1. Watch your Bleeds Carefully

Make sure your background images extend into the bleed area (the extra 1/8" margin around your document) in order to allow for accurate trimming and finishing. Remember to keep text and non-bleeding images at least 1/8" from the trim marks (1/4" safety is recommended).

2. Use CMYK to Get the Best Color Results

Save all your images as CMYK before you import them into your design document. Also be sure to use CMYK value colors and not RGB. When exporting your document to PDF for printing, select the option to convert colors to CMYK, just in case any were missed.

3. Eliminate Font Errors by Converting to Outlines

Alleviate the frustration of incorrect font appearance by converting your text to outlines. By doing so, you make the text uneditable but you also eliminate font issues. We recommend saving one version of your file to remain editable before you convert everything to outlines.

4. Use high resolution photos

To get the best results in printing, we recommend images be saved at 300 dpi or higher. Be careful not to download images from the internet unless they are large enough to be equivalent to 300 dpi. Low resolution images will look blurry when printed.

5. Use CMYK blacks wisely

If you want to achieve a rich (true) black, set your CMYK values in your design application to: Cyan=30%, Magenta=30%, Yellow=30%, Black=100%. We only recommend using 100% black (0% C, M, and Y) for black text within the main body of your document. It can also be used to achieve a dark gray. DO NOT use the rich black values if you want your document to print in black and white only.