UK CD & DVD Pressing - CD Replication & CD Duplication.

Artwork requirements for CD & DVD Production.

This is an area where most delays occur so great care should be taken in the preparation of your artwork. This is something you can do yourself, however you will have to pay attention to some basic rules and your measurements will need to be accurate.
If you are unable to carry out the design work yourself, for a very reasonable price from £60.00 + VAT we'll layout and prepare your artwork from your guidelines to the exact specifications the pressing plant requires.
Please check the details provided available from the menu, you should be able to find all the information you need to produce the artwork yourselves.

Artwork requirements.

Please supply artwork as press ready pdfs. Please ensure crop & reg marks are offset so they do not print over the image.
Follow this link for an example of crop marks.
All artwork will have to end up as Press Ready PDF's (All fonts need to embedded into the pdf) so if you are able to produce these please submit your artwork in this form.

We can accept artwork as images, tiff or Adobe Photoshop psd file. If you supply your artwork as images we'll be happy to drop them into our templates for you at no extra charge providing they need no further work at this end. Please see Image Requirements below for more info.

If you're not sure or need to clarify anything just give us a call during office hours on 01553 617546.
Artwork for booklets should be supplied as printers pairs, follow this link for a full explanation. Printers Pairs.

Image Requirements .

All images must be a min resolution of 300 dpi and in CMYK format, all coloured images must be in CMYK format not RGB.
Please supply them as native psd (Photoshop) or Tiff un-flattened files which will allow us easy acces to the individual layers should we need to make any adjustments to fit our templates. Do not use Jpeg format.

Fonts. (The smallest font size allowed is 6pt.)

Along with your Quark, In Design or Image files you will also need to supply every font used in your design. Simply copy them from your systems fonts folder into the folder where you have stored all your artwork files and burn them to CD to send to us.
We may well already have the standard ones but it's best to send them all.
This essential for us to be able to output your text as vector based which will ensure crisp printing of the text on the finished artwork.
Please note the following.
For commercial printing the smallest font size allowed is 6pt. Do not use bold by clicking the bold button in your program unless you have a bold version of the font installed in your fonts folder.
You can however do this if using Photoshop or any image editing software as the final result will be in the form of an image and the text will be pixel based not vector as in Quark Expess.

Genral Artwork Information.

Measurements:
Your design must conform to the layout specification, this is to ensure that the machines will be able to assemble all the parts. Incorrect artwork will be rejected by the plant, this will cause delays and add to the cost. Check the specifications available from the menu.

Ink Coverage:
Your ink coverage for any colour should no be more than 270%, this is mostly a problem when shades of black are created from CMYK. For a rich black base we recommend using a value of C = 45% - Y = 0% M = 0% = K = 100%, This will give your black base a little shine as a simple 100%K can look a bit flat.
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black.

To Clarify the following shows swatches of 100% each of the main CMYK colours.
!00% Cyan - 100% Magenta - 100% Yellow - 100% Black
100% Cyan Image 100% Magenta Image 100% Yellow Image 100% Black (K) Image

Below is a mix of 100% K & 45% C, we call it Rich Black = 145% coverage
45& Cyan and 100 Black (K) image
Below is a mix 100% Cyan, 100% Magenta, 100% Yellow & 100% Black. That's 400& ink coverage or density.
This would cause problems with the amount of ink saturating the paper making any white or light coloured text placed on top appear feathered where the ink has bled into it through being too heavy.
400% Coverage image It appears to look like 100%k on screen but will cause problems, so for any black areas of print use Rich Black (100% K & 45% Cyan) (145% Coverage)

Please note: It is your responsibility to supply correct artwork and we cannot be held responsible for problems with the finished product if our guidelines are not met.

Guide Layout Prints:
You will also need to supply a colour print out from all pages of your design to act as a guide and to check the layout of your design.

Catalogue No:
You will need to give your CD a catalogue number of at least six letters or numbers, e.g. MJMCD0601, This is important and should be placed on your design. It assists the plant to schedule and track your job and also gives you a reference number. In the case of this example, MJM stands for MJ Music on CD format, the year is indicated in 06 and 01 means the first for 2006.

Press Ready PDF's.

If possible please supply your artwork as Press Ready High Resolution PDF files. This is a great way to work, you won't need to worry about supplying fonts or which platform (Mac or PC) your artwork was created on.
However they need to be produced very carefully all the same issues apply, a min of 300dpi reolution and all coloured images must be cmyk fonts are to embedded.

We use a program called Enfocus Instant PDF to both create our PDF's and to check ones we receive. You can download a free trial version to try out for yourself here, http://www.enfocus.com/products/overview.php?nr=1

Send Us Your Files.

Simply send us all your files on a disc along with all fonts etc. You can use our drop box page to send us large files as long as they are in the correct format http://dropbox.yousendit.com/a1cds

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