Files That Survive The Printer

Press day is the worst time to find out your file is wrong. Here's the short version of how to hand off art that comes back looking like what you designed.

Bleed and safety

Set up 0.125" of bleed on anything that prints to the edge. Keep important stuff — text, logos, faces — at least 0.125" inside the trim. Blades drift. Give them room.

Color

Design in CMYK, not RGB, if it's headed to a press. That bright screen blue you love does not exist in ink. Build it in the color space it'll actually live in, and you won't be shocked.

Running a rich black? Use something like C60 M40 Y40 K100, not straight K100, for big solid areas. Flat black prints muddy.

Fonts and links

Outline your type or package the fonts. A missing font substitutes itself into a mess.
Embed or package images. A linked file that didn't travel = a blank box on the proof.
Export a PDF/X-1a when in doubt. It flattens the guesswork.

Resolution

Raster art at 300 DPI at final size. A logo that looks crisp on screen can still be 72 DPI and turn to mush at 24 inches wide.

None of this is hard. It's just the difference between a clean pull and a reprint. When BlackCat preps your files, this is already handled — no callbacks, no surprises.