It’s just one button, but it can strike fear into the hearts of marketers everywhere—the send button. Whether you’re sending a digital print file to commercial printers for a small batch of brochures, a large-run direct mail piece, or a large-format sign that’s the showstopper at your future trade show booths, hitting send can be the hardest part of the process.
We want you to have all the information you need for a perfect print-ready file so you feel confident when you push that button. Here, we’ll lay out what commercial printers need from you to ensure your piece is printed exactly as you picture it—and the best practices you can adopt to make the process seamless.
Related: How to Get Files Ready for Professional Printing.
To make sure we’re on the same page (ahem, it is print after all), here’s a quick primer on some of the terms in this print-ready checklist to know when you work with commercial printers:
Pro Tip: Do not trust the color on your screen. Get a color proof if you want to know exactly how a color will print.
Related: You’ve Got a Print-Ready File? Now What?
Follow these steps for perfectly printed pieces:
This is a simple one. Make sure your file is sized to match the finished product. A 4 x 6” postcard needs to be set up that way.
Different file formats compress information differently. Pay attention to the overall file type. Even though it’s tempting to choose one that opens quickly, it’s most important to use a format that gives you the highest-quality images. TIFF and PNG are two such formats. Both have less compression and a higher quality. We recommend avoiding JPGs if possible because they are recompressed every time someone saves them, possibly decreasing their quality.
Excellent resolution is non-negotiable. If you want to make an impact with print, you want something people can see clearly. Therefore you must pick high-resolution imagery at 300 DPI or above. A bitmap image requires at least 600 DPI.
Pro Tip: Choose your resolution early in the process. If you try to change the image by resizing it, you may not be able to achieve a higher resolution later.
Here’s how:
In Adobe, go to New Document, and pull down the Intent menu to select “Print.”
Or go to the Color Panel and pick the color space there:
Pro Tip: Keep the same shade of black throughout your design. It’s hard to tell the difference between rich black and 100% black on a screen, but in print it’s obvious. Rich black is just that—rich and deep. The 100% black is greyer and duller. Whichever you pick, stay consistent!
Related: How to Set Up Your Print-Ready PDFs in Adobe.
A margin, or “safe zone” defines the border between the printed area and the page edge. It needs to be a minimum of 1/16” or 0.0625.” A good standard is a little larger, at 0.125” so your printed image doesn’t get cut off. In InDesign, go to Layout > Margins and Columns to set your margins.
If the printed area has bleed, the image will extend to the exact edge of the printed page. Printers are not generally good at this, so setting a bleed does the trick. Just set the margins outside of the size you’d like to print and mark these as the bleed. The press prints ink out to this area, and the page will be cut down to the desired size, eliminating any white borders around the edge. The slug line marks the space that is still printed but will be cut off with the excess bleed.
To set up a bleed in InDesign, go to File > Document Setup and update the bleed in this dialogue box.
A typical bleed is 1/8” (0.125”) on all sides, or 0.25” larger than the trim size (where the cut is made). If your project does not have a bleed, the commonly used measurement is a 0.5” – 1” margin between the edge and your design.
You’re almost there. It’s time to save your print file with a name that will help you and the printer keep it organized. Consider a logical naming convention like some of these examples:
So a file might be named something like:
“Smith_SmithShorts_JuneSale_Flyer_Image_2024_01_25_v01” or a variation of this. While it seems a bit arduous in the beginning, it will save time in the long run!
Related: Print Like a Pro Today!
Don’t forget to request a proof. Even if it’s digital (remember the color won’t be true), this will help ensure you didn’t miss anything. It never hurts to read, read, and read again at the proof stage. Typos are everywhere, and sometimes we miss them the first two times.