TENFOLD

EDINBURGH FRINGE 2011 ARTWORK GUIDE

HELLO.
If you’re reading this, then it’s probably that time
of year when Fringe shows, comedians, actors
and entertainers across the world become graphic
designers for a week. Or two.
DON’T PANIC.
If you’re really not sure what to do with your files,
contact us on 0800 500 3110 or +44 (0)115 958 5791 ,
or email edinburgh@wearetenfold.com. We’ll try our
best to help you out. Promise.

And as can so often happen when the roles are
reversed and graphic-designers attempt to go on
stage, it can easily end in tears.
The advice and tips contained within this guide
should, hopefully, help you to avoid the most common
mistakes made when preparing artwork. We’ve used
Adobe Indesign as the basis of this guide, along with
a smattering of Photoshop, but the same basic rules
apply across most design packages.
Bad artwork wastes your time and money. Sometimes,
it really is cheaper to employ a designer to prepare
your artwork than dabbling yourself. It’s a false
economy if ever we’ve seen one.
We don’t provide graphic design, but we know plenty
of great and affordable designers if you need some
help? Just ask.

We’re not trying to teach you how to suck eggs. Even

the most competent designer can make a very simple
mistake; we see them all the time. And who doesn’t
make mistakes occasionally? CHECKLIST.
- Is your artwork actually the right
If we can help you get your artwork right first time, it size?
- Have you included 3mm bleed on
will save us all time and money; very valuable when all margins?
- Is your item in CMYK and not RG
deadlines are rapidly approaching. B?
- Have you proof-read it?
- Do it again.
One last bit of advice: If you’re really stuck, pay a - Send us the artwork files - not na
graphic designer to put you right. They’re usually tive files.
- We only accept PDF or jpegs.
cheaper than a reprint of your flyers and posters. - Check your proofs and let us kn
ow the verdict.
- When approved, relax and do so
Good luck! mething else!
Lee, Tim and Joe. We’ll take it from here.

© Copyright Tenfold Projects Limited 2006–2011. All Rights Reserved.

SIZE.
The most important element of good artwork is making
sure that it’s actually the right size.

The table below details the most common sizes we

print. We can print pretty much ANY size you want
within reason, so if you want a more unusual size,
please give us a call to discuss the options.

ITEM SIZE A WHAT?

Business Cards 85mm x 55mm
DL Flyer 99mm x 210mm
A6 Flyer 105mm x 148mm
A5 Flyer 148mm x 210mm
A4 Poster 210mm x 297mm
A3 Poster 297mm × 420mm
A2 Poster 420mm x 594mm
A1 Poster 594mm x 841mm

ITEM INC BLEED

Business Cards 91mm x 61mm
DL Flyer 105mm x 216mm
A6 Flyer 111mm x 154mm
A5 Flyer 154mm x 216mm
A4 Poster 216mm x 303mm
A3 Poster 303mm x 426mm
A2 Poster 426mm x 600mm
A1 Poster 600mm x 847mm
BLEED.
The most common design mistake we see is artwork
supplied without ‘bleed’. Bleed is a printing term that
refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the
sheet after trimming. The bleed is the part on the side
of a document that gives us a small amount of space
to account for movement of the paper, and design
inconsistencies.

If you require the print to run right up to and off the

edge of the paper (known as bleeding), you must
ENSURE that all design elements which touch the
edges of the page are extended by 3mm (i.e. hanging
3mm of the edges off the paper).

Also, please keep all live text and logos at least 3mm
away from the edge of the item (6mm away from the
edge of the bleed).

We will reject your artwork if there is not enough bleed.

These dialogue boxes are from Adobe Indesign.

Most design software is very similar. If you forget to add
bleed, you should be able to amend the set-up at any BLEED
point during the design process. 3MM
Set your bleed to 3mm on all margins, and just ignore
the Slug.

Did we say 3mm of bleed? That’s 3mm of bleed.

3mm.

Bleed.
BLEED CONTINUED.
When first laying out your item, you have to be aware
that the item will have TWO margins. Firstly, there is
1
your item size (A6 etc), which will be the finished size
when printed and trimmed. This is the Black line. The
second margin is your BLEED edge.

The first example (right) is incorrectly sized, supplied

without bleed, with lo-res images (more on this later).
It’s a graphic-design crime. If we enlarged the artwork
to provide ‘more’ bleed, we would then run into a
second very common problem, shown below.

The second example is of another flyer sent to us

without bleed. After the artwork has been increased by
a few % to fill the bleed area, you can see that the logo
and text is now hanging over the edge of the flyer.
The Brown line is the actual edge of the artwork
including the bleed area. The black line is the edge of
2
the actual final flyer, marking where we cut your flyers.
Hence, we’ll trim part off of the word “GAG” and the
edge of the “C” logo.

The third example here is perfect. The background

image extends beyond the trim marks, meaning NO
white edges. The text is well away from the trim marks,
so no lost text. Well done!

Milky Dri
It is also important to note that adding a white border
to your artwork is NOT adding bleed. We use bleed to
ensure colour runs toi the edge of the item, therefore a
The
white border does not fix the problem.
3
NICE DAY
IMAGES.
Ever seen a flyer or poster with a really pixelated image
or logo? This is why, and how to avoid it yourself.

All non-vector images (e.g. photos or logos - jpegs)

should be at 300dpi resolution, or they’ll end up like an
old computer game. Much like the background of this
page in fact.

This background is extremely jagged and totally

unprintable. What you see on screen is what you’ll see
on paper, resolution wise.

If it looks awful on screen, it will look awful on paper,

Don’t nick any images or logos straight off the Internet

as they will probably be 72dpi. Use official logos, set
for print at 300dpi. You can check any image for it’s dpi
in Photoshop. Just open the image, open the IMAGE
menu, and then choose the IMAGE SIZE option. A
dialogue box will open detailing the image size.

As you can see, our tenfold logo is at a resolution of

72 pixels/inch. The eagle-eyed of you will also spot our
logo is in RGB format. Naughty.

And more on the thorny issue of “colour mode” is on

the next page....
COLOUR.
This is perhaps the most basic error we see with artwork,
and is the easiest of all to avoid.

If you are supplying artwork to be printed in Full Colour

(CMYK) on a proper printing press (such as our flyers
and posters), please ensure that ALL images, text and
other design elements have colours set to CMYK and
DO NOT contain RGB or Pantone colours.

The rule is that RGB (three colours) is the setting for

screens / monitors, whilst CMYK (four colours) is for
‘proper’ printing.

The main problem is that when the file is prepared

ready for CMYK printing, there can be a very noricable
colour ‘shift’, so all your bright reds and pinks for
example turn muddy and horrible. Most colours are
achievable in CMYK, but you need the CMYK version of
those colours.

The easy way to check is to simply open the document

in Photoshop and look for the information in the title
bar, as in the example of the Tenfold logo previously.

To check and change it, open the MODE menu and

it will tell you what you’ve got. CMYK is good. RGB is
bad. The solution here is ridiculously simple. Simply
change the colour mode to CMYK and it will convert
the image. You may notice the colours change slightly.
CMYK
Or a lot! Either way - we can now print.
OLN LYE
PLEASE don’t nick or screengrab any images or logos
from the internet as they WILL be RGB.
P EAS
FILE FORMATS.
We only accept press-quality .PDF files or hi-res .jpegs,
for very good but lengthy reasons. We cannot accept
documents supplied in a Microsoft format, such as
Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt) or Publisher (.pub).

They are the tools of the devil and are not suitable for
designing artwork for press.

Please don’t send ‘native’ files, just convert them to

a PDF. We can’t guarantee we have the software, or
the same version as you. This also applies to Quark,
Illustrator and any other design package you can name.

EXPORTING.
When you’ve finished fiddling with your design, you’ll
have to export it to a format we can actually print.

PDF is the way to go. When exporting your file as a

PDF using Indesign, ensure that you export as PRESS
QUALITY (a default setting) and if you’re feeling
confident, include all the Printer’s Marks. These will
usually contain Crop, Bleed and Registration marks.
Colour bars and page information are not essential.
SENDING FILES.
Before you send us anything, check the artwork for
spelling errors etc. You job can be delayed if you have
to resupply multiple versions. Check everything over
again, and again, ask a friend / relative / pet to read it.
If it all seems in line with this guidance, send it.

If your artwork seems suspiciously small or overly large

in terms of file size, it’s likely there is a problem. You
can email files upto 10mb to us, but anything higher
should be sent using an alternative method. You can
either post a disc or use a file-sending site.

We recommend www.senduit.com. Just go to the site,

upload the file(s), and send confirmation to us at. Set
the file to expire in 7 days. We’ll take it from here.

PROOFING.
Before we send anything to print, you’ll receive a set
of PDF proofs from us. You’ll just need to click a link
and the files will download. Once you’ve checked and
passed them, we can print within 2 hours.

Please be prompt when proofing, but if we don’t hear

from you at this point, we won’t be able to print at all.

Proofing at this stage is the final sign-off. Don’t use this

stage to decide whether the some text needs to be
moved 1mm to the left... or the logo needs to be 3%
larger.

We provide TWO rounds of PDF proofs for FREE.

Additional sets are charged at £10 each.
ORDER NOW!
We’re now open and ready to take
your orders. Just call JOE, TIM or LEE:

0800 500 3110 (FREE)

+44 (0)115 959 8558
edinburgh@wearetenfold.com

Tenfold Projects Limited

15 Commerce Square
The Lace Market
Nottingham
NG1 1HS
UK

Tenfold Projects Limited is registered in England and Wales:

No. 07512876. Registered Office: 24 Rectory Road, West Bridgford,
Nottingham, NG2 6BG. VAT number: 108 6837 95

Paul Foot and Henning Wehn photos used by kind permission of

Ian Wilson at IMWP. www.imwpuk.com.

Josie Long photo used by kind permission of Darrell Martin at Maverick

Comedy Management.

Mickey Flanagan photo used by kind permision of Christian Knowles at

Christian Knowles Productions. www.ckproductions.com

All prices are correct at the time of printing. Tenfold Projects Limited reserve
the right to change prices at any time.