artwork for those new to design
very important hints and advice - please download this file!
additional advice
it is important that you prepare your artwork as professionally as possible - this will avoid problems during production and the possibility of extra costs. we get a lot of artwork that unfortunately has to be rejected or modified and this often causes problems
artwork provided in very basic formats
we don't unfortunately accept any artwork in programmes such as nero designer or other very basic design programmes often provided free as part of cd / dvd burning programmes
we can though accept very simple artwork in programmes like word, even powerpoint and this can be useful if you are in an office environment where these programmes are available. there will though be a small charge to lift your artwork from these programmes into our own templates. sometimes clients provide very simple guidelines to what they require in these programmes and we then re-lay their ideas and send emails of the artwork for approval. in this situation there will always be a design charge but we try and keep these costs down as much as possible.
artwork provided in home design packages like corel and serif plus
we can accept artwork in corel draw format upto version 10. if working in version 11 or above please 'backsave' the artwork to version 10 before sending us the art.
we cannot accept art in serif plus format sorry.
many of these programmes allow you to export your artwork as JPEG or TIFF files and we are happy to accept these formats so long as you have saved or exported these files in the best quality options available (generally choose 300 x 300 dpi setting if offered as an option). sometimes we have to reject these formats because the resolution at which the art has been saved is too low for us to work with and would result in pixelated, blurry print. some programmes don't tell you the quality of the JPEG's they are generating so best to print them out and check the quality or zoom in on them on screen - you may be surprised how pixelated your images have suddenly become!
colour issues
colour will always be an issue when providing artwork in any of the formats above and if colour is very important to you it is advisable to order SHERPA proofs (sent to you through the post) to check that you are happy with the colour before we proceed to print - this is particularly important for larger print runs. These proofs are expensive to order so you should think carefully before trying to produce your own artwork in any of the programmes above when colour issues and perhaps other factors are very important to you - it may be better to employ a professional designer for this. we can help with either an in-house basic design service at very reasonable cost, or can pass you on to one of several professional designers that we can recommend.
professional programmes
programmes like quark express, photoshop cs, in design cs and illustrator cs are formats that we work with all the time. we cannot though accept quark passport files (if working with quark passport always save the file as a single language file). we also can't accept quark 4.1 files or earlier.
our preferred professional format is hi-res pdf, colour as CMYK with fonts embedded or turned to curves. images should be 300 dpi. hi res pdfs can be generated from alll the professional programmes mentioned above. we don't mind accepting the raw files as well though, although font issues can sometimes cause us problems, this is why we prefer the pdf format with fonts embedded or turned to curves
click her for full details of our professional specifications and accepted professional formats
dimensions and templates
we provide dimensions of all discs and packaging in pdf format and also templates in photoshop and/or quark express
dimensions and templates for cd discs and standard cd packaging - also available on the prices page
dimensions and templates for dvd discs and standard dvd packaging - currently only available on the prices page
dimensions and templates for digipac packaging - also available on the prices page
