File Preparation Details
for Printing at Image Science
Please take care to supply us with files suitable for making high quality prints.
We suggest you soft-proof your image on a properly calibrated monitor, using our accurate ICC profiles, before delivering your files to us. This will give you an accurate impression of the final print you will receive. For details, see the colour management section.
We print on standard sheet sizes - A4 and A3. For anything larger, we use a 24 inch or 44 inch roll and price on a per-running-inch basis.
- General notes on File Formats and Resolutions
- Preparing files for Sheet Prints (A4 or A3)
- Preparing files for Roll Prints (anything bigger than A3, up to 24 or 44 inches by any length)
General Notes on File Formats and Resolutions
We print your image as it comes. That is, you must size your image correctly in Photoshop or similar. You may supply your image in any Adobe Creative Suite 2 compatible format (i.e TIFF, JPG, PSD, PDF etc...)
- Please flatten all layers
- You can lay multiple images on to a single page if you like (either A4, A3, or 24" or 44" by any length you choose).
- Size your image correctly in Photoshop to the size of print you want
- 8 or 16 bit is fine
- RGB files only! Please do NOT convert to CMYK!
- We respect all ICC profiles, please make sure you send us your files correctly tagged with a colour space - no need to convert to our profiles, just send them in Adobe RGB or whatever you use.
- If you send us an untagged file, we will assume the file is in sRGB
- A minimum of 180 PPI is required for a high quality print, the best resolution is 360 PPI if you have enough pixels in your original file
- The maximum pixel dimensions on any single file must not exceed 30000 pixels on the long edge - i.e. please don't send us a 24 by 100" file at 360 PPI - we'll just have to resample it down to 300 PPI anyway.
- You can email us anything up to 5-10Mb, if bigger than that please burn to a CD and post or bring it to us, or use a file sending service like http://www.yousendit.com/ to get it here.
Preparing files for Sheet Prints
Please note if you are getting A4/A3 prints done, your image must fit in the printable page area or it will be automatically sized down to fit. If you need A4/A3 full bleed (i.e. to the paper edge), you will need to get roll prints done, and trim to size .
- The printable area for A3+ is by 18 by 12 inches - if your image is too large we will resize it to fit.
- The printable area for A3 is 15.4 by 11.4 inches - if your image is too large we will resize it to fit.
- The printable area for A4 is by 10.5 by 8 inches - if your image is too large we will resize it to fit.
Preparing files for Roll Prints
If you want prints larger than standard A3+, you will need to use our roll printing service. You can choose prints on either 24 inch rolls or 44 inch rolls.
Simply supply us with any document up to 24 or 44 inches (by any length) in size, as per the general notes above, and we'll take care of the rest.
We can print full bleed to the 24 or 44 inches if required.
You can also use our roll printing service to print many smaller images, laid out on to a single page. Create a new document that is 24 or 44 inches by the length you need, and lay out your smaller images on this sheet in any way that works for you, remembering to need white space around each image if required.
Please be aware that absolute perfect alignment at the very edges of the roll is impossible with heavy fine art materials. Slight skewing of the print on the page may occur, and therefore some final trimming of your print may be necessary (it's usually not more than a few millimeters). If in doubt, leave a 1cm gap around the edges of your images on your sheet layouts.