Please refer to our Artwork Guidelines before uploading or sending us your design to print, to set up your design correctly. If you’re not a professional designer, you might prefer to check out our Easy guide to supplying your design work.
When creating a large-scale design, it’s important to understand how people will view the final result. Unlike small-scale printing (up to A3), large-scale prints are viewed both up close and far away. Sometimes different file types, photos, colours, fonts or design elements don’t work well at both distances.
Top Tips from the Printery Peeps
Getting the format right every time
- We can only print from PDF files. Make sure your artwork is high resolution or ‘print ready’.
- Please supply all artwork at the correct size. Ensure your design is in millimetres, (mm) programs like Canva default to pixels (px) which is very different!
- Make sure your downloaded (Canva) or saved PDF file is in CMYK colour format.
Image types
- Vector files created in Illustrator or Indesign are perfect for large format as you can scale the design up or down while remaining sharp.
- Graphics in your artwork that are JPEG or PNG files can become pixelated if resized or scaled too far.
- If you can’t create your design with vector files, keep in mind dpi (dots per inch) to avoid pixelation where possible.
- We’d recommend dpi between 100 and 300 to be safe at various distances. (You can check your dpi in the image size information window in Photoshop)
Photos
- If you’d like to include photos in your artwork, make sure they’re good quality and not scaled up more than 150%.
- Our large format press is only capable of reproducing the quality you provide. If your photos or illustrations are fuzzy or bitmapped - they’ll print like that too!
Peterkin’s range of stocks for poster printing, and 3.8mm Eco Board produce fantastic results for signage, but aren’t suitable for the highest quality photographic reproductions due to the stock texture. If you require the highest quality photo reproduction (art prints), then you should consider contacting a specialist printer.
Colours
- Make sure your background colour is not overwhelming your text or graphics, either areas of colour to be printed on white stocks (or the actual colour of your chosen stock).
- Highly contrasting colours work best rather than subtle colours or tints for important text. Legibility can be difficult if colours don’t have enough contrast.
- Stock colour will affect the colour result of your design. Learn more here.
Fonts
- If you know your design may be viewed from far away, easy-to-read fonts are ideal.
- Carefully spaced-out text (kerned) helps with how easy your signage is to read on a larger scale.
- Sans serif fonts with enough space between letters, and medium line thickness are ideal for large format printing.
Design
- When designing for large scale, small details can be missed, so keep elements bold, distinct and contrasting to be readable from longer distances.
- Simplicity in design can often add to the impact of a large-scale sign by focusing on the important message without getting lost in the details.
Die cut shapes
- Download our templates for the available die cut shapes to make sure your artwork fits.
- One dieline per shape.
- 10mm is the minimum cut out size including hanging holes.
- If you require smaller holes for hanging your sign (for leather straps etc) then Eco Board is easy to pierce/punch yourself using a paperclip or similar.
- Click here for more information about creating custom die cut shapes.
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