Poster Artwork
Specifications
Everything you need to know about preparing your artwork files for poster printing — from resolution and colour settings through to billboard-specific size guidance.
Microsoft Office & Powerpoint
Powerpoint, Word, and Excel users should save their files as a PDF before sending — this ensures that fonts and images are preserved correctly at output. We can scale your PDF to any poster size, so if you create an A4 document we can output your poster at A1 or any custom size. There is no need to set up your document at the final print size.
Powerpoint users can also set up a custom page size to match the intended output dimensions, which gives greater control over layout. If you need help with this, just give us a call.
DTP Applications & General Specifications
Image Resolution
Images should be at least 75 dpi at 100% of the final output size, or 100 dpi at 75% of the final output size, or 300 dpi at 25% of the final output size.
Do not use images taken from web pages — screen resolution is typically 72 dpi and will produce poor results at poster sizes.
Crops & Bleed
Please do not add any crop marks or bleed to your artwork. We handle all output margins and finishing in-house, so additional marks will interfere with the print area.
Black & Pantone Colours
Anywhere you use black, define it as Cyan 20%, Magenta 20%, Yellow 20%, Black 100% for the richest results. Avoid single-channel 100% black for large areas.
For Pantone references, use the Pantone Solid to Process guide for colour matching.
Photoshop Files
Flatten all images before supplying and remove any extra channels. Convert all duotone and RGB images to CMYK. Save images as EPS with JPEG Maximum quality encoding.
Fonts
Any non-English language fonts should be converted to outlines. For Illustrator files, select all and set attributes to 9600 dpi. Include both screen and printer (PostScript) versions of all fonts used in the document and in any embedded EPS files.
PDF Files
PDF is our preferred format as it preserves all fonts, formatting, colours, and graphics regardless of the originating application. Distil PDFs at the highest setting (Press) and ensure all fonts are embedded. PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 are also accepted.
Packaging & Zip Files
When supplying native files, use your application's packaging or “Collect for Output” command to gather all linked images and fonts into a single folder. Compress into a single .zip file before uploading.
Artwork Charges
Any artwork time required to bring files up to a printable standard will be charged at £60.00 per hour. We will always advise you before carrying out any chargeable work, so there are no surprises.
If you are unsure whether your file is suitable, use our free file check service.
Billboard Artwork Sizes
Billboard posters are printed at a reduced scale from the artwork and enlarged to the final output size. The minimum recommended artwork dimensions below are at 25% of the final billboard poster size, which gives the correct effective resolution for print output.
For Photoshop files, supply at 25% of final size at 300 dpi in CMYK colour mode.
| Format | Minimum Artwork Size | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 96 Sheet | 3048mm × 762mm | 25% of final size |
| 48 Sheet | 1524mm × 762mm | 25% of final size |
| 32 Sheet | 1016mm × 762mm | 25% of final size |
| 16 Sheet | 508mm × 762mm | 25% of final size |
| 4 Sheet (Adshel / 6 Sheet) | 254mm × 381mm | 25% of final size |
| Custom Size | Supply at 25% of your required dimensions | 25% of final size |
Not Sure About Your File?
Upload it for a free check and we’ll come back to you with a full report before printing.