Artwork Specification Guide

Here is the various guidelines for artwork. By following these guidelines, you can reduce your costs as well as eliminate any delays in the production of your label.

Mac: Formats most commonly used are Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Quark XPress and Adobe Pagemaker.

PC: Macintosh is preferred, but the following PC file formats can be converted. Quark XPress, Adobe Illustrator, Pagemaker and Photoshop. If CorelDraw format is used, please follow these directions: Export files as Illustrator (extension .ai). Use the convert text to curves option. DO NOT USE PUBLISHER. We do not have the capabilities to work with Publisher files.

Accepted Disk Formats

100 mb Zip disks and CDs. Always send a printout of your artwork showing color separations.

Email Artwork

Make sure to “Stuff” or “Zip” your files before emailing them. Either fax a hard copy or send a pdf file with your order so we can compare the emailed file. Send artwork to art@internationallabelmfg.com.

Original Artwork/Scans

Placed graphics and photographs always need to be included. Photos should be scanned at 300 dpi. Photos and scanned graphics should never be enlarged. This will cause them to become fuzzy and pixelated. They can be reproduce at 100% or less. If you need your scan to be bigger, enlarge the size while you are scanning. You can always reduce the size of your scan in the program that it is placed in.

Fonts

Include all fonts used in your artwork. Where Postcripts fonts are used, include both printer and screen fonts.

Image Area

Maintain 1/16” margin from dieline for all art, unless a bleed is desired.

Color Specifications

Specify PMS numbers on spot color artwork. Make sure that when you print out your color separations to your printer, that each separation is correct with all the intended artwork.

Screens/Tints/Gradients

Screens can range from 100% to 4%. Anything under 4% may not reproduce correctly. The screen percentage range that reproduces the best is between 10% and 30%.

Trapping

Black: Set to overprint all colors.

Colors: All traps should be set to a minimum of .5 pt. Remember to spread the lighter color into the darker color.

Bleeds

Bleeds only need to exceed the dieline or cropmarks by 1/16”.

Barcodes

Bar width reduction should be at .004” when created at 80% or 100%. We do not guarantee scanability of barcodes smaller than 80% scale.