Artwork Requirements

Designing a piece of artwork that scales to the large dimensions of your desired banner can be a bit tricky, so here are some tips using a variety of design software and graphic file extensions:

Adobe Illustrator – This vector-based software works very well for creating large banners at small file sizes. Vector-based graphics print the sharpest and allow us the ability to “dial in” specific colors (Pantone or CMYK) at your request. When creating a banner using Illustrator, make sure that all raster-based images are 1) of high resolution and will not distort at full size,* and, 2) embedded. Also, check to see if your art board is proportional to the finished size of your banner (i.e. if your art board is 4”x8”, it is at a ratio of 1:2, and can easily be scaled to a 4’x8’ or even an 8’x16’ banner). Lastly, convert all text to outlines, just in case we don’t have the fonts you are using. We accept .ai, .eps and .pdf files from versions CS3 and earlier.

Adobe Photoshop – Raster-based files from this software can be a bit tricky when creating artwork for banners. They are often very large, if created in a full-size canvas and unflattened, and can sometimes lead to unwanted changes when scaling. To ensure that “what you see is what you get,” create your banner at full size dimensions (under Image tab – Image Size) with a dpi of 150. When you are happy with you banner’s layout and are ready to print it, click on the magnify tool and choose the “Print Size” option near the top of the screen. This view will give you a ballpark idea of how your full-size art work will print. More often than not, it prints slightly better. “Save As” your banner file, and make sure that the “Layers” option is unchecked (this will flatten your files layers and compress the size of your file). This is an ideal scenario, however, if the end file size is too large, working at half-size with 150dpi or full-size with 72dpi, will print fine as well. The detailed differences between a printed banner saved at 72dpi vs. 150dpi are very hard to tell unless you are inches from the printed face of the banner. Saving the file as a .tiff (preferred) or .jpeg can also reduce your file size and make file transfer a bit easier. We accept .psd, .psb, .tiff and .jpeg files from CS3 and earlier.

CorelDRAW – Similar to Illustrator instructions (see above) due to the software’s vector-based platform. If all the elements in your design are vector-based, feel free to create in any size (“Layout” tab, “Page Setup”) that is proportional to your finished banner size. If the text is converted to curves (highlight all text and hit CTRL & Q), we should be able to re-size your artwork on our end. If you have raster-based elements in your artwork, make sure that they scale with out distorting by enlarging them to roughly their print size and zooming in at 100%. This will give you a ballpark idea of how the image will print. We accept .cdr files from versions X3 and earlier.

Quark and InDesign – These are both great layout programs, which work well when laying out both vector- and raster-based graphics, but, unfortunately, our plug-in library leaves much to be desired, which could affect files sent to us in these formats. We can accept .qxd and .indd files, and work minor adjustments, however we advise you to print or publish to a full-size .pdf to ensure that your custom vinyl banner is printed to your layout.

Microsoft Publisher, Word, PowerPoint and Excel – These are not print-ready files; however, we can work with these in terms of basic layout. If you want to give us a design to re-create, feel free to use these as guidelines. It is recommended that the various clipart and image files used in your layout be sent to us separately. Try to make your layouts somewhat proportional to the finished size of you banner. It will help us when creating your banner, and cut down on the time it takes to send you proofs.

JPEGs, GIFs, TIFFs & BMAPs – InkRabbit Printworks accepts all four of these formats. Please note that most images copied from the internet, will distort and pixelate when scaled. Though we can vectorize a majority of submissions in the allotted “complimentary design assistance” timeframe, sometimes, we simply can’t without additional art charges. We will first advise you to re-send a higher resolution of your file, and offer our services to re-draw at a price, based on the difficulty of the file. As a reference, any of these formats with a file size in kilobytes (KB) will, more than likely, require us to manipulate your original artwork. If you’re not sure how your file will scale (or maybe you do, and want to see if we can help), email it to us an attachment and we’ll let you know if we can make it work.

Didn’t answer your artwork question? Call our art department M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM (PST). We look forward to hearing from you!