How to Create Print Ready Files
Date: Thu 6th July 2023What is Pre-Press?
Pre-Press refers to everything that happens to make sure a job is correctly prepared for printing. This is where you can catch errors that could hold up the job on press and avoid potential unexpected studio costs that have not been factored in. For trouble-free printing, it is important to get your design in the best shape possible before uploading.
At Delga we have a dedicated pre-press team to help but if you want to get your file as close to print-ready as possible, here are some things you can do to ensure there will be less delay in printing your packaging once you have sent your files off to print.
Layout
Use approved templates. These will give guidance on bleed and non-printing areas and in the case of packaging, glue areas and reverse templates which are crucial to creating a design that flows seamlessly across the packaging.
Always add at least 3mm of bleed. Bleed is the area off of the page that takes account of any slight intolerance in the trimming process after printing, so you are not left with white edges. 3mm is usually enough but check with your printer as the requirements can vary.
Overprint cut and crease lines. Cut and crease lines should be set to overprint so they can be easily separated from the artwork and do not impact the final output.
Keep artwork away from the edges. We recommend keeping any important elements at least 4mm from the edges of cut and crease lines as there is the potential for them to be cut, distorted or hidden from view if they are too close to the edge.
Fonts
Small black text should be 100% black only. Do not use CMYK values for small black text as this can result in shadowing and make the text appear blurry, use 100% black.
Minimum point sizes. Body text should not be below 6pt to remain legible, although many printers, including Delga can print smaller text than this it becomes illegible to a lot of people so for functional purposes it is not recommended.
White text of less than 5pts can suffer from misalignment.
Colour basics
RGB vs CMYK vs Pantone (and what are Hex colours while we’re here)
Printed images use a 4-colour process called CMYK, relating to the 4 colours of ink that are used: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Therefore, files that are to be printed should be set up, created, and exported in this profile.
For really accurate colour consistency spot or Pantone colours can be used. Pantone colours are specific colours of ink that remain largely the same across any media they are printed on, although this is not always guaranteed as even the same Pantone can look completely different on coated and uncoated stock, so it's best to get samples if colour consistency is really important to your brand.
Screens use RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colour mode to display colours. Not all colours that are displayed on screen can be replicated in CMYK, especially vivid primary colours such as red, green and blue so it’s really important to print your artwork and get a sample before final print.
It is possible to add hexachrome inks to the print process to achieve colours closer to RGB but even then it’s impossible to recreate the entire colour gamut.
Hex codes (not related to hexachrome ink) are another format of RGB colours and are used for simplifying digital coding for instance on websites as RGB codes can be up to 9 digits long whereas the hex system is a consistent set of 6 numbers and/or letters.
In a nutshell, CMYK and Pantone are the most important when it comes to print.
Final checks
- Ensure that all fonts are embedded or converted to outlines.
- Spell check, proofread and spell check again!
- Previewing files in Adobe Acrobat Pro, checking that all colours are displaying correctly in Output Preview under Print Production.
- Name the file exactly as it appears on your order and ensure that any variations of the files are saved separately and suitably named to identify each one.
- Contact your printer if you’re unsure which format to submit your file.
Download our Quick Pre-Press Guide
Request a quote.
Is your packaging performing the way you want it to? Would you like your packaging to perform better? Get in touch and our expert team will be in touch to discuss how we could help you.
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