More print jobs get delayed by file problems than by anything else in the production process. The good news is that "print-ready" isn't complicated once you understand four concepts: bleeds, crop marks, resolution, and color mode. Get these right and your file will sail through production.
Bleeds: Printing to the Edge
A "bleed" is what allows a design to print all the way to the edge of a page with no white border. Printers don't actually print past the paper's edge — instead, your artwork is printed slightly larger than the finished size (typically an extra 0.25" on each side) and then trimmed down. If you design a business card at exactly 3.5" x 2" with a background color that's meant to go edge-to-edge, any tiny misalignment in trimming will reveal a thin white sliver. Building in a bleed eliminates that risk entirely.
Crop Marks: Where to Cut
Crop marks (also called trim marks) are small lines placed just outside your bleed area that show exactly where the final trim should happen. Most design software — Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop — can generate these automatically when you export a print-ready PDF.
Resolution: Why 300 DPI Matters
Resolution is measured in dots per inch (DPI) — essentially, how much visual information is packed into each inch of your printed piece. Web images are typically 72 DPI, which looks perfectly sharp on a screen but turns fuzzy and pixelated in print. The standard for professional printing is 300 DPI at final size. If you pull an image from your website for a flyer, check its resolution before you use it — enlarging a low-res image doesn't add detail, it just makes the blur bigger.
Color Mode: RGB vs. CMYK
Screens display color using RGB (red, green, blue light). Printing presses use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black ink). These are fundamentally different systems, and colors that look vibrant on your monitor can shift — sometimes significantly — once converted to CMYK for print. If a project is color-critical (matching an exact brand color, for example), it's worth referencing a Pantone swatch book rather than trusting what you see on screen.
File Formats We Accept
- Adobe Acrobat (PDF) — preferred format for all print jobs
- Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign (native or exported to PDF)
- Canva (exported as a print-ready PDF with crop marks and bleed)
- High-resolution JPG, PNG, EPS, or TIF
Read our full FAQ on file prep and submission
Not sure if your file is ready? Send it over before your final deadline and we'll flag any print-specific issues before they become a production delay.