To get your order on the printer, we must receive files that are "print-ready." Print-ready means that your files meet our digital setup specifications, which are industry standard and used by nearly every other commercial printer. If you don’t fully understand what’s required to make a file print-ready, we highly recommend you work with a professional graphic designer. You can use one of your own or we can help - just ask! If you place an order and send us files that aren’t print-ready, the job will be delayed until we have the proper file(s). Here is what we need:

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Buzy Bee Printing accepts most artwork files, including .gif, .jpeg, .eps, .pdfs, .ai (vector art), etc. Some of these files may require extra work resulting in an artwork charge of $40 per hour.

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Please feel free to call 281-895-1009, if you have any questions or concerns about your file. Below is additional information about the various file formats we accept:

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Adobe Illustrator® All versions, Photoshop® & Corel Photo Paint® All versions are gladly accepted and 300 dpi is the preferred resolution for rasterized images.

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Adobe Acrobat® (PDF files): PDFs can contain vector and bitmap graphics/text. They are also gladly accepted if in a high enough resolution.

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Bitmaps/Jpgs (photos/web graphics): Most files with extensions .jpg, .tif, .gif, .psd and .bmp can be viewed. For screen printing, these files will be used only as guides from which the artwork will be recreated. Grayscale and full-color bitmaps, such as photographs, can usually be used as provided for digital transfers. *Sending these files may result in artwork charge.

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Microsoft Word®, Microsoft Publisher®: These files may contain usable art or they will be used as a guide for recreating the art. *Sending these files may result in artwork charge.

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Margins

Files must be built to the product size being ordered plus an additional 0.25". This means your files should be 0.25" larger than the product size that you are ordering. For example, a 2" x 3.5" business card requires a graphic file to be sized at 2.25" x 3.75". 

Leave your text and other important graphics, such as logos, an absolute minimum of 1/8" from the edge of your design. It is highly recommended that you leave 1/4" for a nice clean look after your job is cut. The machine will cut off usually anywhere from 1/16" to 1/8" off of each side. (see below)

Do not put crop marks, lines that tell us where to cut, on your file. We have our own templates and we will cut as close as 1/16" as possible.

 

When setting up your design, do not format the design on a larger document size. For example, don't start off with a document size of 8.5" x 11" and then center your design in the middle. The correct setup process is to format the size as the same dimensions of the product chosen.

 

DO NOT create your design file to include the front and back of your design within the same file. They should be set up as two different files.

DO NOT name your design file as just "front" or "back." Choose a file name that describes your product. For example, if your flyer is for a gallery opening, you could name your flyer design files "gallery_opening_front" and "gallery_opening_back."

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Resolutions

The resolution or quality of your image(s) must be a minimum of 300d.p.i. If the resolution is lower we will NOT process the order because the print quality will be affected. 

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Borders

We do not print with a white border around your design UNLESS you design it this way. You should extend the background of your design all the way to edge of your design so that no white shows. However, leave text and other important graphics a minimum of 1/8" from the edge of your design.  

 

Do not put a thin frame around your design. Because of the way the jobs are cut it is very difficult to cut thin frames very precisely and the finished product can come out looking unevenly cut. If you do choose to add a frame, the thicker you make it, the better. It should be at least 1/2" thick. 

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Color Mode

Files should be built using the CMYK color mode. All files we receive in RGB will automatically be converted to CMYK. When you convert RGB files to CMYK, a slight – but inevitable – color shift will occur on the final product. In particular, blues have a tendency to turn purplish.

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If you are designing in Adobe Illustrator you should flatten to one layer and all fonts should be converted to outlines. We do not, however, accept .AI or EPS files. We do accept PDF files so your design will need to be converted to a PDF. We cannot be responsible, however, for fonts not converted to outlines or images that are not properly embedded.

Acceptable file formats are JPEG, TIFF, and PDF.

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