Supplying Artwork

For accurate supply of jobs by disk/broadband, please use the following guidelines.

General

All prepress work is accepted with the understanding that digital files are supplied to our specifications. If Anchor Print are unable to prepare your files for printing in a timely and efficient manner (usually 15 minutes), the client will be given the option of paying for the time to correct the file problems or return the files to the client for the corrections to be made.

Our staff are available to provide helpful advice and to assist in any way they can to make your job print correctly.

Please inform us at time of quotation what format your artwork will be supplied in, what version, and whether it is from a PC or Macintosh.

Supplying PDF's

PDF's are rapidly becoming the standard file format for transmitting files for printing.

When creating PDF's do not use the program's PDF writer (with the exception of InDesign), rather print the file to disk (as in creating a postscript PRN file) using an industry standard driver such as the HP4MV driver and the QMS Colourscript 100 driver commonly found on all Macs and PC's.

When creating a PDF in Acrobat Distiller, there are job options which must be set for commercial printing. These include default resolution, compression settings and font embedding.

PDF's must be created in the following way. Please ensure you choose high resolution. Compression settings for colour and greyscale should be downsampled to 300dpi with Auto Compression set on high. Bitmapped (monochrome: ie. line art) images should be set at 600dpi. Font embedding should be set to "Embed all fonts."

Make sure there is 3mm bleed all round the PDF, ie. save the PDF with 6mm added to each measurement (ie. for A4 usually 210mm x 297mm, save as 216mm x 303mm). DO NOT INCLUDE CROP MARKS. If it is not saved in this format, we will not be able to use it as artwork. If there are any changes to the job, you may have to amend and re-supply the artwork.

If you are creating a PDF from a MS Publisher or Word file, care must be taken to ensure spot colours are created correctly in your original documents. Do not set to RGB colours.

Supply of artwork on disk/broadband for Apple Macintosh - QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, InDesign and Pagemaker

All picture files, fonts and programme files must be supplied along with laser prints of the job. We are unable to proceed with production unless a complete and accurate set of what you wish us to print, is provided by you.

Supply of artwork on disk/broadband for PC QuarkXPress, Pagemaker, Publisher, Word and Excel

All picture files, fonts and programme files must be supplied along with lasers of the job. We are unable to proceed with production unless a complete and accurate set of what you wish us to print, is provided by you.

Files from PC applications usually require additional work to make them print ready. Please ensure we are aware of the program and file type they are being supplied in, to allow additional time to be scheduled.

If artwork is produced in Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand

Please convert the type to curves (Freehand) convert to shape (Photoshop 6.0 and above) create outlines (Illustrator). This will ensure there will be no problems with fonts. When using Illustrator or Freehand please ensure any linked files are embedded or supplied.

Photoshop files or other picture files

Please supply only high resolution Photoshop files. They must have a resolution of 300 pixels per inch or higher at the size they are being used. If the file is a Bitmap tiff the file should be at least 1200dpi at the size it is being used. Images must be set to CMYK. (RGB is not a format used in commercial offset printing, but may be used for digital printing).

EPS's

Any other file formats not listed above must be saved as an eps or jpeg. If there are any changes to the job, you may have to amend and re-submit the artwork as we will be unable to change it. Ensure file has bleed and crop marks and please confirm the final size of the artwork and supply a laser print for reference.

Artwork by broadband/email

Please address it to your contact here at Anchor Press with any relevant information regarding the job. Maximum file size preferred by email is 10mb.

Files larger than this should be couriered or delivered on disk.

Bleed/Crop marks

All artwork must have 3mm bleed if you require the image to bleed off the edge of the paper.

Crop marks should be included if artwork does not fill a whole page area, they should be 5mm long, 3mm outside of the printing area and coloured in the colour 'registration' to ensure they appear on each colour separation.

Please ensure that artwork is supplied at the correct finished size required. If this is not possible, please inform us to allow time for amending the artwork.

Bookwork

If you are supplying a document with multiple pages, please try and make the front and back cover of the document a separate file.

Colour matching

If you have any concerns regarding colour matching when printing, please supply a print sample for us to match. If you are concerned about the colour of your print, please ask about being supplied with an Epson contract proof.

Disk media to use

CD Rom, DVD and USB memory sticks can be accepted.

Fonts

Include all fonts you have used in the file. Whilst we have an extensive font collection, there is no guarantee the version you have used matches ours. This can create problems with line lengths and spacing of the type.

Lineart and images

Scanned colour and greyscale images should be 300dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output.

Images should be submitted as TIFF's, JPEG's or EPS.

Lineart (bitmapped) should be 600-1200dpi at the final size in the document submitted for output.

Screens

Screen tints may range from 97% down to 3%.

From a practical viewpoint, anything above 90% or less than 5% will generally not be visible to the naked eye.

Spot colour jobs

Be sure to print out a separated laser proof to make sure all colours are split and that there is only one version of each spot colour (i.e. Do not use CV and CVC at the end of the colour name).

Please send us a copy of your artwork for reference with any useful instructions and a contact name and contact telephone number in case of a query. Don't forget to keep a copy of your file, in case we need you to undertake changes or corrections.

Contact us for more information.