FAQ’s

The term 4/1 refers to the use of our four color printing process: cyan, magenta, yellow and black on the front of the design and only black ink on the back. The 4/4 printing is four color process on both the front and back of the design.

Bleed Area:
If your document prints to the edge of the finished size, we will need an additional 1/8” bleed. For example, a postcard file with a trim size of 4×6 will actually be designed as 4.125×6.125.
Specifically, the ‘bleed’ refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet before trimming. It’s also the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper, and design inconsistencies. Artwork and background colors can extend into the bleed area.
Crop Marks:
This is where the final edge is cut during production.
Safety Area:
The safety margin guarantees images or text won’t be cut away due to printing or trimming errors.

Dots per inch.
The rule of thumb here is “bigger is ALWAYS better.” With graphic design, images can always be downsized, but images will inevitably lose quality when you try to make them bigger than its original size.

We can customize any of our templates to meet your requirements. If you are mailing the piece, there will be limits on customization in order to meet mailing standards.

Absolutely. We like to think our designers can design anything you need. Costs will vary based on the type of design needed and the length of time it takes to finish the project.

Yes. We will take your design and modify it, as needed, for printing. Nothing will be printed unless you approve of the modifications we make. Usually the modifications are simply adding crop marks and bleeds.

For optimal printing we would like to get your original source file (“.ai”, “.ind”, “.psd”). If you do not have that the next preferred format would be a vector file (“.eps”) and then a “.pdf” file. If you don’t have any of these then you could send us a high resolution “.jpg” or “.png” but we will be very limited on what we can modify and the printing will not be as crisp.

Design time will depend on the type of piece being design and the current workload in the design department. Most designs will take less than 24 hours but more complicated projects will take longer. If you need something designed ASAP, contact your Account Manager for RUSH options.