Art Requirements

Preparing Your Artwork

Fonts:
A common problem in transferring artwork files is that the fonts used may be special fonts on the customer’s computer. When placing type in the artwork there is a link created to the font on the system. When the file is opened on another computer that does not have the font, the program opening the file will display an error and substitute it’s own font for the original. To avoid this problem please include any and all True Type Fonts that you used to create your artwork or convert your fonts to outlines or curves if your program allows it.

Placed Images:
Include all placed images when sending your artwork.

CAD Images:
Engineering drawings can occasionally be used as the beginnings of usable artwork. However, due to the differences between CAD and illustration programs a drawing created via CAD software can hardly ever be directly imported and used as the actual artwork to be output to film. Therefore, engineering drawings sent as artwork should be as simple as possible with the required dimensions and positioning adequately labeled. It is also a good idea to fax a copy of the file as well in case the CAD file is completely unusable.

Submitting Your Artwork:

Sending Film:
Films sent should be at actual-size with the emulsion side facing down while you look at the image as it is to appear for printing. Please call to discuss before sending films for multi-color or process-color work.

Sending Digital Media:
We use both PC and Mac platforms. Customers should send art in lossless vector formats such as .ai, .pdf, or .eps. Please note: CAD files (.dxf or .dwg) are NOT considered artwork files. They can be used as guidelines only. Most industry standard graphics applications allow exporting of files to one of the above formats. Please contact us to inquire about additional supported file formats. The following formats are listed in order of preference:

  • Adobe Illustrator (.ai, .eps, .pdf)
  • Adobe Photoshop (.psd, .eps, .tif, .bmp)
  • InDesign (.indd)
  • Corel Draw