We offer a range of artwork, design and layout options to suit everyone’s budget.
If you are just starting out in the wonderful world of print and want to have a go at creating your own artwork then you can find some helpful information for setting up your artwork below. Even if you are designing on a regular basis, there may be something of interest here. If you’re not too flash on the ol’ computer then we’re happy to do as much or as little of the artwork creation as you’d like. Put simply, most artwork requires text (otherwise known as copy), images and a logo of some kind. To keep costs down you can source your own images, logo and write the copy and then we’ll put it all together for you. Or if you prefer just provide us with a brief and we’ll take care of the rest.
We offer the following services;
Design
Create press ready files
Recreate or rework existing artwork
Design / layout business cards, brochures, stationery, invoice books etc.
Brand development
Logo design – illustrative or graphical
Character and creature design
Illustrative portraiture
Write copy for brochures, booklets etc.
Convert files for optimized web use
DESIGN FAQ
I have had something printed with someone else but don’t have the artwork.
Just send us an example of what the artwork looks like and we’ll give you a quote to recreate it as close as possible to the original. This works well when you also need some changes made or want to give your existing artwork a bit of a makeover.
How much will it cost?
Our design rate starts at $88 (GST inclusive) per hour for new artwork to be created. If you just need minor changes made then please email us what you require and we will work out a small fee that covers the design time. As a rough guide a double sided business card takes 1 hour and a double sided DL or postcard where you provide the necessary elements will take approximately 2 hours.
How many changes can I make?
For logo design, we will provide 3 different designs. From there you would need to choose 1 design. You will then be able to have 2 rounds of changes as part of the initial price. Any changes beyond that will be charged at an hourly rate. This information will be included in the quote.
To save money on design for print products we suggest providing us with a Word doc that has the rough layout idea you would like – including fonts. This saves time for us and in turn saves money for you. All elements must be provided (unless we are doing logo) Eg; logos, photos and all text information.
Print Set Up Info
Always include trim marks
Please ensure that your artwork contains trim / crop marks so that we can cut it in the right place.
3mm of internal bleed
Internal bleed is the area just inside your trim marks (the final size of your job). We require 3mm of internal bleed on all files – this means you need to keep all of your important information away from this 3mm area. Background images and graphics are fine, just no critical information that can’t be trimmed away.
3mm of external bleed
Your job is printed on a larger sheet than its finished size and then trimmed down. External bleed is the area extending just beyond your trim area (the final size of your job). This is the area that will be trimmed off with any other excess paper. We require 3mm of external bleed – this means your artwork must extend 3mm beyond your trim marks.
Example
When setting up a business card, make the document 3mm bigger than the final business card size on all 4 sides. Eg. For a 90 x 55mm business card make the document 96mm x 61mm. Or just add 3mm bleed in the preference box at the start when creating your document if using Adobe designing software.
Always supply your files in CMYK mode
Your computer screen displays your images in RGB colour mode. We print your job in CMYK. Before your job can go to press, these RGB files must be translated to CMYK. It’s best that you do the RGB to CMYK conversion of your own files. In most cases the colour change is very slight – too small to even notice. However, once in a while the conversion will produce a noticeable colour change. You’ll have more control over the final appearance of your job if you convert all of your images from RGB to CMYK before you send them to us.
Resolution
We recommend that you supply print ready files at 300dpi image resolution at 100% for best results. We cannot accept anything lower than 150dpi.
Ink density
The maximum ink coverage that’s possible in 4 colour process printing is 400%. That’s 100%C, 100%M, 100%Y, 100%K. However, if you were to print a file with this amount of ink coverage, the ink on the sheet would never dry! The maximum ink coverage we recommend is 300% for coated stocks and 260% for uncoated stocks. This means the colours that you use on any one pixel should contain less than a total of 300% (or 260%) when you add together CMY and K. Only colours heading towards black will constitute a high ink density. These blacks often get bumped up by using levels in Photoshop so be aware of this when colour balancing your images.
To create a simple rich black try using 100% K, 40% C and 40% M.
Always embed your fonts or convert to outlines
Embedding the fonts that you use in your files allows us to print them even if we don’t have those particular fonts installed on our computers. Your fonts will look exactly the way you want them to.
Fonts can be embedded into formats such as PDF files.
File formats
High Resolution Press Quality PDFs are our preferred file format although we can accept most native file formats except Corel Draw and Microsoft Publisher. If you have created your artwork in these programs please be sure to export and send us a PDF instead of the native file. And if possible, please supply your PDFs as a 1 multi-page file instead of separate files for every page or side.
Please contact us for more information.