, 300 DPI)
TIFF — high-quality raster (CMYK, 300 DPI, no compression)
PNG / JPG — acceptable for simple designs (300 DPI, CMYK if possible)

Avoid sending Word documents, PowerPoint files, or low-resolution screenshots. These formats aren't designed for commercial printing and will produce poor results.

Quick Checklist

Before you hit upload, run through this:

Colour mode: CMYK (not RGB)
Resolution: 300 DPI (150 DPI minimum for large format)
Bleed: 3mm on all edges (25mm for banners)
Safe zone: Critical content 5mm inside the trim edge
Fonts: Outlined or embedded in the PDF
File format: PDF preferred, maximum 100MB per file
Spell check: We check file quality, not spelling — that's on you

If you're unsure about any of these, get in touch and we'll check your file for free before printing.