Need help with artwork? No problem

Prices in our catalogue / website are based on you supplying us with print ready artwork and colour proofs where appropriate. The different formats we can accept artwork in are detailed below.

However, if you don’t have the facility or time to create your artwork this isn’t a problem and we are very happy to help.

In most cases customers are able to supply some logos, copy and images. Providing these are of printable quality this is often a relatively simple task of ‘setting’ artwork in a presentable way, perhaps on a display stand or banner for example.

We call this ‘design with a small d’ and for a small artwork charge it’s a great way to save you time and get a professionally designed display.

In the cases where we start this process with a blank page or a basic idea / sketch from you, this becomes ‘design with a capital D’.

After consultation with you we’d quote design on a fixed price basis in-line with our clear pricing policy. No surprises and no hidden charges just because your boss has changed the design after all your hard work!

Prices start from just £25

If you’ve got artwork ready to go, here’s how we prefer to work. Remember if you need any help with any aspect of your order just call us on 0800 389 9898 – oh and of course it’s OK for your technical people to speak with our technical people on the tricky stuff.

How to supply your artwork

The quality of the final printed product begins with the quality of the artwork. To make your order here's how we need you to supply your artwork:

We can print from most software packages including:

• Quark Xpress
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe In Design
• Adobe Pagemaker
• Aldus Freehand
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• High Resolution Acrobat PDFs

Our system is Macintosh based, however under certain circumstances we can print from PC originated files (call us on 0800 389 9898 for advice).

File sizes can sometimes be confusing when printing images at larger than normal sizes. Here's a few pointers:

Quark document set up is constrained to 1219mm x 1219mm so you may need to set up your files at half, quarter or even ten percent of their intended final print size. This is not a problem... we can enlarge them before we print.

Photoshop and Illustrator links can sometimes become very large and difficult to handle if saved at full size. Once again if you need to supply them at a reduced percentage this is not a problem.

If you're unsure about your image or scan resolution, we reckon the best method of checking is to view your scan on screen at the size you intend to print it at. You may see pixelation or a breaking down of the image quality and colours. This generally means your photo scan does not have enough original resolution to accommodate a big enlargement. This may seem unsophisticated to some, however original scanning facilities differ from place to place so one person's 'dots per inch' is not always the same as another. Once again, if in doubt call us on 0800 389 9898 for friendly advice!

Scans should be converted to CMYK in Photoshop. This will give you a true reflection of what you can expect the final output to look like. Colour proofs should be supplied where possible, although we can provide proofs for a small fee prior to final print if you need us to.

Fonts - We stock extensive font libraries, however, due to the diversity of type available support fonts should be supplied (Printer and Screen or Truetype).
Artwork & Scanning - We offer a full service for scanning of original photographs, transparencies (up to 5" x 4") and printed graphics for insertion into artwork. Please contact us free on 0800 389 9898 for our standard charges for scanning or remastering of supplied images.

File transfer can be via:

Email up to 15MB
CD up to 1GB
DVD up to 4.2GB

or via our secure FTP server, please call for username and password.