Step-by-step: setting up print-ready files.

Set up the file

• Build at final print size. A 24×36" print gets a 24×36" artboard. No scaling math, no surprises. If you're in Illustrator and you hit the 227" artboard limit (big backdrops, floor wraps), author at a clean scale — 10% or 25% works best — and note the scale in your order notes. Our preflight auto-detects common ratios.
• Work in inches. Everything on our end is in inches. Set your document units before you start so every dimension is unambiguous.
• Color mode: CMYK when your app supports it. Illustrator, InDesign, and Affinity have real CMYK — use it. Canva and Photoshop-online only export RGB and that's fine; we convert during preflight. Vivid neons and electric blues/greens can dull slightly on press.
• Turn on bleed at document setup — 0.125" all sides. Do this once at the start, not by resizing your artboard later. If your design runs to the edge, bleed prevents any hairline white sliver at the trim. If your design has a white margin around it, you can skip bleed entirely.

Work in the file

• Keep text and logos inside a safe area. About 0.25" in from the trim edge. Anything closer risks getting shaved off by normal cutting tolerance.
• Placed image resolution: match the viewing distance. For large format, 100–150 DPI at final size looks sharp. An 8×4 ft banner viewed from a few feet away at 100 DPI is genuinely crisp. 300 DPI only matters for small hand-held pieces like stickers and decals — otherwise you're just bloating the file for no visible gain.
• Keep type as vector. Live text, or outlined text (Illustrator: Select All → Type → Create Outlines). Never rasterize type if you can help it — the crispness of edges on printed letterforms is the first thing that gives away a low-effort file.
• Extend backgrounds and photos into the bleed zone. Don't just enlarge the whole design past the trim — that shifts everything including the parts you want centered. Extend only the background art past the trim to fill the bleed.
• Contour-cut pieces (cutouts, die-cut stickers): keep the shape simple. We cut directly from your file geometry on CNC cutters. Smooth curves and clean paths cut faster and look better than jagged tracing. If you want a specific cut line different from your art, make it a separate vector path and tell us.

Export the file

• Export as PDF — the preferred format. In Illustrator/InDesign, the "High Quality Print" or "PDF/X-4" preset is correct. Canva: choose PDF Print (see the Canva guide).
• Include bleed in the export if you set it up in the document. Leave crop marks and trim marks OFF — our cutting is CNC-driven, marks aren't used, and they can end up in your print.
• Keep it under 250MB. If your file is largely vector, don't flatten it to a giant raster on export — that's how a 20MB PDF becomes a 400MB one that we can't accept.
• PNG/JPG fallback if PDF isn't an option. Export at final print size at 100–150 DPI. sRGB is fine. This works for photo-based designs; anything with type or fine linework should be a PDF.

Working with a designer instead? Grab the one-page spec sheet and forward it with your brief.