Printing templates & guidelines

Setting up your artwork

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 in turn delay their delivery.

Live area on your artwork is where all the important stuff goes, typically 3mm in from the final trimmed size. We have this as a safe printing area so nothing essential gets chopped off your artwork.
Bleed is typically 3mm of extra background on all of the edges (all around). We cut off this excess at the finishing part of printing.
Trim is the final size of your printed piece once the bleed has been removed. The table below gives the dimensions of standard page sizes.

Setting Up Your Artwork

Checklist for sending files

IMPORTANT: 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.

1. File format

PDF is the only preferred file format.
Multiples files should be supplied as a single PDF file only.

2. 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.

3. File naming convention

File names must contain specific information about the job and be set to the following formula: JobName_Size_Quantity_Side e.g. FPS_A6x5000_front.pdf

4. 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.

5. 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 not print as vividely. We cannot take any responsibility for any unexpected final product in the event of files being supplied incorrectly as RGB.

6. Bleed

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

7. Line thickness

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

8. Trim/crop marks

All artwork must have crop marks for cutting guidance.

9. Fonts

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

10. Layers

All layers MUST be flattened.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Spot colours

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

14. 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.

Creating PDF files

Illustrator: 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: To create a PDF, you need to use the File > Export option. Always 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: Set up your document size to include bleed. E.g. if your final printed piece is to be A7 (74 x 105mm) make your Photoshop document 80 x 111 mm. To create 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.

Standard A paper sizes

	TRIMMED SIZE	TRIMMED SIZE + 3MM OF BLEED	LIVE AREA		TRIMMED SIZE	TRIMMED SIZE + 3MM OF BLEED	LIVE AREA
VIP Size	90 x 54	96 x 60	84 x 49	A3+ Size	314 x 444	320 x 450	308 x 438
A7 Size	74 x 105	80 x 11	68 x 99	A2 Size	420 x 594	426 x 600	414 x 588
A6 Size	105 x 148	111 x 154	99 x 142	A1 Size	594 x 480	600 x 846	588 x 836
A5 Size	148 x 210	154 x 216	142 x 204	A0 Size	840 x 1189	846 x 1195	834 x 1183
DL Size	210 x 99	216 x 105	204 x 93	DIGITAL POLE POSTERS Size	320 x 910	326 x 916	314 x 904
CD Size	148 x 148	154 x 154	142 x 142	Offset pole posters Size	345 x 1000	351 x 1006	339 x 994
A4 Size	210 x 297	216 x 303	204 x 291	One sheet posters Size	700 x 1000	706 x 1006	694 x 994
A3 Size	297 x 420	303 x426	291 x 414	Two sheet posters Size	1000 x 1400	1006 x 1406	994 x 1396

https://www.papersizes.org/a-paper-sizes.htm