A few minutes of checking saves days of back-and-forth. Run your artwork through this list before you send it and you will almost never get a “please fix and resupply” email.

The eight-point check

1. Bleed — 3 mm all round, backgrounds extended to the edge.
2. Safe area — important text and logos at least 3 mm inside the trim.
3. Resolution — images at 300 DPI at final size. Web images (72 DPI) will look soft.
4. Colour mode — supply CMYK, not RGB, so screen colours do not shift on press.
5. Fonts — embedded in the PDF or converted to outlines.
6. Black text — small text set as 100% K (single black), not a four-colour mix, to stay crisp.
7. Spelling — proofread once more. Print is permanent.
8. File format — a flattened, print-ready PDF with crop marks.

A quick word on proofs

Always check your digital proof carefully and approve it in writing. Once you sign off, that is what we print. If colour is critical — a brand red, for instance — ask us about a hard-copy proof on the actual stock.

Two of these checks have calculators on this site: use our bleed tool to set the document up correctly, and our DPI tool to confirm your images are sharp enough at final size.