Ordinarily, I like to feature a proper expert in the newsletter, but this time you’re stuck with me. Since loads of you are getting creative with Canva and other template packages (and fair play to you), I thought I’d share my top 5 tips for making your DIY designs print-ready:
1. Add Crop Marks and Bleed – Your design needs a 3mm bleed around the edges so we don’t end up with white borders when we trim. Think of it as insurance for your artwork.
2. Check Your Resolution – 300 DPI minimum, please! Your design might look crisp on screen at 72 DPI, but it’ll look like it’s been printed through a potato when we get our hands on it.
3. Convert to CMYK – Your screen shows colours in RGB, but printers work in CMYK. That bright blue might end up looking a bit more… interesting than you expected if you don’t convert it first.
4. Watch Your Fonts – Either embed them or convert to outlines. Nothing worse than your carefully chosen typography turning into Comic Sans because we don’t have your fancy font installed.
5. Check Your Margins – Keep important text and images at least 5mm from the edge. Nobody wants to read text that’s been guillotined in half.
Of course, if all this sounds like too much faff, remember we offer an in-house design service. Unique designs, no templates, starting from £45 for flyers. Sometimes it’s worth letting the professionals handle it while you get on with running your business!
Want to Be Our Next Featured Expert?
Fancy seeing your name in lights (well, in our newsletter)? If you’d like to be our featured expert next month, drop us a line. You’ll also automatically get a slot in issue 3 of our magazine, which is basically like being famous but with less paparazzi.
