Artwork Guidelines

At p81print we understand that our online templates are not always suitable for every piece of print. But that's no reason why you shouldn't be able to take advantage of short run full colour low cost printing with p81print. So we can also offer you the possibility of using your own artwork.

IMPORTANT - The prices on our web site are for "print ready" artwork only. If our design team have to adjust your file in any way (e.g. resize, rotate, adjust colour, make changes), there will be an artwork charge of £50 per hour.
To ensure your file is "print ready" and avoid any extra charges, please review and ensure your artwork meets the following requirements before uploading your files.

FILE FORMAT - We can only accept artwork as "print ready" if it is in PDF format.
The majority of graphic manipulation tools will allow you to save or print your artwork in standard PDF format.
There are also tools that allow you to print to a PDF file from almost any other program. Adobe Distiller is the well known commercial version that is packaged with Acrobat, but there are also free or shareware versions available. Two of the most popular are PDF995 and AcroPDF.

RESOLUTION - Files, including any images, need to be at least 300 dpi to print clearly, otherwise images may appear fuzzy, distorted or pixellated. Most images found on the web are 72 dpi and are generally not suitable for professional printing.

COLOURS - Files must be CMYK for colours to print accurately. Files that are sent to us using RGB, Pantone, or spot colours will be automatically converted to CMYK which may cause some changes to your colours.

Production printing presses, such as those used here at p81print, use different technologies than home/office printers and computer monitors. These should not be used to proof colours as they will not accurately represent what will be printed.

If you require us to match your colours, you must send in an example of the colour to match to (even if we printed it before). However, not all colours are printable using CMYK, and if it is the case that we cannot match your colour we will inform you before printing.

CMYK colour space (subtractive colour) is used for systems where a substrate such as paper or canvas is tinted with various pigments to reflect different portions of the white daylight falling on the surface.

Color paintings, color photography and all color printing processes use the subtractive process to reproduce color. In these cases, the reflective substrate is canvas (paintings) or paper (photographs, prints), which is usually white.

Printing presses use color inks that act as filters and subtract portions of the white light striking the image on paper to produce other colors. Printing inks are transparent, which allows light to pass through to and reflect off of the paper base. It is the paper that reflects any unabsorbed light back to the viewer. The offset printing process uses cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) process color inks and a fourth ink, black. The black printing ink is designated K (key) to avoid confusion with B for blue

Subtractive color involves colorants and reflected light. It uses cyan, magenta and yellow pigments or dyes to subtract portions of white light illuminating an object to produce other colors

RGB colour space (additive colour) is used ONLY for systems which actually create coloured light – e.g. television and computer monitors.

Television and computer monitors create color using the primary colors of light. Each pixel on a monitor screen starts out as black. When the red, green and blue phosphors of a pixel are illuminated simultaneously, that pixel becomes white. This phenomenon is called additive color.

New size of print for the section on bleed in artwork guidelines :

FONTS - If we don't have the font you have used, it may be automatically substituted for an alternative font. To avoid this happening, please embed or outline all the fonts used in your document before sending us the final artwork.

BLEED - Bleed is used to extend an image, colour or line right to the edge of the finished printed piece. For example, if you want your business card background to be entirely blue, you must bleed the blue colour past the edge of the final size of your business card. This prevents a white line down one or more edges of your print, caused by very slight variations in printing and guillotining.

Please include at least 1.8mm bleed on each side of your artwork.

TEXT - Any text must be at least 5mm away from the edges of the finished size.

FILE SIZE - Files can be sent to us using the web site, via email, or using FTP.
The maximum size of a file you can upload to our web site or send via email is 10MB. If your artwork is larger than this, you can upload it to our FTP server.

You can connect to our FTP server using any FTP software, many of which are available for free download over the web. Use the following details to connect to our FTP server:

Connect to our FTP server, create a new folder and upload your files into it. Once your files have uploaded, send an e-mail to sales@p81print.co.uk
In your email include the name of the folder you created, the name of your files, your print requirements and your contact details. Once we have checked your artwork has uploaded correctly we will call you back to confirm the details of your order.

MAILED POSTCARDS - Our mailed postcards are sent by TNT post (small quantities may be sent via Royal Mail). When creating your own artwork for mailed postcards, please ensure compliancy with the TNT post specifications, otherwise your artwork will be rejected. Click here for TNT Post specifications.