Easy instructions for letterpress

So you're thrilled with the results of your Letterpress, there's a few essentials to get right. It's not difficult to set your artwork up correctly. 

If you place an order and the artwork isn't suitable for letterpressing, or incorrectly supplied then there could be a delay to your order if we need to come back to you to fix it 😊.

Make sure you're ordering the correct product

If you want Letterpressing with 1 colour ink (or blind letterpress with no ink) 

If you want Letterpressing with 2 colours of ink (or 1 colour + blind letterpress with no ink or 1 colour either side of the card (double thick only)) 

If part of your design is to be Letterpressed, and part of it is digitally printed (variable data names, image of a flower, QR code etc) choose this product.

It doesn't matter if the digital part of your design and the Letterpress design are on the same side (single sided), or if your design has digital on one side, letterpress on the other side (double sided).

Card (stock) thickness

For best results (and the deepest Letterpress impression in the stock) we recommend choosing Double-Thick (duplexed) stock. This is especially important if you have a digital design on one side and Letterpress on the other, a Single Thickness stock will have less depth of impression so that the design is not too noticable on the reverse side of the card.

Getting the format right every time
We can only print from PDF files. Make sure your PDF is high resolution or ‘print ready’. Please supply all artwork at the correct size and make sure your design is sized in millimetres (mm), programs like Canva default to pixels (px) which is very different!!

If you have more than one process (eg digital + letterpress) then please supply a 3 page PDF...

• Page 1 - everything in your design that is to be digitally printed only
• Page 2 - everything in your design that will be letterpressed only
• Page 3 - what your design looks like with both (a mock up)

100% Black:

All artwork for letterpress must be supplied as CMYK 100% black - 0/0/0/100 (Illustrator or InDesign) or #000000 if designing in Canva. This is because the software to make the negatives which we expose to create the Letterpress plates can only recognise black. Don't send us your design in a colour, or the colour of the Pantone ink you require.

If you're not sure about CMYK check out this quick link... Why set up my artwork in CMYK and not RGB?

Minimum Stroke/line width

When lines are too thin, they may not make an impression and be filled with the Pantone ink, leaving these elements off the page. All line weights (including fonts) should be a minimum of 0.25 point or thicker. If you're designing in Illustrator or InDesign then a good way to check is to draw a line, set it to 0.25pt stroke, and compare it to any lines you’re unsure of.

If you're designing in Canva, it's a little harder to check your line width/weight. Generally speaking, font sized 8pt and under will probably be too thin. 

Vectors

Artwork that’s a bitmap (an image) or created in Photoshop is not suitable for letterpress. The elements in your design must be vector graphics to create the letterpress plates.

If you're not sure, please click here for more information on Vector and Bitmap files.

Important!

Correctly supplied designs mean we won’t need to come back to you, which might cause annoying delays. After placing your order, if your design needs adjustment to make it suitable there may be a charge for any changes required.

AND REMEMBER!

If you're in any doubt whether your artwork is suitable for letterpress printing and to check it meets our guidelines submit your design and our Customer Happiness Managers will let you know ASAP if there's any issues to fix or you're good to place your order.

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