Graphic-design know-how travels fast, and there's no shortage of tutorials and videos online — yet very few of them ever touch on what happens at the printer. A competent designer needs a working understanding of print and has to hand over a genuinely print-ready file. Skip that, and all of your hard design work goes to waste. Drawing on our years at the press, Printing Banana has pulled together the 10 print file problems we run into most often, along with exactly how to fix each one so your artwork prints perfectly.

The 10 Most Common Print File Problems

  1. No bleed

    A print file with no bleed can leave a white edge after trimming, or lose part of your artwork to the cut — so the finished piece looks off, or loses its polish altogether. If your background is white you don't need to worry about white edges, but your content can still be clipped. Always leave 1–2mm of bleed on your print files. Further reading: Print basics: a closer look at the "bleed area", with a bleed-setup tutorial.

  2. Fonts not outlined

    Forgetting to outline your text is one of the most common rookie mistakes. Any font outside the system set has to be installed; if the other computer doesn't have it, it simply swaps in a different typeface — and you end up with "the printed font doesn't match my original". Usually, when the file is opened, the system throws up a warning that it can't recognise the font. To avoid this, you have to convert your text to outlines. How do you do it? In Adobe Illustrator, just "Create Outlines":

    1. Select the type.
    2. Windows: press Ctrl+Shift+O; Mac: press Command ⌘+Shift+O.

    In Adobe Photoshop:

    1. Select all layers.
    2. Right-click and flatten the image (merge layers).

  3. Missing files — remember to embed

    Another classic slip is forgetting to embed your linked images. A design file with unembedded images is like a Hong Kong pineapple bun (菠蘿油) served without the butter — the essential part is missing. Open the file in Illustrator on any machine but the designer's own and you'll get a "missing linked file" warning, which means the printer can't output the file they need. Embedding is easy: once you've placed an image, an Embed button appears in the toolbar — just click it. We recommend checking that every image is embedded before you export. For extra peace of mind, zip all of the images and files used in the design together and send them to the printer.

  4. Images not converted to CMYK

    Because photos are shot on digital cameras, the files are RGB — built from three primary colours — not the CMYK that presses use. Send an RGB file straight to a press and the colours come out brighter and washed-out, missing the realism of the original. Converting your images to CMYK is a must if you want the printed result to look the way you intended.

  5. Embedded images too low-resolution

    Almost every camera photo is made up of countless tiny squares, and the number of those squares per unit area is its resolution. A low-resolution image pixelates, leaving the picture on your finished print fuzzy and unclear. We recommend that every embedded image be at least 300dpi, so you're never let down by the result — an image at 300dpi or higher holds up even when you scale it larger.
    Further reading: Prints coming out pixelated or distorted? How to choose print-ready images and enlarge small ones without losing quality.

  6. Problem colour values

    The colour of the finished print is the single biggest headache for designers. Choosing colours is already complicated enough, and plenty of designers overlook whether the press can actually reproduce the shade they've picked. There may be countless colour values to choose from on screen, but a press can't render all of them — and printed colour carries a 5–15% variance. If your total ink coverage exceeds 250%, or K sits above 50% on top of several other channels, the printed colour can shift dramatically. Very pale tints are a trap too: anything below 8% prints so faintly it's barely visible.
    Further reading: Three things to watch so your colours come out right — even without a CMYK swatch book.

  7. Uploaded file doesn't match the product

    We regularly receive orders where the customer has uploaded the wrong file. Even though our site confirms the file details more than once, it still happens. Our advice: when you export your finished design, name the file with the product name and size — for example, banner_3x8ft — so you never lose track of what's inside. Our upload system is also flexible: you can change an uploaded file at any time through your order centre.

  8. The file won't open

    Plenty of customers assume any file can be handed to a printer — but that isn't the case. Illustrator (AI) and Photoshop (PS) are the tools most designers reach for, and of the two, Illustrator is better suited to print: Photoshop is built for image editing, while Illustrator is built for print. Designing in other software isn't advisable. If you genuinely have no other option, export small items like business cards as a JPG set to CMYK at 600DPI.

  9. No finishing (black) plate / finishing position not marked

    When your job involves foil stamping, embossing/debossing or spot UV, you'll need to prepare a separate black plate marking exactly where each finish goes once the design is done. The black plate tells the printer precisely which areas to treat, and we build the finishing plate from it. Remember to label both the position and the type of finish on your design or black plate — spot UV, red-gold foil, and so on. The same applies to creasing and perforation lines: mark those on the design too.

    Further reading: A one-minute guide to preparing card artwork, including how to make the finishing (black) plate.

  10. Layers locked or hidden

    Before you send the finished file to the printer, check that no layers are locked or hidden. Printers handle a huge volume of files every day and can't always catch everything, so it's on you to double-check before releasing artwork for print. To be extra safe, send a JPG alongside your design file so the printer can confirm it's correct — that way nothing slips through.

Not sure your file is print-ready? Send it over and our team is happy to take a look before we print — WhatsApp us at +852 3001 5678 (English is fine), with delivery across Hong Kong and Macau.