Whether you are a professional designer or an enthusiastic amateur, you may have to provide your artwork in ways that may be unfamiliar. Here we share some of the pitfalls of preparing your artwork for printing at MARC, and explain how to get it to us for the best results.

You can e-mail artwork to info@marctheprinters.co.uk - don't forget to attach your file! Also, include ALL the details - size, number to be printed and what you want them printed on. Do this even if you have spoken to us about the job on the phone or in person.

You can bring your artwork in on cd or memory stick. Please note that all media will be scanned for viruses. If your memory stick has hundreds (or thousands) of files on it this may take a long time and we may refuse to continue with the scan. We will under no circumstances copy files from your stick unless the whole of the stick has been scanned.

We will not plug external memory drives or mobile phones into our computers.

Of course, you can still bring in artwork on paper ("hard copy" or "camera ready"). This will not produce as good a result as a computer file, but sometimes it's all you've got!

Frequently encountered problems:

General problems

1. Fonts
We will probably not have the same fonts on our computers as you have on yours. This will certainly be true if you have used a Mac rather than a PC. So, either send us all the fonts that you have used, or "flatten" your artwork and save as a Jpeg or Pdf.
Note: you can't install Mac fonts onto a PC so a Mac file will have to be saved for PC and the fonts embedded.

2. Resolution
We need at least 300dpi (dots per inch or pixels per inch) files to print from. Remember, if you are using Photoshop or similar, you need to START with a blank file AT THE DESIRED SIZE at 300dpi. You cannot create something at 72dpi and then increase the resolution - it doesn't work that way. (Try drawing something on an uninflated balloon and then blow it up!)
Note: most images and photos on the web are 72dpi.

3. Solid Black
Sometimes the black and white printer becomes starved of toner if it is asked to print a run of almost solid black posters. We will try our best but it may be that the only way that it can be printed successfully is to "reverse it out". We will advise you if there are problems like this.

4. Word Files
Word files are notoriously unstable when transferred from one computer to another. To make sure that nothing has "slipped" or "disappeared", either convert the file to a pdf, or provide us with a printed version so that we can see what it is supposed to look like.
Note: We cannot print from Microsoft Publisher files or Powerpoint files

5. Bleeding off
If you want something printed so that it fills the whole of the paper (no border) you need to provide a "bleed" (ie. The image needs to have a spare bit that can be cut into by the guillotine).
Note: our machines cannot print right to the very edge of the paper - so if you want something bled-off it will have to be either slightly smaller than an A size when finished, or printed on larger paper (more expensive).

Problems specific to the spot colour risograph and soya inks

1. Not suitable for the spot colour risograph
Because the spot colour risograph uses wet ink pushed through the holes in a screen (putting it very simply!), not everything can be printed successfully using this method. The following will cause problems: large areas of solid coverage, very fine detail, very small text, pictures that lack definition, solid areas near the edge of the artwork etc. If in doubt, discuss a spot colour risograph job with us before committing yourself to a design. (see "laser printing")

2. Using an extra colour
In order to print your two-colour work on the spot colour risograph, we must be able to separate the colours in your artwork (you need to provide "colour separations"). This is because we print one colour first, then put the paper through the printer again to print the second colour. (see "registration"). Please show us your design in plenty of time so that any problems can be resolved - not every design can be successfully printed on the spot colour risograph.
Note: there are a limited number of soya ink colours available (see "ink colours"). Also, the soya inks are semi-transparent, so putting one colour on top of another rarely works as it will usually produce a mucky brown!)

3. Registration (or lining up colours)
When we print your two-colour work on the spot colour risograph, we print one colour first and then put the paper through the machine again to print the second colour. Because the machine is friction fed, the paper will not go through the machine in exactly the same place as the first pass, and there may also be the possibility of a slight twist developing if there is uneven ink coverage across the paper. For this reason this printing method is not good for anything where the two colours need to line up exactly (perfect registration). Please keep this in mind when designing artwork for the spot colour risograph that involves more than one colour