General Guidelines

  • A print ready, high resolution PDF is preferred & will give you the best result for printing.
  • We have the capacity to accept most other document formats (Word, PowerPoint, Illustrator etc) however saving these as PDF will ensure fonts are embedded and that layouts don’t change from system to system.
  • Apple specific document formats (Keynote, Pages, Numbers etc) are not supported.
  • Jobs can be emailed directly to us (limited to 20mb, please ensure these are attachments and not embedded in the email), or brought in on a USB.
  • Large files can be sent via FTP sites, WeTransfer, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or one or many other file transfer sites. Just drop us an email with the public or password protected link.
  • Designs should be supplied as a 1up layout (single version on a page not multiple to a page) as we use our own layout templates for printing and trimming.

Print File Specifications

  • 2mm of bleed on each edge is required for full bleed printing; 3mm for booklet printing.
  • Conversion of Spot to Process (CMYK) colours gives the best result for Digital Printing.
  • Acrobat PDF version 1.6 or higher is recommended for compatibility with most systems.

Embellishment Spot Process
(GOLD / SILVER / WHITE / CLEAR)

  • A Spot swatch with the exact name as ‘GOLD’ ‘SILVER’ ‘WHITE’ or ‘CLEAR’ must be used to produce results with the embellishments.
  • Mixed Inks can also be used with this process to blend CMYK values into the embellishment.

Booklet Setup

  • 3mm Bleed on each edge is required for full bleed printing
  • Ensure no important details are within 3mm from the edge of the document (page number, logo, etc.) as these may be cut off due to page creep.
  • A PDF must be supplied from start to end page order as a readable format and contain a page count that is a multiple of 4 pages (4, 8, 12, 16, etc.) this includes the placement of blank pages.
  • Document setup as spread pages are not accepted as these do not translate from digital to print.

Canva Designs

  • Click Here ‘ to view our Canva for printing guide PDF file. This guide has some useful information for getting your Canva design ready for printing. Below is a few tips from the printing guide PDF.
    Note: Canva update their site from time to time so some elements may move around.
  • When creating a new design for printing in the Australian ‘A series’ paper standards. Choose to ‘Create a Design’ with the ‘Custom Size’ option in mm to ensure the artwork conforms to this standard. Most designs on Canva are in U.S. paper size standards which do not convert to the Australian A series sizes.
  • If you are not sure what the mm/inch sizes are please check out this site, it covers all of them. https://www.papersizes.org/a-paper-sizes.htm
  • Enable Margins and Bleed guides from the menu File > View Settings. this will show an inner dotted line (margins) for help formatting and an outer dotted line (bleed) which needs to be filled with any background artwork that extends to the edge of the design. The bleed area must be used if you would like to have the printing to the edge of the paper.
  • Ensure no important information like page numbers or other text is within 3mm from the edge of the design to ensure nothing is cut off when we trim these to the final art size. Keeping important information halfway between the design edge and the dotted margin Canva has will work fine.
  • When saving/downloading the design ensure to change the file type to ‘PDF Print’ and tick the ‘Crop marks and bleed’ checkbox only. If you have a paid account changing the colour profile to ‘CMYK’ to improve colour accuracy when printing.
  • If you have any question about printing with Canva, let us know.

Pull Up Banner Printing

We have a few different options when it comes to Pull Up Banner printing but if you want something quick then the below option is what we recommend.

  • 850 Model (Standard or Premium) – 845 x 2000 mm viewable area
  • Artwork design as 855 x 2100 mm which includes:
    5 mm bleed artwork left and right
    10 mm non-visual from top and 90 mm non-visual from bottom
    The bleed and non-visual areas must contain artwork if the design reaches the edge of the viewable area of 845 x 2000 mm.
    If you have any questions or require a template let us know.

Foamcore / Corflute / Screenboard Printing

We can print directly to 5mm Foamcore / 5mm Corflute / 2mm Screenboard.
The Maximum printable area is 1210 x 2370 mm. We can print small to large designs within this area.
We can turn these around fairly quickly once the artwork has been confirmed print ready. The machine these are printed on does have some requirements to be met to get printing done quickly.

For a fast print job your artwork file should have:
– At least 300dpi should be used on all elements in the design.
– At least 2mm bleed on all edges with trim marks offset by 2mm with the bleed.
– Supplied as a PDF file using the CMYK colourspace.
– Any spot colours used are to be converted to CMYK process.
– All transparency objects should be flattened and there should be no overprint objects.

If you are unable to get the artwork with the above details we may be able to make some modification so the machine accepts the file but this will add time to the job. If you have any questions let us know.

Currently we are limited to printing and trimming straight cut designs but are looking into getting a machine that will allow any custom cut designs later down the track.

Black Values for Colour Printing

Our digital printing works in the CMYK colourspace. On screens black is shown in RGB colourspace and all blacks may look identical but will print completely different. Some software like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign have a setting to allow blacks to be displayed more accurately for use in the CMYK colourspace. When printing only in Black and White, (100% K) black is recommended however when printing in colour on paper stock heavier than the standard 80gsm paper weight the 100% K black doesn’t do so well. Below are some standards we use to get better results from blacks when printing in colour for all paper weights.

  1. Pure Black – (0% C, 0% M, 0% Y, 100% K)
    Coverage: 100%
    Usage: Light Stocks Only
  2. Colour Black – (30% C, 30% M, 30% Y, 100% K)
    Coverage: 190%
    Usage: Light-Med Stocks
  3. Rich Black – (60% C, 60% M, 60% Y, 100% K)
    Coverage: 280%
    Usage: Med-Heavy Stocks
  4. Registration Black – (100% C, 100% M, 100% Y, 100% K)
    Coverage: 400%
    Usage: Trim/Reg Marks Only

We recommend using the “3. Rich Black” when printing in colour, for all black solids and text as this targets the mid weight making it more useful across all weights.

If you need advice, email us at email@printcity.biz, or call on 9654 3759.