FILE PREP
Looking to submit your file? Need to know what we need to print it?
You’ve come to the right place, here we will be discussing proper file submission to NHPP and looking at how you can get the best quality product with ease! First we need to look at how a file should look when we get it. 
If you take a look at the caption to the left you will see 3 sets of lines that you should be aware of while you create your document. From the outside in, we have the bleed line, the cut line, and the safe line.
• The Bleed Line – This is the outer-most line that all of your color should end at, this extra bit will be cut off after the file is printed and allows for your finished product to have color all the way to the edge of the paper. We require all bleed documents to have a 1/8″ or .125″ bleed all the way around the document.
• The Cut Line – This is the finished size of your document(for a business card it would be 3.5″ x 2″). This is the line where the bleed will be cut to and the size of your final document.
• The Safe Line – This is a 1/8″ or .125″ line inside the document that we recommend not putting any important text outside of. Since there are variances in printing we would not want any of your import information to be cut away accidentally. This line will not be printed on your document it is only to be used as a point of reference for you while you create your document.
When setting up your New File we ask you to make the document size the finished size desired, and then set your bleed settings to .125″ for all 4 sides. Much like this image to the right.
Now lets look at what type of images to use in our files. We print at 1200dpi(dots per inch), but most images are not this high of quality. We recommend nothing less than 300dpi for good print quality. This means that most images that you find on the internet will not cut the mustard, seeing as monitors only display at 72dpi which is way to low for printing. With this in mind you can visit many stock photo websites for some high quality images for use in your files. All vector art and type are completely scalable and there is not issue with print quality. Since we print in CMYK, we ask that you save your files as CMYK. If you submit a file in RGB we cannot be responsible for gradient banding and unexpected color conversion issues.
Next we need to look at the programs to use for setting up your file and the file format that we accept. Here at NHPP we recommend using software that is specifically made for laying out print material included amongst these are The Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign), or QuarkXpress. We highly advise against using Microsoft Word, it was not designed for layout purposes and therefore lacks a lot of the features and consistencies that the other programs mentioned have. Once you have your project created we will need a print-ready PDF file of your work. This is very easy:
• Next select and appropriate name for your file.
• Under the Format selection choose Adobe PDF and click Save
• There will be a selection under Presets > High Quality Print
• Next you will travel down to Marks and Bleeds in the left hand column. There Select > All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings
• Click Save and you are ready to send us your Print-ready PDF
