The single biggest cause of print delays we see isn't production capacity — it's artwork that arrives in a format that isn't actually print-ready. A few minutes of preparation before you send your file over can be the difference between same-day production and a frustrating back-and-forth over revisions.
Vector where possible. Logos and text should be supplied as vector files (AI, EPS or vector PDF) rather than a low-resolution JPG or PNG pulled from a website. Vector artwork scales to any sign size with perfectly crisp edges; a raster image blown up to fill a 3m banner will look blurry no matter how good the source photo was.
Bleed, resolution and colour mode matter. Full-bleed designs need at least 3–5mm of extra artwork past the trim line so nothing white shows at the edge after cutting. Any raster elements (photos, textures) should be at least 150–300dpi at final print size. And because we print in CMYK, not RGB, very bright neons and electric blues on a screen can shift duller once printed — flag anything colour-critical and we'll advise before production, not after.
Not confident preparing your own files? Our in-house design team can take it from a rough concept to print-ready. Ask about design support →
