Graphic Guidelines

We provide guidelines as a general rule for a successful project. Each project is unique and therefore design elements may be required to vary from these guidelines. 

GENERAL

  • Provide all files in one of the appropriate formats listed, including all support files used.
  • Layout all files in the correct resolution, proportions or scale (1/4 scale) to final size. 
  • Convert all fonts to Outlines and remove any stray text that has not been converted. 
  • If using Photoshop Rasterize all text and remove any text layers not raster. 

RESOLUTION

  • Photographs should be designed to have 150 DPI of resolution at finished or full size, and in CMYK Mode.
  • Images must not be interpolated as this will greatly affect the resolution and quality of the final printed flooring.
  • Images taken from the internet are usually at 72 DPI and are not usable.

COLOR MATCHING

  • Color set to CMYK
  • (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) 
  • Please set up all files for CMYK color mode. 
  • Illustrator files must have all colors used converted to CMYK.
  • All photographic support files used in Illustrator must be CMYK and prepared to the proper resolution and format for the project. 
  • Call out critical colors as Pantone(R) Solid Coated colors. 
  • When PMS match is required a test print should be ordered. Additional charges apply.
  • We do our best to match but may not be able to guarantee on the final print.

SPOT WHITE

  • Spot white layer must be created in the top most layer with a spot color titled “White_Ink”. 
  • Choke the white layer by -.0125”

BLACKS 

  • Rich black should be used in place of all blacks and composed of 90%C, 90%M, 90%Y, 100%K. This will produce a richer shade of black. 
  • By default Adobe InDesign overprints 100% black onto whatever is behind it. There’s a good chance you will see the background layers through the black. To fix use a rich black (recommended) or set black to 99%.

BLEEDS

  • Create art with a 1” bleed on all four sides.
  • 0.9 mm art material greater than 52” will have a seam in final production. Design as one file.
  • 1.3 mm, 1.9 mm, 2.2 mm art greater than 10’ will have a seam in final production but when possible designed as one file

OVERPRINTING

  • Make sure that none of your design elements are set to overprint unless you are trying to achieve an overprint effect. 
  • White elements should never be set to overprint as this will simply make the white element disappear when printed. 

SUPPORTED FORMATS

  • AI (Adobe Illustrator) 
  • EPS OUTLINES (Encapsulated Post Script) Also know as Vector Files or Outline Files. Provide support files or embed graphics used in your design. 
  • PSD (Adobe Photoshop Layered Files) 
  • TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) 
  • EPS Photographic (Encapsulated Post Script)
  • JPEG (Compressed file)

SENDING ART FILES

Once orders are placed we cannot offer refunds due to errors from customer provided artwork.