When setting up artwork for 6-panel folded leaflets for print, panels should be sized as below to ensure that everything appears in the correct place on the finished article. Two versions of 6-panel leaflet are possible – roll-fold and concertina fold – and panel sizes for both are shown below.
When supplying files for stapled booklets, these should be supplied as correctly ordered single pages rather than spreads (pairs of pages together). Our workflow software will do the rest!
Thicker booklets are susceptible to creep. This is caused by the inner pages protruding further than the outer from the outside edge due to the thickness of the booklet. To avoid this being noticeable, care should be taken to avoid having text and thin borders very close to the outer edge of pages.
When creating artwork for spiral/wire bound documents, text should not be placed within 15mm of the binding edge – this is the left side of front facing pages, and the right side of back pages. This allows space for the holes into which the binding is inserted.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) is the colour model used in printing whereas RGB (Red, Green and Blue) is the colour model used to display digital images on a computer screen.
To ensure your product colours are consistent and appear as expected, all files should be supplied as CMYK. Care should be taken to ensure that images are also converted to CMYK, otherwise they may appear duller than they look on screen.
Pantone or spot colours can be used within artwork, however these will be converted to CMYK before print. Due to the process involved in digital printing, we cannot guarantee an exact match to Pantone colours used.
The Safe Zone is similar to the bleed area, except on the inside of the page. In the example below, no text, logos or important information should be outside the blue border – only backgrounds and images should be in this area. This ensures that nothing important is trimmed off when the job is finished.
Bleed is the term used to describe an area outwith the printed page, into which any background colours or images should be extended. This ensures that no white borders are shown when your job is trimmed to its finished size. 3mm bleed should be added to all edges. Final page sizes including bleed are shown in Common Page Sizes.
The diagram shows the most standard paper sizes for paper and envelopes. These are the sizes that should be used when creating artwork for AberdeenPrinting.
Wherever possible, artwork for print should be supplied as a high-resolution PDF file. When saving from your design application, ‘Press-Quality’ should be selected from the available PDF options.
Images within artwork should be saved at 300dpi – low resolution images may appear pixelated or ‘blocky’ when printed.
Creating artwork in Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Powerpoint should be avoided as these do not allow for the addition of bleed and will compress images when they are placed within documents.
GSM is short for ‘grams per square meter’ and refers to the weight of the paper.
For more information check out our blog piece on which papers are right for my print project.
