Artwork Setup Made Simple: The Print Lord Quick-Start Guide for Submitting Print-Ready Files

You’ve nailed the design. The colours are on point, the layout looks sharp, and you’re ready to get it printed. But here’s the thing: a beautiful design file and a print-ready file are not the same thing. Send the wrong one and you could end up with blurry edges, white borders where your background should be, font substitutions that make your careful typography look like a ransom note, or colours that bear no resemblance to what you saw on screen.

None of that is fun. None of that is on brand. And none of that happens on Print Lord’s watch.

This guide cuts through the confusion and gives you a clear, practical checklist for submitting artwork that goes straight to press without drama. Bookmark it, share it, save it somewhere sensible. You’ll use it again.

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Step 1: Export as PDF/X-1a or a High-Quality PDF

The file format you send matters enormously. A raw design file, whether that’s a Canva download, an InDesign package, or a Photoshop project, is not a print-ready file. What Print Lord needs is a PDF, specifically a PDF/X-1a if your software supports it.

PDF/X-1a is an industry-standard format designed specifically for print. It embeds everything, fonts, colour profiles, images, and ensures the file is self-contained and predictable when it hits the press. If your software doesn’t support PDF/X-1a, export as a high-resolution PDF with all the settings we’re about to cover applied. When in doubt, a high-quality PDF saved at the right settings will do the job beautifully.

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Step 2: Set Up 3mm Bleed on All Sides

Bleed is one of those print terms that sounds more complicated than it is. Here’s what it means in plain English: when a sheet of paper is printed and then trimmed to size, the trim is never perfectly precise. There’s a tiny margin of variance. If your background colour or image stops exactly at the edge of your design, that variance shows up as a thin white border. Not ideal.

The fix is bleed. You extend your background, images, and any design elements that reach the edge of the page by 3mm beyond the trim line on all four sides. When the sheet is trimmed, that 3mm gets cut away and you’re left with a clean, full-bleed finish.

If you don’t set up bleed in your design software before you start, it’s much harder to add later. Set it up first. 3mm all round. Every time.

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Step 3: Resolution – Why 300dpi Is the Magic Number

DPI stands for dots per inch, and it determines how sharp your images look when printed. Screens display at 72dpi or 96dpi, which looks perfectly fine on a monitor. Print, however, demands much more. The minimum for professional print is 300dpi at the final print size.

This catches a lot of people out. An image might look crisp and vivid on screen, but if it’s a low-resolution file being stretched to fill a large format, it will print blurry. No amount of clever software can recover detail that isn’t there.

If you’re pulling images from your website, from Google, or from social media, there’s a very strong chance they’re 72dpi screen images. They won’t print well. Use high-resolution photography, vector graphics, or licensed stock imagery downloaded at full resolution. If you’re not sure whether your images are up to scratch, Print Lord checks every file before it goes to press.

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Step 4: Colour Mode – CMYK, Not RGB

This is the one that causes the most heartache, and it’s completely avoidable.

Screens display colour using RGB (red, green, blue), a light-based colour model that produces vivid, luminous hues. Print uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), an ink-based colour model with a different, narrower colour range. When an RGB file goes to print without being converted, the press has to interpret the colours as best it can. That electric blue becomes a muted navy. That bright orange turns muddy. Your carefully chosen brand red comes back looking like something else entirely.

The solution is simple: set your design up in CMYK from the start, or convert it before you export. If you’re working in Canva, be aware that Canva works in RGB by default. You’ll need to either convert on export where the option exists or ask Print Lord to handle the conversion, which is always done carefully to protect your colours as much as possible.

For brand-critical colours, Print Lord can advise on Pantone matching to ensure your shade is consistent across every print run, regardless of stock or press.

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Step 5: Embed Your Fonts or Convert to Outlines

Fonts are a surprisingly common source of print problems. If you use a font in your design and then send the file to someone who doesn’t have that font installed, their software substitutes a different one. On press, this can completely alter the look of your design.

The fix is to either embed your fonts within the PDF (which PDF/X-1a does automatically) or convert all text to outlines before you export. Converting to outlines turns your text into vector shapes, so it no longer relies on any font being installed. The trade-off is that you can no longer edit the text once it’s outlined, so always keep a working copy of your original file before you do this.

If you’re using Canva, downloaded PDFs should embed fonts automatically, but it’s worth checking with Print Lord if you have any doubts.

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Step 6: Crop Marks and Trim Lines

Crop marks are the small lines that appear at the corners of a print file to show where the sheet should be trimmed. They sit outside the bleed area and act as a guide for the finishing team.

For most professional print jobs, include crop marks when you export your PDF. In Adobe software, this is a tick-box option on export. In Canva, crop marks aren’t always an option, which is one reason Print Lord recommends using it alongside proper design software for more complex print jobs.

If you’re unsure whether to include crop marks for a specific product, just ask. Print Lord will always tell you exactly what’s needed before you submit.

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Step 7: Single-Page or Multi-Page Files

This one depends on what you’re printing. A single-sided flyer needs one page. A double-sided leaflet needs two pages in the same PDF, with the front on page one and the back on page two. A folded brochure needs each panel as a separate page, set up in the correct order.

The key is to check what Print Lord needs for your specific product before you package up your file. Getting the page setup wrong can mean your artwork arrives back to front, in the wrong order, or misaligned at the fold. A quick check before submission saves everyone time.

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Free File Checking on Every Print Lord Order

Here’s something that separates Print Lord from a click-to-basket printer: every file is checked before it goes to press, free of charge. Scribe Gavin casts an expert eye over every job. If there’s a bleed issue, a resolution problem, a colour mode mismatch, or a font that’s gone rogue, Print Lord will flag it and come back to you before anything is printed.

That’s not a premium add-on. That’s just how Print Lord does things.

No nasty surprises. No reprints at your expense because a file slipped through unchecked. Just clear communication, honest advice, and print that goes out the door looking exactly as it should.

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Get Started at Shop.printlord.co.uk

Head to shop.printlord.co.uk to place your order, upload your artwork, and let Print Lord take it from there. Free file checking is included on every single order, no exceptions.

Not quite ready to submit? Got a Canva file that needs rescuing before it gets anywhere near a press? Print Lord is at your service. Drop a line to hello@printlord.co.uk or call 01273 526679 and someone from the inner circle will sort it out.

Print Lord. At your service. On brand. On time.