FILE PREPARATION GUIDELINES (PAGE 1 OF 2)

FILE PREPARATION GUIDELINES (PAGE 1 OF 2)
PRODUCTION PLATFORM:
• MAC OS X Desktop Stations
LAYOUTS APPLICATIONS:
• Adobe Creative Cloud (preferred)
• Quark
SPOT COLORS:
• Spot Colors are a lithographic process. If a file comes in with spot colors assigned, our rip will
create the best possible match it interprets using the gamut of the printer.
• Please advise if the Spot Color is crucial to the design (brand color). At your request, a color swatch
chart will be generated to try to achieve the best possible color match (additional charges may
apply).
FONTS:
• Fonts should be supplied and zipped to protect their integrity. They should also be provided with
any native files including layered Photoshop files that use fonts.
RASTER IMAGES:
• Should be linked, not be embedded in documents.
• Can be CMYK or RGB
• “Rezzing Up” images either using Bi-Cubic Smoother or Preserve Details in Photoshop
• Effective Resolution (resolution at final size) is recommended based on approx. viewing distance:
VIEWING DISTANCE
EFFECTIVE RESOLUTION
1’ - 5’
150 - 200 ppi
5’ - 10’
100 ppi
10’ +
50 ppi
Michael P. Morabito | National Manager of Prepress | T: 201.716.5215
190 Jony Drive, Carlstadt, NJ 07072 | www.coloredge.com
FILE PREPARATION GUIDELINES (PAGE 2 OF 2)
BLEED SETUP AND TYPE SAFETY (bleed setting is per side / at final size):
• Banners .50” Bleed
• Billboards 3.00” Bleed
• SAV (Self Adhesive Vinyl) Barricades .50” Bleed
• Boards and Rigid Material .25” Bleed
• Photographic Prints .25” Bleed
• Backlit Fabric with Gaskets:
Based on VO: 1.25” Bleed
Type safety: .5” in from VO
Based on O/A with Gaskets: .625 Bleed Type safety: 1” from O/A Dimension
• Wrapped Boards and Stretcher Frames:
Image to wrap should be, at least, board/frame thickness +1/8”
Example: Frame is 1” deep, image bleed on each side should be (1” + 1/8” = 1-1/8”)
SUPPLIED PDFs:
Given the custom nature of many of the creative projects that pass through our prepress, we prefer native
files for our production needs. However, if you elect to do so, you can supply a print-ready pdf by doing the
following:
• Embed all fonts
• PDF standard Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6)
• No downsampling of images and use only ZIP compression
• Export with marks offset the same as bleed, following the bleed standards
• You can also use our settings by downloading the .joboption file “CE_Print_Ready_PDF”
for your Adobe line of products (under our upload tab on our website.).
Michael P. Morabito | National Manager of Prepress | T: 201.716.5215
190 Jony Drive, Carlstadt, NJ 07072 | www.coloredge.com