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 Do
you need a custom label design service?
We are pleased to offer a custom label design service
to customers who dont have professional artwork files
to use for their new label design.
No matter how "rough" your design or concept,
we can work with you to acheive exactly the label
label design you need in a very cost effective way,
saving you the costs of commisioning a full grahic
design service from an advertising or design agency.
Just ask our sales team
for details.
Software we use to design labels
If you do have artwork for us to work with, then
please note the following guidence notes from our
design studio.
Our graphic design studio is PC based using
predominately CorelDraw 14, & Adobe
Illustrator CS3. These are our preferred file
formats.
We prefer artwork created using these vector based
drawing programs as this gives you much higher quality
results than raster based design packages such as
Adobe Photoshop. It also gives better colour
separation results.
Graphic images such as logos are best sent as originals
or as 600 dpi TIFF files
We do not accept Quark Xpress files. If Quark
Xpress is the only program you are using then please
convert all of the text in your design to outline
paths and save as a PDF and an EPS file and send us
both of these files to work from. The PDF and EPS
file will usually satisfactorily import into Adobe
Illustrator.
We do not accept Gif or Jpeg files
as these type of files are usually of very poor quality
due to compression artefacts.
Sources of images
If you are looking for new images to include in your
label designs, you could try these three services
which we have found to be invaluable:
Preferred
file types (in order of preference)
- Coreldraw v14 with all text converted to curves
- Adobe Illustrator CS3 with all text as outline
paths
- EPS with all text as outline paths
- PDF with all text as outline paths
- TIFF 600dpi for photographic images only
- BMP for 1 colour mono logo, at 600 dpi
For a full explanation of different graphics file
types visit the Wikipedia
pages on graphics pages here
These
file types may work to a reasonable quality, but commonly
cause problems
- Word Documents - we can only use this for simple
text designs
- Excel - simple text designs only
- PPT - simple text designs only
If the file type you use is not listed, then please
contact our sales staff to discuss the transfer of
your file.
Mac
disks
We have software to read Mac Compact disks containing
suitable file types, or can accept Mac files emailed
to us that are saved in formats that will import into
PC software such as Adobe Illustrator.
Hardware
We can accept artwork sent to us by 1.44MB disk,
email or CD. We do not operate an ISDN connection
solely for artwork transfer - sorry but we've moved
to ADSL data transfer long ago that is much faster
and more reliable!
Instructions
When designing all artwork for label printing use
vector based drawing programs such as CorelDraw
14, & Adobe Illustrator CS3 for the
best results. This will improve the sharpness of the
printing plates and allow for easier colour separation.
Any photographic images should be embedded
into the file and all text created where possible
as vector drawing line work.
If your artwork needs bleed off e.g. the print
touches an edge of the label, please allow 1.5 mm
of bleed off. Always remember to convert all fonts
to Curves/Paths this will stop any missing font issues,
when being opened by us.
Flexographically printed labels have to be stepped
and repeated and have allow for stretch around
the cylinder before sending for plates. This however
is not a simple process and you should contact the
artwork department for advice on how to step and repeat
your design. It is preferable if you allow us to do
this for you.
The most common problems we face with artwork
are low resolution jpeg and gif files being
sent to us ( which are just not usable for printing)
and clients sending designs to us without converting
fonts into outline paths. If you do not do this
we may not have the same fonts on our system and this
will delay the artwork approval stage of the order.
If you have any concerns or queries please ring our
art department for advice on how to send your files
or email jamie@selfadhesivelabels.com
Proofing
Please send us a colour proof of your artwork with
your order if possible. We will always send you an
artwork approval form before we print your order by
fax or emailed as a PDF file.
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