Artwork Services for Custom Printing: A Complete Guide to Getting Your Designs Print-Ready

I have been in the print industry more than ten years, and I cannot remember all the times that I had a project that was derailed due to artwork problems. That gorgeous logo mock-up which had looked great on the screen? It became a pixeled mess on the end product. Colorful designs that a client endorsed on his computer screen? On the printed banners they appeared obscure and greasey.

The thing is, in this case, artwork services are created to eliminate those headaches. Be it opening a line of merchandise, ordering a series of promotional materials to promote your company or designing a business specific line of clothing, knowing the mechanics of an artwork service can save you time, money and a lot of frustration.

So What exactly are artwork services?

Art services create the missing link between creative idea and files that are production ready. Imagine they are translation services-they accept your ideas of designs and logos, or even just scribbles and translates them into so-called printing equipment replicable formats.

This is a service provided by most of the custom printing firms as a package to add-on. The work usually involves conversion of files, color, resolution, and vectorization as well as the production of printable templates. Others have gone a notch higher and provide design changes, mockup development and pre-press consultation.

I recall that I was given a small bakery owner who insisted on her hand-drawn logo on the packaging. She had a nice sketch on a piece of notebook paper and that is clearly not what you can key in a printing press. We had our team of artists scan her drawing and then used the computer to get the drawing digitized, cleaned up and produced the different types of files as a vector.

The importance of Professional Work Preparation.

Being straightforward, DIY artwork preparation can hardly be successful without graphic design training. I have witnessed innumerable projects being held up due to customers handing in web-resolution images to be printed on a tract of large size, or RGB files when CMYK needed to be used.

The requirements of the resolutions are extremely different depending on the product size. A graphic made in social media may look terrific at 72 DPI, but when it has to be enlarged into a banner, the pixels will be blown out of proportion and will look unattractively. Professional artwork services make sure that your files are of a minimum resolution, most printed materials should be of 300 DPI.

Accuracy of colors entails a different challenge altogether. Light (RGB) and ink (CMYK) are used to color the monitors and the printers respectively. This is the basic distinction that what you see is not necessarily what you receive. Artwork technicians that have been in the field know color gamuts, Pantone matching, and how to tweak designs to get the printed colors to be as close to expectations as can be physically.

Even professional designers fall off the file format compatibility trap. Various printing procedures specify types of files. Screen printing requires its channels of colors to be separated. High-resolution rasters or vectors are favored by digital printing. Die-cutting involves cut lines on different layers that are fine. Failure to do this would lead to delays in production.

Artwork Services to be offered.

Vector Conversion

The gold standard of logos and graphics that require scalability is the use of the vector files. Contrary to the raster images (JPG, PNG), vectors are represented by mathematical formulas, i.e. they can be extended indefinitely in size without a loss of quality.

In the event that you only have a low-resolution logo on your site, vector conversion restores your design as a scalable artwork. Professional artists simply re-trace your drawing with the help of special programs and follow each curve, detail.

Image Retouching and Image Enhancement.

There are also times when you possess near-perfect art work which requires polishing. Perhaps the colors should be altered, the backgrounds should be taken off, or the minor flaws should be corrected. Image improvement services smooth out your already existing files without having to begin afresh.

Design Adaptation

Your business card design will not simply work on a bill board. Design adaptation is the re-sizing and reformatting of artwork to other applications with a consistent brand. This involves changing proportions, repositioning, and changing the size of the text.

Template Creation

When the printing requires are recurring, the use of professional template makes it easy to place orders in the future. Artwork services will be able to develop appropriately formatted templates of the labels of products to the signs of the events.

Selecting the Appropriate Artwork Service Provider.

All artwork services are not created the same. The following are my evaluation criterion with providers:

• Portfolio depth matters. Look at the examples of their past work in various printing applications. Quality providers present pre/ post transformations that demonstrate their technical abilities.
• Headaches are avoided through communication transparency. The excellent providers state what they will do, what will be limited and what you will get. Watch out against empty promises that do not have any deliverables.
• There should be revision policies that are clear. What is the number of included rounds of changes? What is considered to be a revision and a new project? Knowledge of this initial will inhibit billing shocks.
• Turnaround times should be put into consideration with quality. Rush jobs are usually more expensive and can affect quality of attention to detail.

Cost Considerations

The prices of artwork services differ a lot depending on the complexity. A straightforward logo can be made clean and then the logo can be simply vectorized between 25-75. Multicolored illustrations or retouching of photos may cost more than several hundred dollars. The majority of the providers provide quotes when they have studied your specific files.

Think of art making as the security against production difficulties. It is better to pay $50 in the initial set up to prepare files well than to reprint a $500 order due to the colors being wrong.

Producing Effectively with Artwork Teams.

Effective communication is faster. In the filing of files, include:

• Namely: specific color references (Pantone number where possible).
• Last application information (what product, what size)
• Examples of results you like
• Guidelines on brand, as they are.
• The more context you give it the better your final piece of work will be.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the file format to be used in custom printing?
Send the best version of it, however, mostly AI, EPS, or PDF when it comes to logos. Photographs are done in high-resolution PNG or TIFF. In order to convert files, artwork services will be used.

What is the average time of preparation of artwork?
Basic projects are finished in the course of 24-48 hrs. The intricate converting or designing processes that need intensive work can take 3-5 business days.

Is it possible to enhance low-resolution pictures to print?
To some extent, yes. Nevertheless, there exist physical constraints. Images that are seriously pixelated can only be re-created, but not fixed up.

Am I the owner of the final files of the artwork?
Typically, yes. The bulk of providers will provide you with finished files to use at your free will. Check terms of ownership and then place an order.

Then what should I do when I do not have any existing work?
Most of them provide design and prepare artwork, and they will design original graphics on their own recommendation, according to your instructions.

Does the printing quotes cover preparations of artwork?
Sometimes. Most printers will come with some basic preparation, but will apply surcharges to do more comprehensive customization or vectorization.