Technical guide for the submission of artwork
1. Creating artwork
Creating your own artwork might not be as difficult as you think ! All but the most sophisticated designs can be created simply using packages such as MS Word and MS Publisher. If you are not confident then we will design your advert for you free of charge.
2. Sending Your Files
You should send your artwork electronically. You can do this by email or you can upload your file using the online order form on the Advertise page. Files larger than 2MB can be sent using a website such as TransferBigFiles.
* We don't accept printed artwork - the quality will suffer during the conversion to electronic format.
3. File Formats
We would prefer your artwork in portable document format (pdf), tiff or jpg. If you are using a wordprocessing or DTP package to draft the artwork it can easily be converted to pdf. If you prefer, we will accept your artwork in MS Word, MS Publisher or other DTP package and convert it to pdf for you.
Whichever format you choose, your file should be at the correct size for print.
Photographs and images used in your artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600dpi.
4. Proofing Copy
You are solely responsible for the accuracy of content and you should of course check your artwork before sending it to us.
We will however proof your artwork as soon as it is received and we will contact you if there are any perceived problems.
We do not send proofs of jobs prior to printing the advertising brochure. In the electronic world, sending hard copy proofs by post causes major delays and sending digital proofs is little more than returning the original artwork to you !
5. Fonts
We can process all the most popular Mac and PC fonts.
Where you have used a rare font outside the 'normal' range we recommend converting the text created with this font into curves. This means that we no longer require the original font when we print your job.
Where you are supplying your work as a PDF it should always be produced with fonts embedded. With a tiff or jpg fonts are much less of an issue since these formats effectively embed the fonts required to print.
If you're unsure, send the artwork to us and we'll advise.
6. Colour Matching
There are a large number of variables which can affect the colour produced in Full Colour Printing. Simply looking at the appearance of colours on a monitor, especially if no monitor calibration has been carried out, may not produce the exact colours you expect. Though this should not prove to be problematic, it is nevertheless something you should be aware of.
If exact colour match is essential then, rather than leaving it to chance (and 'keeping your fingers crossed') we recommend that colours be chosen from Hard Copy Colour Charts. There are several available on the market (for example, you could try www.cheapleaflets.co.uk or www.colchester-press.co.uk).