American Printing

Prepare Files

Our team at American Printing works hard to make your life easier, and in doing so we’ve put together this guide to help you prepare your files for  trouble-free processing. Please review the following and if you have any questions just let know.

Layout files, graphics, and fonts

If your artwork goes all the way to the edge of the page, you need to make sure you include 1/8 inch “bleed” in your artwork on all 4 sides.

If you are sending us application (i.e, non-PDF) files, make sure you include ALL font files, including fonts that are used in linked graphics. For extra insurance against font errors, you can convert fonts to paths (outlines). This will not affect the type quality but will eliminate our ability to make any late changes.

If you are sending us PDF files, please combine both pages of a two-sided document into one file. In Acrobat, go to “Document > Insert Pages” or just drag the second page from the desktop to the “Pages” tab.

Set up large areas of black coverage with the following values: 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, 100 black. Small black text (under 18 pt) and rules (under 6 point) should be left 100% black only.

If your design requires perforations or folds, please indicate them in the bleed area of your artwork with a small tick mark (NOTE: You can also download templates that contain these marks from the product pages of most folding products).

Convert all spot colors to process colors (mixes of cyan, magenta, yellow and black) unless your job requires Pantone™ inks, in which case please make sure you indicate that at time of order.

Convert all RGB colors to process colors. Our system does this automatically, but it’s a good idea to do it yourself as it can affect expectations and color accuracy.

Images

Images should be in the cmyk colorspace. In Photoshop, look under “Image > Mode” to confirm. Grayscale is also acceptable.

Images should be at least 300 dpi in resolution. Look under “Image > Image Size” to confirm, and make sure the image isn’t enlarged more than 125% in your layout application. Lower resolutions will result in poor output quality.

If you are saving images as JPEGs, make sure they are set to the highest quality compression level.

If you are saving files as EPS, make sure that preview is set to TIFF, 8-bits /pixel, and Encoding is set to Binary.

If you are building your entire layout in Photoshop, make sure the image size is set up to include 1/8″ “bleed” all the way around.

If you are typesetting in Photoshop, save as a Photoshop PDF version 6 or higher from the layered file, or provide the layered Photoshop file and all fonts used.

Set up large areas of black coverage with the following values: 60 cyan, 40 magenta, 40 yellow, 100 black.

If you are creating gradients in Photoshop and are seeing banding on screen, please know that it will probably look even worse when printed. Try to avoid using subtle gradients, especially with light screens. If you do build gradients in Photoshop, it’s a good idea to use the “Noise” filter to break them up a little bit. Make sure you apply the noise only to the channels that hold color. 1% Gaussian is usually sufficient.

MORE:

Marketing and Event Collateral

Packaging

Large Format Printing

Graphic Design

Die Cutting

Round Cornering

Embossing

Foil Stamping

Scoring and Perforating

Folding

Packaging

Assembly

Laminating

Drilling

Padding

Numbering

Pick-up and Delivery

Marketing and Event Collateral

Packaging

Large Format Printing

Graphic Design

Die Cutting

Round Cornering

Embossing

Foil Stamping

Scoring and Perforating

Folding

Packaging

Assembly

Laminating

Drilling

Padding

Numbering

Pick-up and Delivery