When it comes to personalised sticker printing, the artwork is incredibly important. If the design is of low quality, it is likely that the finished sticker will be also. This is why it is essential that you employ the services of a professional graphic designer when creating your stickers, as they will ensure that the finished product looks its very best. In this article, we have outlined the artwork requirements that your printer is likely to expect.

What are vector graphics?

The technical term for the file that your printer will most likely require is known as a ‘vector’ file. This can be saved in.ai,.eps or.pdf format. These graphics are created in programs like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. As it is unlikely that you will have any experience with these programs, you can see the importance of having a professional on hand. If you have a preferred program, ensure that you discuss this with your designer.

Tips for finding the ideal file format

We wanted to impress upon you that the following information is technical in nature, so do not worry if you don’t completely understand all of the tips.

Ensure that you have backed up your original file or that you have made the following changes to a copy of the original file.

Resize your image to the size you want your stickers to be (it must be 100% to print size).

It is important that you have converted all your fonts to curves or that you have created outlines for all the text used.

If the file contains spot colours, they MUST be colour separated with each layer identified as a Pantone PMS colour swatch (if it is critical).

Where halftone images are used, blends or raster files that are part of the artwork should run from 5% minimum colour to 80% maximum colour.

For spot colour printing, remove any background layers. Leave only your separated colours as layers.

For the 4 colour printing process, convert your image to CMYK and remove any background layers. Flatten your image.

Why can’t I use pixel artwork?

These types of images are also known as bitmap artwork. They are made up of pixels in a grid – tiny dots of individual colour that make up what you see on the screen. The resolution is the number of these dots per inch (DPI) or the number of pixels per inch (PPI). The reason that pixel images are not recommend for personalised sticker printing is that their size cannot be increased or decreased without some sort of affect on the image quality.

We hope that the information provided in this article has given you a better understanding of the artwork requirements for personalised sticker printing. At the end of the day, if you have employed a professional graphic designer, they will be able to handle a lot of these things for you. If you don’t have any design experience personally, we don’t recommend creating your own stickers – after all, you want to ensure that they look their very best.

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Andrew Mark is a professional blogger who love to write blogs on various topics - Home Improvement, Interior design, Scrap metal recycling & access equipment.