We are happy to accept several file formats and disk types. Software changes incredibly frequently, so it's best to call us before you start work to check which versions we support. If your application or media type isn't listed, please call us. Even if your application is not supported, we may be able to suggest a work-around to get the file to us as a PDF or EPS.

Please always send us the native file from your application, if not a high-quality EPS or PDF/X file.

Applications

Macintosh
Quark, In Design, Photoshop, Illustrator

PC
Quark, In Design, Photoshop, Illustrator

PDFs saved in the PDF/X format. Read more about PDF/X

EPSs saved with bleeds and crop marks.

Notes on Images and Graphics

If you are scanning photographs yourself, save them as TIFF files as this will preserve the colour and clarity of your images. GIF or JPEG formats compress the image and actually discard information, causing colour shifts and blurriness. Don't use either of these file formats – they may actually print in black and white and you won't like the results.

Save your images in CMYK colour or greyscale if it's a single colour job. Do not save as RGB. RGB colour space is designed for on-screen output only.

Make sure your image is of a high enough quality. Typically an A5 TIFF file will need to be about 5-10Mb. Using images from the Internet is generally not recommended.

You shouldn't compress your image either, or it will cause problems. So LZW, JPEG and ASCII encoding are all no-nos.

Text and Fonts

When working with small text, it's best not to use colours which contain more than one ink. All printing presses have a tiny variation in the positioning of the different colour printing plates. It's fine to use coloured text in headlines or type above, say, 12 point, but below that the blurring will be noticeable and won't look too good. The same thing happens when you knock white text out of a coloured background made from more than one ink.

Also, Quark ‘P', ‘B' and ‘I' styles aren't reliable. Please don't use Mac System Fonts either (such as “Times”) as they do not contain printer information and will not print. (Use “Times New Roman” instead). Include all fonts that you have used.

If you are going “cross-platform”, ie. from PC to Mac, remember that fonts don't travel well. Check that we've got the same font and provide hard copies. We'll need you to check a proof carefully since even fonts from the same place can have slight differences resulting in reflow and words disappearing. We really advise against setting text in a bitmap application like Photoshop – the text will not be nearly as clear as if it were vector text from Illustrator or Quark.

Things to Remember!