Why "It Looked Fine on My Screen" Isn't Enough
The single biggest source of print delays isn't the press — it's the file arriving with a problem that only becomes visible once it's already on paper. Almost all of these issues trace back to three things: bleed, colour mode, and resolution.
Bleed: Give the Trim Room to Move
Bleed is the extra artwork, usually 3mm on each edge, extended past where the page will actually be cut. Cutting a stack of sheets is precise, but not perfect to the millimetre; without bleed, a fraction-of-a-millimetre shift in the cutter leaves a thin white sliver at the edge instead of a clean, full-bleed colour edge. If your design has any colour or image touching the edge of the page, it needs bleed, no exceptions.
CMYK, Not RGB
Screens display colour as light (RGB); printing presses lay down ink (CMYK). The two use completely different colour models, and a file designed in RGB will shift, sometimes dramatically, when converted for print, especially in bright blues, greens, and oranges. Always design, or at minimum convert and proof, in CMYK before sending a file to print, so what you approve on screen is close to what comes off the press.
Resolution: 300 DPI, Not "Looks Sharp Enough"
An image that looks crisp on a laptop screen at 72 DPI can look visibly soft or pixelated once printed at full size, because print resolves far more detail per inch than a screen does. The standard for print is 300 DPI at final output size — check this before final size, not after, since scaling an image up afterward doesn't add back detail that was never there.
Fonts and Outlines
If a font isn't embedded or converted to outlines before the file is sent, it can silently substitute to a different font on another machine, a fast way to have your carefully chosen typography quietly replaced.
The Fastest Fix
Most of this is a five-minute check before export, not a redesign. Our Artwork Guide walks through exact export settings for the software you're likely using, and our pre-press team checks every incoming file before it goes to plate — but catching these issues on your end means fewer rounds of back-and-forth and a faster turnaround overall.
