Artwork Preparation FAQs 

If you prepare your artwork in accordance with the advice in our Artwork Preparation Section (which is one of our top tabs) then everything should proceed smoothly. If you have paid for a Pre-Print Check then any problems there may be will be advised to you and the problem solved, either by new files or a correction at CITY DESIGN & PRINT. If you opt out of the Pre-Print Check your artwork will go through an automated system and not seen by ‘human eyes’ until it reaches the press. Errors at this stage can be costly or impossible!

Please send a separate file, with each page exactly like your CMYK file but containing just the areas you would like Spot UV varnished in black.

We actually prefer booklets to be sent as individual pages so that we can allow for creep and control the imposition. Please refer to

You certainly can do just that and simply specify an additional cut under Optional extras, Finishing. However please remember the centre cut will be one cut so it's important that the cards do not run to

At CITY DESIGN & PRINT we require all files to be sent to us in PDF format. However there is absolutely no restriction on the programmes you can use to create your artwork. Microsoft Word is fine and even though many purists would not call it a 'design package' we receive some really great work produced in this programme. The same goes for Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Serif Page Plus, Xara..... the list goes on. Please refer to our Artwork Preparation section for details about how to prepare your files successfully for print.

Whichever programme you use the important final step once you are happy with your design is to make a PDF of it. This is a very easy procedure but will require PDF creation software. The 'professional choice' would be Adobe Acrobat, buy at www.adobe.com however there are some excellent, and much cheaper PDF creation software available and we have found that DeskPDF Standard is an excellent programme for PDF creation on the PC. It is available from www.docudesk.com and costs about £13.00 (paid for in dollars). If you decide to go for this software we have produced a tutorial about setting it up for files coming to CITY DESIGN & PRINT.

The final step is to view the PDF you have created to make sure everything is as intended. The good news here is that most computers have a PDF reader installed. If your computer doesn't then just go to www.adobe.com and download Adobe Acrobat Reader. This programme is completely free!!

For best results we need pictures to be supplied at 400dpi and saved in CMYK colour. Most images found online are saved in RGB colour at 72 dpi, so whilst we could print from them the results would be very poor. For more information on how we like artwork to be supplied please go to our section.

Unless your monitor has been accurately calibrated to match our press then the colours on your printing will almost certainly not match what you see on screen!

Unless calibration between your desktop printer and our presses has been carried out the answer is most likely to be no! It is really dangerous to print something out on an un-calibrated printer and 'assume' that is how it will print..

Full Colour Printing uses four inks mixed in different quantities to produce multicolour images. The colour of these four inks is Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Colour produced using these inks is referred to as process colour, CMYK or Full Colour Printing. Almost any colour can be produced by mixing these four inks but the gamut of CMYK (the range of colours which are possible to produce) is much more limited than the gamut of a Monitor or the gamut that you can see with your eyes.

Spot Colour Printing is a method that uses a different ink for each colour required. By using a single ink for each colour it is possible to achieve exceptional fidelity between print runs and good matching to either existing printing, or to colours from the Pantone (Pantone is the company which produces the standard colour definitions used throughout the print industry) Spot Colour swatches. If your printing only requires one, two or three colours, spot colour printing may have an economical advantage over full colour printing. However the main reason to opt for Spot Colours is if a colour needs to be extremely precise or falls outside that range of colour which can be produced using CMYK printing. For example, if you need to reproduce a very specific colour for a corporate logo or to match an existing piece of printing, Spot Colours Printing may be the best solution..

Our Full Colour Printing Process uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks to produce Full Colour. If you design in RGB and supply files in RGB we must convert them to CMYK to print them. We can, and do, make this conversion. However the change from RGB to CMYK can change colours (because they are outside the CMYK

 It is better that it is done on files before they are sent so that you have complete control of the conversion and on how your finished job will look.

Whilst we regularly print work with images at lower resolutions we always advise clients before doing so (if a Pre Print Check has been requested) because images which are lower resolution do not print as well. Edges can appear jagged and the picture is simply not as crisp. If you are aware that lower resolution images have been used but the ‘fault’ cannot be rectified please mention this in your order Special Instructions. This will save you being contacted unnecessarily.

Before PDFs we had a huge issue with fonts. People used to send us the fonts they used in their design even though, legally, we should have bought every font we used. This was an impractical proposition which was widely recognised in the print industry. With PDFs all the font information required to print the document comes encapsulated in the file. This means we do not need the fonts used in the document to print it. If a PDF is sent without fonts embedded we are back to the start, needing fonts again which is not a productive way forward for CITY DESIGN & PRINT or yourselves.

Please refer to our design requirements section to understand these two important design considerations. We have more issues with Bleed and Quiet Border than any other single pre-press issue.

We are happy to enlarge (or reduce) from one ‘A’ size to another (eg A4 to A3 or A2 to A4). Please bear in mind when enlarging that the resolution of images is being reduced. We will not undertake differential enlargements or reductions (where the job must be reduced more in one direction than the other (eg conversion from American letter to A4). In our experience this can lead to unexpected consequences. Such changes should be made by re-tasking the original design. Please clearly state your requirements for reduction / enlargement in special instructions.