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How To Prepare

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How To Prepare

Preparing your document properly is the most important part of the printing process. Remember, we print directly from your file without altering it in any way. At ElitePrintPros we want to make sure that you are completely satisfied with our work. For this reason, we are including the following guidelines that you must follow when submitting your printing work to us. You should download our "How To Prepare Checklist" to make sure that you are complying with all of the requirements.

We recommend that you read this entire page and become familiar with all of our requirements. You may also click on a topic below to read about that specific area.

SOFTWARE

Preparing your job correctly is the most important part of getting good results. ElitePrintPros accepts files from both Macintosh and Windows platforms. We accept files from the following programs as long as they are converted to PDF, JPG or EPS:

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop TIF, 300 dpi, CMYK colors*. Please make sure that you leave an additional 1/8th of an inch all around for bleeding if your document bleeds.

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Illustrator EPS, Set all fonts to outlines.

Document Size

When you know the size of the document you need, Please make sure that you leave an additional 1/8th of an inch all around for bleeding if your document bleeds. This will ensure that your entire art and text will be visible once it is cut to it's final size. Make sure, however, that no important art or text is in the bleeding area. You should also have at least 1/8" inside the final size (see graphic below). When using a border, remember it may be unequal either top to bottom or side to side due to minor, inevitable movements in the press and in the cutters.

WHAT'S A BLEED?

The paper is trimmed after printing to insure the ink runs fully to the edge and not stopping short of it.

WHY BLEED?

The purpose of a bleed is to continue a color, image or design off the edge of the card.

IS IT REQUIRED?

Yes. If there is a color, an image or design that goes to the edge of the document. A document with a white background with no image or design that goes beyond or to the edge does not require a bleed.

FOR EXAMPLE

If you final size is to be 3.5" x 2". You may then set your guides to 1/8" outside of the document bounds all around the document. Background colors and other designs may extend to these external bounds (bleed), but no important artwork or text should be in this area as it will be cut off.

You should ALSO leave yourself at least 1/8" from the edge of the final document size to where the important information or artwork begins inside the bounds of the document. This is visible in the graphic below as the "SAFE TEXT AREA". This means that the area where important artwork (logos, text, etc.) and information will reside on an 3.5" x 2" has an actual size of 3.375"x1.875". EPP is not responsible if important artwork or text extends beyond these specifications and is cut off!

All images must be submitted at 300 dpi at 100% scale (of the print size). Remember, a higher quality image resolution does not always result in better print quality. Excessive images resolutions (beyond 300 dpi) will only dramatically increase your file size and in most cases will not improve the print quality. Furthermore, the extra time required to handle these larger files could delay your turnaround time.

Vector-based graphics suitable for type and logos should be submitted at 100% scale and converted to EPS CMYK format with all fonts converted to outlines. ElitePrintPros will not be responsible for output from an EPS which contains fonts that are not converted to curves.

IMAGES FROM A DIGITAL CAMERA

Start with a good image. A good print starts with a high-quality image. One that merely looks good onscreen is not enough.

Before use images from a digital camera, make sure the camera is set at a high resolution to result in 300 PPI at the intended photo print size. Most cameras have various settings for resolutions. The highest resolution for your camera depends on how many Megapixels it has. You cannot increase the resolution of a photo after it is taken, except by reducing its dimensions.

IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET

Images found on the Internet are typically at a resolution of 72 PPI. This resolution is much too low for quality printing. In addition, most images on the Web are protected by copyright laws. For these reasons, we do not recommend using images from the Web.

Color

WE DO NOT PRINT PMS COLORS! The PMS and Pantone colors need to be converted to CMYK colors. Please, never submit anything using RGB, Pantone or PMS colors! Avoid unexpected results by designing and submitting your files in CMYK only.

WHAT ARE CMYK COLORS?

Most color presses use the combination of these four colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) to create full color output. Even simpler desktop color printers (such as Laser and Inkjet printers) rely primarily on the combination of these four inks to create full color output.

WHAT ARE RGB COLORS?

RGB colors are those used by most computer monitors and televisions to display full color. It is NOT, however, used for printing color output.

All work submitted to us must be converted to CMYK.