More information on preparing artwork for screen printing:
File Requirements
File requirements for screen printing tends to be more important than it is for other services we offer. This is because we use the file you provide for printing directly. It’s unlike embroidery or woven label files, which are re-digitised (new files built from the ground-up). Digital printing is also more lenient than screen printing (although all details, wanted or not, will be retained with digital).
Therefore, it is essential to consider the quality of the artwork you provide for screen printing. As it will directly affect the quality of the print that you receive.
File Types We Accept
Generally, any image file created at the correct size using dedicated art software is likely to be acceptable. See our software recommendations for more on this. However, below is a breakdown of our accepted file formats and how they differ from each other:
Vector Art β
- Illustrator files (.ai)
- Vector-based .pdf or .eps files
- Fonts must be outlined
Vector files are perfect for printing. They allow scaling and resaving without losing quality. You can also modify them easily. If a designer has provided your artwork, it is worth checking if vector files are available.
Please note: Taking raster art and placing it inside a vector file format does not make it a vector. Instead, it would just be the same as supplying a raster file (see Raster Art).
Raster Art β
- Photoshop files (.psd)
- Common image files (.jpeg, .tiff, .png)
- Must be at least print size
- Must have a resolution of 300 DPI
- Fonts must be rasterized
The initial dimensions and resolution are incredibly important with Raster Art. If you’re unsure how big to create your art, always go bigger than you’ll need. Providing low quality raster files will result in a low quality print.
We recommend downloading our templates to ensure your artwork has been sized correctly.
Files We Do Not Accept
These are not accepted file formats and supplying these types of files is likely to increase your turnaround time, as you will also have to re-supply the artwork in an alternative format.
Microsoft Office Files β
Art contain within files created with Office Suite applications are not suitable for purpose. Files provided this way will need resupplying in one of the formats mentioned above.
Unrefined Sketches β
Traditionally rendered artwork should be supplied as you would like to see it printed. Find out how to prepare scanned artwork.
Fonts Within Your Files
If you have text in your art, itβs important you prepare all type elements correctly. This is for us to be able to open your files successfully. Otherwise, when we open your file, it’ll substitute your text with a standard system font. This will essentially break the art. Artwork files that we arenβt able to open properly, will have to be re-supplied.
Below, you can see how to correctly prepare them.
In Illustrator
In Photoshop
Other Images Files
Artwork you save as standard image file types (such as .jpg, .tiff and .png) won’t need fonts outlining or rasterizing. This happens automatically during the saving/exporting process.