Best Practice for Artwork Preparation

The following recommendations are for your guidance only, we can run plates and films from artwork supplied in virtually any format if necessary. However, producing artwork as detailed here will ensure that it runs smoothly and quickly, which will save you time and money.

Bitmap Images (photographs and other scanned images) should have the following resolutions at output size (if artwork is produced at half size, the images need double the resolution, etc):

• Litho print up to A3 size (generally printed at 200 dots per inch): 300 pixels per inch

• Litho print A2 (generally printed at 175 dots per inch): 250 pixels per inch

• Litho print A1 (generally printed at 150 dots per inch): 225 pixels per inch

• Litho print 60x40 (generally printed at 100 dots per inch): 150 pixels per inch

• Mono bitmaps (without anti-aliasing): 400 pixels per inch

• Digital print up to A3 size: 250 pixels per inch

• Digital print A2-60x40: 150 pixels per inch

• Screen print up to A1 size: 100 pixels per inch

• Screen print 60x40: 75 pixels per inch

Save all colour images as EPS with JPEG encoding (medium quality is fine for most applications), with Postscript Colour Management checked ON (this ensures maximum colour compatability with output devices). We do not recommend incorporating type or other vector images in bitmap files, as this is more likely to cause resolution problems. Recommended software for bitmap work: Adobe Photoshop

Vector Images (logos and other line-based images) should be produced larger than the output size (double the size is recommended). This will avoid any problems of curves and type 'angling'. Please ensure you check trap carefully as overprinting and trapping problems do not always show up on digital proofs. We recommend avoiding placing of bitmap images in vector files (including drop shadows). This creates very large files and often causes rip crashes. Our experience has been that it is much better to place vector and bitmap files separately into a DTP program (see below). Recommended software for vector work: Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand.

DTP (page make-up): place your vector and bitmap images in a DTP file for output. We do not recommend using software which claims to allow full manipulation of bitmap and vector images within the DTP program itself. This tends to lead to enormous and slow files, in which the main function (DTP) is compromised by the sub-functions. Recommended software: Quark Xpress.

PDFs: we are very happy to run from complete PDFs, please ensure that the resolution of all images is as detailed above, that vector graphics have been trapped correctly, and that fonts are included in the PDF. Create PDFs as composites (although you may want to create separations for your own checking first).