Artwork Guide

Artwork guide

Set up once, print perfectly

Everything we need to print your job right first time. The short version: build to size plus 3mm bleed, 300dpi, PDF if you can — and don’t stress, because a human checks every single file before anything prints.

PDF (best)JPEGPNGTIFFAI / EPSZIP
Sizes

Document sizes with bleed

ProductTrim sizeWith 3mm bleed
A7 invite / flyer74 × 105mm80 × 111mm
A6 invite / flyer105 × 148mm111 × 154mm
A5 invite / flyer148 × 210mm154 × 216mm
A4 invite / flyer210 × 297mm216 × 303mm
Business card85 × 55mm91 × 61mm
A6 folded leafletA5 flat — 148 × 210mm154 × 216mm
A5 folded leafletA4 flat — 210 × 297mm216 × 303mm
A4 folded leafletA3 flat — 297 × 420mm303 × 426mm

Folded leaflets: supply at the open flat size, one page for the outside and one for the inside; the fold runs down the middle.

The rules that matter

Five things that make or break a print

3mm bleed

If colour or imagery touches the edge, extend it 3mm past the trim on every side. No bleed means white slivers on the edges.

5mm safe zone

Keep text and logos at least 5mm inside the trim edge so nothing gets clipped.

300dpi

Images at 300dpi at their printed size. Web images and screenshots (72dpi) print fuzzy.

Text at 8pt+

Handmade texture softens very fine detail — keep body text at 8pt or larger and avoid hairline strokes.

Fonts embedded

Export PDFs with fonts embedded (any modern export does this automatically), or outline your type in Illustrator.

Go easy on floods

Edge-to-edge heavy solid colour drinks into textured stock and can soften the sheet. Generous white space looks better on seed paper anyway.

Colour, honestly

What colour does on seed paper

Our sheets are uncoated, handmade and textured, so ink settles softer and warmer than a backlit screen — think watercolour rather than billboard. Bold shapes, earthy palettes and generous type look superb; neon brights and photographic detail come out gentler. If a colour is critical, order a 5-copy proof run first — it’s the cheapest insurance in print.

The human check: before anything prints, one of us opens your file and looks at it properly — size, bleed, resolution, colours that won’t behave on texture. If we spot a problem we email you the same morning. We don’t print problems.

Sending it

Two ways to get artwork to us

Upload at checkout

Drop your file straight into the upload box on the product page when you order. Up to 128MB per file.

Email it after

Ordered without artwork? No problem — email it to hello@plantablepaper.co.uk with your order number in the subject line. Before 11am keeps you on next-day dispatch.

Questions

Artwork, answered

Can you fix my file for me?

Small fixes — nudging bleed, resizing, flattening — we do as part of the human check without fuss. Full design work we’ll quote separately: email hello@plantablepaper.co.uk.

I designed it in Canva — will that work?

Yes. Export as PDF Print with crop marks and bleed ticked, or a high-quality PNG at the bleed size from the table above.

Do you have templates?

The table above is your template — set your document to the “with bleed” size and keep text 5mm inside the edges. If you’d like a blank template file for a specific size, email us and we’ll send one over.

RGB or CMYK?

Either is fine — our workflow converts cleanly. Just remember the on-paper result is softer than any screen preview.