Artwork formats for on demand, direct or digital print are different from the traditional formats used for mass production print methods like screen printing and detailed below is an explanation of how they typically work
Print quality is controlled by DPI
DPI stands for Dots Per Inch which means printer dots per inch, it is often confused with PPI which stands for Pixels Per Inch and is used on computer screens. DPI is very similar to PPI but it requires more DPI than PPI to reproduce the same file. There are exceptions to this rule for non printed decoration techniques like engraving and embroidery
Rasters & Vectors
Image files are always raster images as images are made up of DPI even if they are contained inside a vector file. Contrary to popular opinion there is no real advantage to printing a vector file unless your printer needs vectors to perform a specific task like a cut line or engraving path especially as image based vector files are made up of rasters anyway
Designers often use vectors to design for logos, graphics & text so they can be scaled more easily than a raster file but if a raster file is created at the right size and at 300 dpi then there is no real difference in quality, especially as your printer will work in DPI anyway
Layers
Both raster and vector files can be created with layers but digital printers do not really use layers so these files are flattened anyway when printed so layers are not a requirement for digital and are really just a tool to help designers create complex designs
Traditional printing methods needed to separate images into layers for functions such as colour separation (for screens or pads) but digital or direct printing typically only uses layers for specialist printing processes and these are usually controlled by the RIP software rather than being added by the designer
RIP Software
RIP stands for raster image processing and is used for colour management, layering and other specialist processes that may need performing on an artwork file to enable a printer to print it. Not all digital processes require ripping first if the artwork is already in the required format
Common applications for RIP software are adding cut lines for cutters, adding base layers and varnish layers for UV printing and advanced colour management
Colour Management RGB & CMYK
Images on computers always use the RGB colour space and printers print in CMYK so to print a file created on a computer it usually has to be converted from RGB to CMYK (unless it has not been modified on the computer and is stored with its own CMYK colour space)
Standard colour spaces are controlled by ICC profiles which can be applied to both input and output devices and are set by the International Colour Consortium (ICC) but can also be set by printer manufacturers themselves. This process is automated with most desktop printer drivers
There are hundreds of ICC profiles available but in simple terms any system creating artwork online will do it in RGB so will need an appropriate colour profile set to convert to CMYK to print - whether this is automated, via RIP or embedded in the image
Pantone (PMS) is a print colour standard for printing (not computer screens) and is not always an exact match for the RGB colours on your computer screen - again Colour Profiles are available that are best suited to PMS matching
How Our Platform Works
Our platform is designed to automate artwork production and make it as easy as possible for users to design, sell & print products. It uses the following core principles
Artwork Options for product creation
The easiest way to design is on the platform using Design & Proof Manager (DPM) or
By using the tools in the Custom Product Platform (CPP)
We do support uploading “External Artwork” created in other artwork applications but these are not guaranteed to be the best format for digital print. These are stored as uploaded and not converted
Output Formatting & Guidelines
- Our standard output format is raster at 300 dpi - although the DPI can be changed per product as often lower for larger products
- We support multiple raster formats such as jpg, png, tiff, bmp & PDF
- When needed we can also generate artwork in vector format by adding text, elements and trace lines to a base raster image or vector shape
- We support both PDF & EPS vector output formats
- When a file is uploaded that has been created in another application we can choose to preserve all existing formatting and just ask our system to send that file for print without any conversion - this is used mainly for print on demand
- Gallery logos (elements) can be uploaded as vectors and output as vectors if desired
- We can add colour registration or crop marks or create print layouts for multi sided products where different artwork needs laying out on a page in a specific way - eg Greetings Card
- We offer both the ability to combine separate order files in a single print file - this is called batch
- We can also generate specialist files like EMB or DST for decoration techniques like embroidery
- We can set both import and export ICC Profiles without the need for RIP process
- We can invert a file for a sublimation transfer without the need to run a separate RIP process
- Artwork files can be output to a hot folder for RIP processing or we provide a a Cloud RIP service where applicable
Understanding Artwork Packages for Creating Designs
We understand that some designers like to work in artwork packages they are familiar with then upload to our platform rather than design from scratch in the platform
The most commonly used artwork package is Adobe Photoshop, this is a raster based which means each image file created is made up of tiny dots or pixels, Photoshop is used mainly for editing and creating pixel based images but does have the ability to add text layers and elements too
Photoshop can output in several formats but its native format is a PSD file - we have developed a PSD file import to make it faster for people to add designs created in Photoshop to our platform
Adobe Illustrator is also very popular package but is a vector based program that uses a mathematical grid to map the artwork that is created, therefore all artwork created is scalable meaning you can resize without losing any quality. Illustrator however is not very powerful with multiple pages or areas and most people now use Adobe InDesign for this requirement which is also a vector based program. CorelDraw is another popular vector based artwork package
Illustrator, In Design and CorelDraw all have raster output options so you export designs to upload to our platform - we do not have a dedicated import option for these formats. You can also use vector tools to create scalable vector images to upload to a gallery
A few important points to consider
- All artwork created needs to be added to a blank product template which controls size and print specifications
- Adobe Photoshop can only edit the pixels it cannot increase the number of pixels so an image quality is only as good as it was when you took it in to Adobe Photoshop.
- Remember printers do not print vectors they print DPI so unless your design is going to be used on products that are dramatically different in size Vectors do not really improve the quality
- We automatically add text as vectors where required for decoration techniques that support them
- All artwork packages have strengths and weaknesses we can work with all of them but ultimately the artwork needs to sit in our platform to offer flexible printer file generation and full personalisation options