Preparing Design Files for Print: DPI, Bleed & Colour

We've all seen it: a design that looks crisp and vivid on a laptop turns up blurry, cropped or oddly coloured in print. It's almost never the printer's fault — it's the file. Get these three fundamentals right and your prints will match your screen far more closely.

DPI: resolution for print

DPI (dots per inch) is how much detail your file holds at its printed size. Screens are forgiving at 72 DPI; print is not. For sharp results, supply artwork at 300 DPI at the final printed size. Blowing up a small low-resolution image won't add detail — it just makes the blur bigger.

Bleed: print past the edge

If your design runs to the edge of the page, it needs "bleed" — extra artwork extending beyond where the paper will be cut. Without it, tiny shifts during trimming leave thin white slivers at the edges.

• Add roughly 3mm of bleed on every side.
• Keep important text and logos a safe margin inside the cut line.
• Extend backgrounds and images fully into the bleed area.

Colour: RGB vs CMYK

Screens mix light in RGB; printers mix ink in CMYK. Some bright RGB colours — electric blues, neon greens — simply can't be reproduced in CMYK and will shift when printed. Design in or convert to CMYK so what you see is closer to what you'll get, and you won't be surprised.

Design for the medium, not the screen. CMYK colour, 300 DPI, 3mm of bleed — three habits that prevent ninety percent of print disappointments.

The file format to send

1. Vector (PDF, AI, EPS) — best for logos, type and anything that scales: stays sharp at any size.
2. High-resolution PDF or TIFF — best for photo-heavy designs.
3. Flatten and embed fonts and images so nothing shifts on our end.

Not a designer? Don't worry. Send us what you have and our team will prep the file properly — and flag anything that won't print well before we go to press, never after.