How to prepare a print-ready file (print-and-cut)
Almost every rejected file fails for the same reasons, and there are usually five. This is the list we work from.
What gets checked
A print-and-cut vinyl printer asks, at minimum, for:
- PDF/X-4 or a PDF with editing capabilities preserved, plus the native file
- All text outlined (converted to curves), no live fonts
- Images embedded, never linked
- CMYK with the profile embedded (FOGRA39 / ISO Coated v2), not RGB
- 300 ppi at final size, not at sketch size
- 3 mm bleed and 3 mm safety margin
- Separate technical layers for the cut contour and, where used, the white base
What each one means, briefly
Outlined text. If the printer doesn't have your font installed, it substitutes another without warning and your product name comes out in a different typeface. Outlined, that can't happen.
Embedded images. A linked file points at an image on your hard drive. On the printer's machine that file doesn't exist, and the illustration comes out low-res or blank.
CMYK with a profile. RGB contains colours ink cannot reproduce. If you don't convert, the machine does, and the green you approved on screen comes out dull.
Bleed and safety. Cutting has a tolerance of a few tenths of a millimetre. Without 3 mm of extra image a white line appears at the edge; without a 3 mm inner margin the cut eats a letter.
Cut layer. The contour goes in vector, in a 100 % spot colour with overprint on, so the machine reads it as a blade path instead of printing it.
The check, automated and free
Going through this by hand on every file is slow and things slip through. The studio uses an Illustrator script that checks it in one pass: colour profile, unoutlined text, linked images, presence of the technical layers, overprint and white base.
It's published free in the shop. If you bring your own art to an order, we run it for you at no cost before anything goes to the machine.
If you design in Photoshop
You can, with one condition: the illustration can stay rasterised at 350 ppi in CMYK, but the cut contour, the lettering and the legal text have to be vector. Auto-tracing an illustration gives an unusable result; tracing the lettering by hand doesn't.
Frequently asked
- Can you fix a file I already have?
- Yes. We review it and tell you what's missing. If it's a matter of preparing layers and profile, it's quoted as an adaptation; if the art is low-resolution there's no fix, and it's better to know that before paying for a run.
- What happens if I send the file wrong?
- It depends on the printer: many charge a per-file surcharge to review and correct it, others print it as-is with whatever result comes out. That's why running preflight first pays.