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Letterpress Setup

Artwork Setup For Letterpress

Setting up your artwork correctly is extremely important with Letterpress and our traditional Letterpress method with emphasises mistakes or poor kerning.

Artwork Submission

  • Please submit all artwork as a PDF file only
  • Please outline all fonts to paths
  • Include 3mm bleed
  • Include crop marks
  • Do not include colour bar or page info
  • Registration marks may be required for foiling

 

Type

  • All fonts must be set at 6pt or larger for best results. 
  • For reverse type on a solid fill, the font needs to be 7pt or larger
  • Any thin strokes and terminals found in script and italic fonts all need to be set to 0.25pt or larger
  • Tracking needs to be increased to atleast +5 to allow for the impression made into the paper
  • All text must be converted to curves/paths
  • Any isolated dots must be 0.5pt or larger

Images

  • All hand drawn images need to be converted to line art
  • Scanned images need to be a minimum of 300dpi at 100% in size. The highest resolution up to 600dpi is prefered.
  • All images need to be converted to bitmap mode.

Solid Fill

  • The use of solid fill (The coverage of ink in your artwork) needs to be considered carefully. Letterpress can't always successfully reproduce large block areas of colour
  • A large ink coverage will limit the amount of impression into the stock. If you are unsure, please send your artwork for review by our team.

Colours

  • All colours used in your artwork must be Pantone Uncoated Spot Colours.
  • Letterpress will not recognise CMYK or RGB colours
  • Black Ink should be set as Process Black Uncoated Swatch
  • White ink printing on a black or dark stock is not available as the stock will show through the white ink. If you would like to use a dark stock we suggest a metalic ink or hot foil.
  • Some of the best Letterpress results are printed in one or two colours.

Bite & Kiss

  • The depression or indentation that happens in the paper's surface during letterpress with a heavy impression is called a bite, a light press is called a kiss.
  • Carefully consider the amount of bite you require in conjunction with the card stock you would like to use. A heavy bite can show through on the reverse side of the stock. If you are unsure, please contact our team for advice.

Blind Impression

  • A blind impression can be used to create an image without the use of ink. 
  • The best result for a blind impression is using a heavy weighted stock and large lettering or image.