The following information is provided to our customers who wish to supply their jobs as print ready. This information will help streamline our process and ensure the most efficient and cost effective outcome in transferring your files to our systems.

System Info

The Bulldog Print + Design Prepress Department is Mac-based, running OS 10+.

Program Info

Bulldog Print + Design uses Adobe Creative Cloud 2015+, including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat Professional.

NOTE: We do not output files from Microsoft Publisher for offset printing. You will need to use an alternate program.

 

Formatting your files

Document setup – Always set your document page size to the actual size of the piece you are designing for output.

Bleed – Bleed is the area of color or image that extends beyond the page and should be set to 1/8” (0.125”).

Image format – Use the TIF format for photos and AI, PDF or EPS format for graphics (like logos). Jpeg, Gif and PNG are Web formats and should not be used in printing. Graphic elements supplied in Tiff format should be used at 100% of reproduction size to avoid image degradation. Photographs should not be enlarged or reduced more than 25% for best results (75%-125%).

Image Resolution – 300 dpi is recommended whenever possible to ensure quality reproduction.

 

PDF creation overview

If using Adobe InDesign:

• Navigate to File > Export > Format: Adobe PDF (Print)
• Choose “press quality” or “highest quality” in the PDF settings, not a “screen” or “web” quality PDF.
• Always choose “embed fonts.”
• Color space should be CMYK (or Grayscale) and not RGB.
• Do not include crop marks, registration, or color bars
• Be sure to designate the bleed(s) to 0.125” if applicable to your job.
• Be sure all your linked images and graphics are properly formatted before making a PDF file.

If using Adobe Illustrator:

• Navigate to File > Save As > Format: Adobe PDF.
• Follow the steps from the second bullet onward from InDesign above.

If using Word, WordPerfect, PageMaker or Publisher: Open Acrobat Distiller, Under the default settings choose Press Quality, open or go back to your file, choose print and select the Adobe PDF Print Driver, Click OK and save your PDF file.

Text files – (from a PC/Windows environment) Microsoft Word is preferred when supplying raw text for formatting on our systems.