What Is Print-Ready Artwork?
Print-ready artwork ensures that your design is formatted correctly for digital proofing and production, preventing common printing issues like unexpected white edges, blurry images, or incorrect proportions. Creating high-quality custom stickers and labels starts with properly setting up your artwork.
To guarantee your artwork prints exactly as you envision, there are five key components to focus on:
- Resolution – Making sure your design is crisp and clear
- Bleed – Extending your design past the cut line
- Safe Area – Keeping important content within a secure boundary
- Sizing & Proportions – Ensuring your artwork matches the size you ordered
- Cut Line – The final size and shape of your sticker
- Color - Build your design in CMYK color mode
For those working on sticker sheets, check out How to Set Up Your Artwork for Sticker Sheets for additional details on formatting multiple stickers on a single sheet.
Resolution
Why Does Resolution Matter?
If your artwork is low resolution, your stickers may print blurry or pixelated.
Minimum Resolution Suggestion:
- 300 dpi (dots per inch) at the ordered size
- For vector artwork, resolution is not a concern, as it can be scaled infinitely
Example:
- Incorrect: A low-resolution image results in blurry printing
- Correct: A high-resolution (300 dpi) or vector image ensures sharp, clean printing
Please Note: If no other file is available or provided, StickerGiant will print with lower resolution files, however, we will not be able to provide refunds or remakes due to poor quality printing.
Check out this resource for more in-depth details on resolution.
Bleed
Bleed is the extra margin around your design that extends past the cut line. We require 1/8” (0.125 inches) of bleed if your background is not white or transparent.
Why Is Bleed Important?
During printing and cutting, there can be slight shifts. If your design stops exactly at the cut line instead of extending beyond it, even a minor shift in trimming can result in unwanted white edges on your stickers.
Requirement: Add 1/8” bleed beyond the cut line
Example:
- With full bleed:
- No full bleed, white border:
- Incorrect: The background stops exactly at the cut line, leading to visible edges
- Correct: The background extends past the cut line into the bleed area, ensuring full coverage
Check out this resource for more details on bleed.
Safe Area
The safe area is the part of your design that ensures logos, text, and critical artwork won’t be cut off.
Requirement: Keep all essential content inside the safe area, which is 1/8” from the cut line
Best Practices for the Safe Area:
- Logos, text, and barcodes should stay inside this boundary
- For stickers larger than 0.75” x 0.75”, a 1/16” safe area may be acceptable
- For stickers smaller than 0.75” x 0.75”, a 1/8” safe area is required due to precision cutting
Example:
- Incorrect: Text placed too close to the cut line, risking it being cut off
- Correct: Text positioned well within the safe area for a clean, professional finish
Check out this resource for more details on safe areas.
Sizing & Proportions
One of the most common artwork issues we see is artwork that does not match the size ordered.
How Sizing Works in Production
- Our Art Team will size your design to match the dimensions you ordered, not the size of the uploaded artwork.
- If the proportions do not match, we will need you to adjust your file or confirm if you want a different size.
- If your artwork is too wide or too tall compared to your order dimensions, we will need instructions on whether to crop, stretch, or adjust proportions.
Example:
- Correct: A design built in the exact dimensions of the ordered sticker
- Incorrect: A design built for 3" x 1.62" uploaded for a order size of 2" x 1"
Check out this resource for more information on proportions in sticker sizing.
Cut Line
The cut line represents the final edge where your sticker or label will be cut. It is outlined in 100% magenta during setup (this line does not print).
How to Set Up a Cut Line:
- The cut line should be positioned 1/8” from the artwork to allow for trimming
- Stickers and labels are finished with rounded corners, so avoid sharp edges
- If you are setting up your own cut line, use a 0.04” radius or larger for the best result
Example:
- Incorrect: The cutline provided includes sharp angles, tighter than 90 degrees.
- Correct: A magenta cut line is provided to define the sticker shape and no corner is tighter than .04”.
Check out this resource for more information on adding cutlines to your artwork.
Color
We print all stickers and labels using CMYK colors, so if color is important for your design, make sure it is set up ahead of time in CMYK. Files in RGB will be auto-converted and may vary from your expected outcome.
- We cannot match Pantone or Spot colors
- Printed outcomes with a designated CMYK value will still have a potential for 5% variance in color.
For more details on color, check out these resources:
Final Checklist: Is Your Artwork Print-Ready?
-
- Resolution is at least 300 DPI for raster images
- Bleed (1/8” beyond the cut line)
- Safe area maintained (all critical elements inside 1/16” from the cut line)
- Sizing matches the order (aspect ratio and dimensions correct)
- Cut line defined (magenta outline, 1/8” buffer from artwork)
- CMYK Color Mode selected
Ready to Print Your Stickers and Labels?
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