Printing Templates & Guidelines

Setting Up Your Artwork

We are as excited as you about printing your job, but PLEASE READ THIS before you send through your files. It is important that they are all set up correctly, otherwise you may incur extra costs for us to fix them which may delay their delivery. No one wants that.

Live area

The area on your artwork where all the important stuff goes, 3mm in from the final trimmed size. We have this as a safe printing area so nothing essential gets chopped off your artwork.

Bleed

This is a 3mm of extra background on all of the edges (all round). We cut off this excess at the finishing part of printing.

Trim

This is the final size of your printed piece once the bleed has been removed. The table below gives the dimensions of standard page sizes. Of course, we can print custom dimensions, just give us a call!

Standard Sizes

Checklist For Sending Files

ATTENTION! If your files do not comply to these specifications we can not guarantee that your job will be printed correctly or on time

3mm of bleed is required for all jobs with a background colour, texture or image. If your artwork is not supplied with bleed, we may ask you to resupply it or will charge you for the time it takes us to correct it.

All digital flies must be flattened, i.e. all layers and vector graphics converted to outlines.

File format:

• PDF is the only Preferred File Format.
• Multiples files should be supplied as a single PDF file only.

Sending your file

• If your file is under 10MB then you can email it to us at: sales@fastprintservices.com.au
• If it’s larger than 10MB, please send via dropbox, mailbigfile or wetransfer.

File Naming Convention

• File names must contain specific information about the job and be set to the following formula: A) Job Name B) Size C) Quantity D) Side (front/back) e.g. FPS_A6x5000_front.pdf

Artwork resolution (dpi)

• Colour raster images should be no less than 300dpi
• Greyscale raster images should be no less than 800dpi, Monochromatic bitmaps should be 1200dpi.
• All images must be embedded in the PDF files and OPI must be inactive.

Colour Mode

• All colour models should be converted to CMYK mode. If documents are to be printed in CMYK (Process) all colours, which includes RGB and Pantones (Spot) must be converted to CMYK before making PDF files.
• Files supplied as RGB may not be detected and will print discoloured and dull. We will not take any responsibility for any unexpected result.

Bleed

• 3mm external bleed
• Text margin should be 3mm inside from the trim mark.
• All supplied documents must be built to trim.

Line thickness

• Minimum line thickness: 0.25pt.
• Anything less than a hairline will not hold on the press.

Trim/Crop Marks

• All Artwork must have crop marks for cutting guidance.

Fonts

• All fonts must be embedded, outlined or converted to curves.
• For CMYK colour fonts, the type must be no less than 8pt.

Layers

• All Layers MUST be flattened

Die-Cut Lines

• All die-cuts lines must be in vector images, NOT raster images.
• Die-cut lines must be provided in the exact positions as a separate document.

Transparency & Overprints

• All Layers MUST be flattened.
• If a transparency or overprint are to be used in the document it must be flattened and preserved within the documents.

Spot Colours

• All Spot Colour jobs must be provides in a spot separation or map to a 100% of a solid separation colour.

Black

• All 100% Black background jobs must be converted to rich black using the following breakdown: C=40% M=0% Y=0% K=100%.
• All black text to be left as 100% black unless it is more than 50pt.
• For rich black in digital printing, please leave it at 100% black.

We Only Accept PDF files

Illustrator PDFs

To create a PDF, you can either “Save as” a PDF from illustrator or “Print to” a PDF file. To Save as: Use the Press Quality preset. Under the Marks and Bleeds tab, check Trim marks. Also in this tab, in the Bleeds section, put 3mm for each of the values. To Print to a PDF: Select Adobe PDF as the printer. Under the Marks and Bleeds tab, check Trim marks. Also in this tab, in the Bleeds section, put 3mm for each of the values.

InDesign PDFs

PDFs are exported from InDesign. Use the Press Quality preset. Under the Marks and Bleeds tab, check Trim marks. Also in this tab, in the Bleed section, put 3mm for each of the values.

Photoshop PDFs

Set up your document size including bleeds. For example if your final printed piece is to be A7 (74 x 105mm) make your Photoshop document 80 x 111 mm. To print your PDF: Select File > Print then select Adobe PDF as the printer. Click the Page Setup button, in the Adobe PDF Settings tab, select Press Quality in the Default Settings dropdown. In the Adobe PDF Page Size section, you will need to add a custom paper size 10mm larger than your Photoshop document, click Add/Modify and select the new page size you created, click OK. In the Position section, ensure that the Center Image option is checked. The Scaled Print Size option should be 100%. In the Output tab check the corners for Crop Marks. Click Bleed and enter 3mm as the value. Click Print and your PDF will be created.

Layered Artwork

When supplying artwork as a PDF please ensure that the artwork is set up correctly. That is, image files from Photoshop should be flattened to one layer and not set up as a multi layer document, this decreases the amount of superfluous information on your file and streamlines it for output.

Download Illustrator Templates

• A2 Template
• A4 Template
• A4 6PP Roll Fold
• A4 8pp DL Side A
• A4 8pp DL Roll
• A4 8pp Template
• A4 DL A Template
• A4 DL B Template
• A5 Template
• A6 Template
• A7 Template
• CD Template
• DL Template
• DL Roll Fold
• L ZigZag Fold
• Business Card Template
• Folded Business Card Template
• Letterhead Template
• With Comps Template
• Pole Poster Template