A practical checklist before submitting the layout to the printing house. Departures, fonts, resolution, color — everything a designer needs to know.
Why prepare the layout correctly
An improperly prepared layout is the main reason for alterations and delays in the printing house. Instead of having your print run printed, our designers spend time correcting mistakes. This slows down the work and can cost extra money.
This checklist is based on the real mistakes that we face every day. Go through all 10 points before sending the layout to the printing house, and your order will be completed without delay.
1. Work in the right format.
Create a layout immediately in the actual size of the final product. Do not make a 300×150 mm business card "for convenience" — the printing house may interpret the size differently.
Standard formats:
- Business card: 90×50 mm
- Leaflet A6: 105×148 mm
- A5 flyer: 148×210 mm
- A4 booklet: 210×297 mm (unfolded)
- Eurobucket: 297×210 mm (folding into 3 parts)
2. Add bleeds
Departure — this is a reserve of colored background outside the cut, so that there is no white stripe on the edges when cutting inaccurately.
The standard span is 3 mm on each side. That is, for a 90×50 mm business card, the final document should be 96×56 mm, and the business card itself should be in the center with 3 mm backgrounds on the sides.
For large formats (posters, banners), the reach can be 5-10 mm.
3. Do not place important items close to the edge.
Safe zone — this is at least 3-5 mm from the cutting line. Text, logos, and important graphic elements must be inside the safe zone, otherwise they may be cut off.
Rule: 3 mm spans + 3 mm safe zone = only 6 mm of "free space" around the perimeter.
4. Convert everything to CMYK
The color model for printing is CMYK only. If your Photoshop works in RGB, some of the colors will fade or change during conversion.
Conversion: Image → Mode → CMYK Color. Do this at the beginning of the work and, based on the "familiar" colors, compose the layout.
Exception: Some digital printers work in RGB. Check with the printing company, but by default it is better to submit to CMYK.
5. The resolution is 300 dpi in the final size
The minimum resolution for high—quality printing is 300 dpi (dots per inch). For raster graphics (photos, textures).
A typical mistake: a designer takes a 640×480 px photo from the Internet and enlarges it to A4 size. It looks fine on the monitor, but pixels are visible when printing.
How to check: open the photo in Photoshop, Image Size → uncheck "Resample" → enter the desired size → if the dpi is less than 300, the photo is too small.
Exception: vector graphics (AI, SVG) — scaled without loss of quality.
6. Fonts — in curves
If you used a non-standard font in the layout, the printing company may not have it. When you open the file, the font will be replaced with the nearest system font, and the entire design will float.
Solution: before submitting, translate all texts into outlines:
- Illustrator: Select All → Type → Create Outlines (Ctrl+Shift+O)
- CorelDRAW: Arrange → Convert to Curves (Ctrl+Q)
- InDesign: Type → Create Outlines
Or attach font files to the order.
7. Black is the right color.
There are several "black" ones in CMYK:
- K100 (0,0,0,100) — "black channel", only black paint. It looks slightly grayish on the print.
- Composite Black (40,30,30,100) — all 4 colors. Deep, intense.
The rule:
- Fine text and fine lines — K100 (avoids blurring from mixing colors)
- Large plates, backgrounds, large text — composite black for saturation
8. Check the thickness of the lines
Fine lines on the print may disappear or become jagged. Minimum thickness:
- For offset: 0.15mm (about 0.4pt)
- For digital printing: 0.25mm (about 0.7pt)
- For plotter cutting: 1 mm
9. Save it in the correct format
The printing house accepts:
- PDF — universal format. Preferably PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 with embedded fonts.
- AI — Adobe Illustrator with fonts in curves
- CDR — CorelDRAW versions X7 and higher
- TIFF — for raster graphics (posters, banners)
- PSD — Photoshop (only for real-size raster graphics)
Undesirable: JPG (lossy compression, bad for printing), PNG, Word/PowerPoint (not suitable for printing).
10. Make a trial PDF and check
Before shipping:
- Export to PDF (File → Export → PDF)
- Open a PDF in Adobe Reader — how the printing house will look
- Check: are all fonts in place? are all the images displayed? Are there any oddities?
- If it's OK, send it to the printing company.
Additionally: avoid these mistakes.
- Low-quality Instagram photos — they are always less than 300 dpi for printing
- The backgrounds are too dark — with a paint density of more than 300%, they will dry forever and "stain" the following sheets
- Elements outside the format — everything that goes beyond the borders will be cut off
- Forgotten Layers — before exporting, make sure that there are no hidden layers or location marks left.
- Incorrect color profiles — when converting RGB→CMYK, the correct ICC profile must be present.
Need some help?
Our designers will check your layout before printing. This is a free service when ordering from 500 pcs. For smaller print runs, the check is 300-500 ₽.
Full list of layout requirements — with examples and recommendations on technologies. Give me a call +7 (343) 288-71-82 — we can help you with any question.
