artwork guidelines graphic designer at desk

Artwork Guidelines

Danro artwork guidelines, remember the adage: Poor input artwork will give poor output quality.

This guidance should be used by all customers and where possible, have your graphic designer read this before providing new artwork.

Artwork Guideline: Process

  • We receive your artwork
  • We must process your artwork into production files
  • We seek your approval to confirm the artwork is correct
  • Once approved, we will print the labels

Where we create artwork for you, we will follow our guidelines obviously!

  • We won’t print anything until you agree to it.
  • Once you have agreed to a document, we no longer accept responsibility for any errors or ommissions.

File Types:

  • We can work with several forms of artwork including PDF, AI, SVG, EPS, JPEG, TIFF, BMP and other formats.
  • We use Windows PCs as they cost a third the price of Macs
  • We use Adobe Illustrator CS6 and Photoshop CS6 (We do not upgrade in order to keep costs to a minimum)
  • Our preferred format is PDF documents built in Adobe Illustrator CS4 or later.

File Settings:

  • Resolution should be set to 300dpi – a standard PDF will be fine
  • Any vector graphics formats tend to use mathematics to plot images so we can scale these for you
  • Image processing programs like Photoshop work on pixels (rasterised) and resolution can be lost with re-sizing
  • Images within vector graphics files (or images provided) should be built at 300dpi (or 360dpi if possible).
  • Image modes should be set to CMYK not RGB. We print with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK (CMYK). Graphics will often be presented in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) mode.
  • If you provide files in RGB we will convert them to CMYK and colour integrity may be lost.

Fonts:

  • Fonts in artwork pose the most frequent problem we face with customer artwork.
  • They form an integral part of your brand and design so are very important for your brand.
  • Many fonts in brand artwork are bespoke or rare.
  • We carry about 1,500 fonts in our font library but don’t expect us to have yours unless it came with Microsoft Windows.
  • If any font in your artwork is unusual or purchased, we will probably not have it.
  • We will not buy fonts for you unless you pay for them in full in advance.
  • You can provide a copy of your font or you can outline the text in your artwork.
  • If you provide a copy of your font, we can edit text in your artwork.
  • If you outline text in your artwork, we will not be able to edit it.

Canvases and Artboards:

  • Your artwork should not need any clipping marks or other printer’s marks as we will only have to remove these. They look nice but please omit these.
  • Artwork should be designed to label size +3mm on a canvas (in Photoshop) or artboard (in Illustrator)
  • e.g. if your label is 50mm x 70mm, we would prefer artwork on an artboard of canvas of 53mm x 73mm
  • If you have a simple die line (e.g. rectangle, oval, circle etc.) You do not need to include that
  • If you have a complex die line, please provide that on its own in a separate file with identical size and position settings as the artwork*.
  • If you have multiple designs, we prefer these to be in individual files rather than multiple pages in one file.

*If you wish to prepare the Die Line Correctly, you can set it to Process Colour Cyan, 0.25pt stroke and Overprint Stroke