The situation
Every print shop knows the morning pile: postcards with no bleed, a flyer that still has crop marks from another printer, a business card saved in RGB, a logo pasted into a Word file. Each fix is small, but each one means opening a design app, finding the menu, rebuilding the boxes and exporting again, and the job is waiting on the press.
The risk is in the shortcuts. Art stretched to fake bleed, a low-resolution photo nobody flagged, a two-sided job sent as one file to a printer that wants two. A helper for prepress has to do the exact print math, say what it changed, and never quietly hide a problem it could not fix.
The aiKit tools for this job
- Printer’s Helper: Makes or fixes the file from a plain request and returns a print-ready PDF, a proof, a file check and a list of what ran.
- Print file check on upload: Checks every file customers send through your website's Send us your file page as it arrives, with Fix it in Printer's Helper one click away.
- Customer Proofs: Sends the finished version to the customer, who approves it with a typed name from any phone.
Step by step
Drop the file in
Add up to 5 files per job (PDF, AI, EPS, SVG, Word, Publisher, TIFF, PSD, PNG, JPG, HEIC and more), up to 60 MB each, or pick a product and add a logo.
Printer’s Helper →Say what it needs
Type or say it: "add 1/8 in bleed", "remove crop marks", "fit this on a 2 in round sticker". If something that changes the file is missing, like the finished size, it asks one question at a time.
Printer’s Helper →Check the version
You get a proof with cut and safe lines, the print-ready PDF with its boxes set, a step-by-step list of what ran, and a file check. Low resolution and RGB color are reported, never quietly changed.
Printer’s Helper →Ask for changes in plain words
"Make the logo a little bigger." Each request makes exactly one new version in the same place, and earlier versions are one pick away. A job includes 5 changes after its first version.
Printer’s Helper →Send the proof, download the files
Send for approval emails the proof or copies its link. Download the print file, a proof PDF or PNG, PDF/X-4, JPG, PNG, TIFF, or every version in one ZIP; two-sided jobs can come as separate front and back files.
Printer’s Helper →
Examples
A morning of postcards with no bleed
Copperline Print & Copy, an invented shop, gets six postcards with no bleed and one flyer with crop marks. Each goes in with one line and comes back as a print-ready PDF with a file check and a proof link, while the owner runs the first job on press.
One flyer, three sizes, one printer's rules
Bayside Creative resizes a client's event flyer to letter, half-letter and 5 x 7 against its trade printer's saved bleed, safe area and gripper, then sends one proof for sign-off.
Uploads that are checked before anyone opens them
Files sent through the Send us your file page on Mesa Sign Works' aiKit website are checked on arrival for size, bleed, resolution, fonts and colors. A file marked Must fix opens in Printer's Helper with Fix it, and nothing runs until the team presses Start.
Tips
- Save your trade printer as a printing setup with its own bleed, safe area and gripper; every proof then says which rules it used.
- Put the job number, PO and due date in Job details; they name the proof and print files and make the job list searchable.
- Treat a low-resolution warning as a customer conversation. Printer's Helper never pretends a blurry image is sharp.
- Use your own saved one-tap changes for the fixes you make every day, written once with full instructions.