About Prepress Studio: what it's for, and its limits

• Print shops, agencies, designers, and business owners getting files ready for a printer
• Adding bleed, fitting art inside the safe area, resizing, and cleaning up crop marks
• Checking a file before it goes to press, with a detailed report
• Standard pieces from a logo and words: business cards, forms, labels, tickets, signs, folders
• Sending a proof and getting an Approve or Request changes back

• New logos or fully custom art from scratch (DesignContest.ai is coming for that)
• Editing the words or photos inside a customer's finished design
• Pricing or ordering: it makes the files, not the order

• A proof for your customer
• A print-ready PDF with bleed and print boxes
• An FPO file for your printer (numbering, cuts, and folds marked)
• A detailed file check report
• Cut, fold, and perforation files when the piece has them
• A private approval link

The assistant is an AI working with exact print operations. It is careful, and it still has limits worth knowing before you send a job to press:

• It can misread a file: a faint line taken for a cut line, a size read from the wrong box. Always check the proof before you print.
• It uses only your words. It never writes a headline, a price, or a phone number for you, and it asks when something is missing.
• Simple layouts are built from your logo, your words, shapes, and type, with no art layers. More creative, on the products that offer it, adds an art layer, and every art layer is checked for print resolution and bleed before the file is print-ready.
• Photos are not split into PMS spot plates. Spot colors come from vector art (shapes and type).
• A low-resolution image is not made sharp. It is reported, never quietly enlarged.
• A custom die cut traced around art is approximate. Check the cut line before it goes to the cutter.
• Large signs and banners are judged at viewing distance: 150 ppi at full size is fine for a banner and too soft for a business card.

Takes a finished file and makes it print-ready: adds bleed, fits the art inside the safe area, changes the size, cleans up crop marks, or lines up folds.

• Ideal for: A customer's file with no bleed.
• Ideal for: Art too close to the cut.
• Ideal for: A trifold whose panels don't meet the folds.
• Not for: Changing the words or the design itself.
• Not for: Rebuilding art from a photo of a printed piece.
• You get: Proof, Print-ready PDF, FPO file, File check report.
• Limit: Bleed is made from the art's own edge. A busy photo at the edge can look stretched; the proof shows it.
• Limit: Low resolution and RGB color are reported, never quietly changed.

Sets up a new file for any product at the right size, bleed, and safe area, from your finished art or from your logo and words.

• Ideal for: Starting a job at our exact product specs.
• Ideal for: A custom size with the product's own bleed and safe area.
• Not for: Products outside our list without their numbers: add your printer's template instead.
• You get: Proof, Print-ready PDF, FPO file, File check report.
• Limit: A custom size uses the product's bleed and safe area; confirm unusual sizes with your printer.

Measures the file against the product it prints as and reports every check: what was measured, the rule, the result, where on the page, and how to fix it.

• Ideal for: A last look before a file goes to press.
• Ideal for: Explaining to a customer why a file needs changes.
• Not for: Judging the design or the spelling: read the proof for those.
• You get: Detailed file check report (on screen and as a PDF), Proof, Fix this on anything that can be fixed here.
• Limit: Without a product picked, the size is measured from the file and may not match what you ordered.

Makes a proof with the cut and safe lines marked, from one file or several, with your logo and details, and an approval link.

• Ideal for: Front and back on one page.
• Ideal for: Several jobs or items on one proof.
• Ideal for: Getting a clear Approve or Request changes.
• Not for: Replacing a hard-copy color proof: screens differ from ink.
• You get: Proof PDF, Proof picture, A private approval link.
• Limit: Screen colors are a preview; the printed color depends on the paper and the press.

Cut lines, wind slits, round or shaped pieces, and files whose stated size already includes the bleed.

• Ideal for: A die line traced around art.
• Ideal for: Round stickers.
• Ideal for: Banner wind slits.
• Not for: Engraving or routing files for machines other than a die cutter.
• You get: Proof, Print-ready PDF, Cut line as its own file, FPO file.
• Limit: A traced die cut is approximate; check it before cutting.
• Limit: Large pieces are judged at viewing distance.

Makes a labeled blank template: trim, bleed, safe area, folds, pockets, die shape, holes, and numbering areas. A printing expert asks for anything missing.

• Ideal for: Sending a designer the exact setup for a piece.
• Ideal for: Custom sizes and die shapes.
• Ideal for: Our products' templates in one tap.
• Not for: Designing the piece itself.
• You get: Labeled template PDF, Die line as its own file when the piece is cut to a shape.
• Limit: Numbers you type are used as given; confirm them with your printer.

Turns images into print PDFs at their real size, or PDFs into pictures.

• Ideal for: A JPG logo that needs to be a PDF.
• Ideal for: A PDF page as a picture for a website.
• Not for: Turning a photo into vector art.
• You get: The converted file.
• Limit: A picture made into a PDF keeps its resolution; it is not made sharper.

Merges, splits, reorders, or rotates pages without changing them.

• Ideal for: Putting a front and back in one PDF.
• Ideal for: One file per page.
• Not for: Editing what's on a page.
• You get: The new PDF.
• Limit: Pages are kept exactly as they are; sizes are not changed.

Scales a design to a new size and keeps it intact.

• Ideal for: A postcard in a second size.
• Ideal for: Letter to A4.
• Not for: Very different shapes, like a square from a long banner.
• You get: Proof, Print-ready PDF.
• Limit: A change of shape leaves space or crops the art; the proof shows which.

Makes art one color or black only, sets up PMS spot plates from vector art, and reports RGB.

• Ideal for: One-color forms and stamps.
• Ideal for: PMS jobs.
• Not for: Separating photos into spot plates.
• You get: Print-ready PDF, Separated plates, Proof.
• Limit: Photos are not split into PMS plates.

Makes an email-size copy or a smaller PDF for uploading.

• Ideal for: Emailing a proof.
• Not for: Printing: the email copy is lower quality on purpose.
• You get: A smaller PDF.
• Limit: The email-size copy is not for print.

Cuts an imposed or crop-marked sheet down to one piece with bleed.

• Ideal for: A file sent with crop marks.
• Ideal for: One card from a sheet of many.
• Not for: Files with no marks or trim to find.
• You get: Proof, Print-ready PDF.
• Limit: If the marks are unclear, it asks for the finished size.

Every product uses the numbers from our product line for each of its sizes, and each product panel's Print settings shows them with their source. What each product is for:

• Business cards in our standard sizes, from your logo and details or your finished art.
• Postcards with a mailing back, from 4 x 6 to 6.25 x 11.
• A 4 x 9 card for display racks.
• One-sheet flyers from your finished art.
• Folded brochures in seven folds, with our fold lines. Fold-in panels are a little narrower so they tuck in; panel widths come from our fold templates.
• Letterhead with your logo and contact line. 1 and 2 color letterhead is usually printed with a white margin.
• Envelopes #10, #9, 6 x 9, A-sizes, with your return address. Printed on finished envelopes, so color stays inside the safe line unless the envelope is converted from a flat sheet.
• Notepads with your logo, lined or blank, glued at the top. One ink and no bleed, printed to the exact size; keep art 1/4 in in from every edge.
• 2, 3, or 4 part carbonless forms, numbered by the press. Parts print on white, canary, pink, and goldenrod, glued at the top: keep art about 1/4 in below the glued edge. The press prints the numbers in one of four corner spots; the file leaves that spot empty and the FPO file marks it.
• Labels and stickers in circle, rectangle, square, rounded, oval, or a custom die cut. A custom die cut traced around art is approximate.
• Numbered tickets and raffle tickets with a stub and a perforation. Numbers print in our nine fixed spots; the press adds them.
• Award and gift certificates with lines to fill in.
• Folded table tents, the same or different on each face.
• Door hangers with our hole and slit die, and an optional tear-off card. Keep words clear of the hole and slit.
• Menus and price cards built from a list you paste in.
• Presentation folders with pockets and card slits, on our dies. The file is the flat die: the proof shows it open and closed.
• Yard signs on a wire stake. Few, big words read best from the street.
• Rigid signs with optional grommets and rounded corners.
• Vinyl banners with hems, grommets, pole pockets, and wind slits. There is no banner template in our line: the numbers are the industry standard.
• Pull-up banner stands. The stand hides the bottom of the banner: keep words above it.
• Catalogs and booklets: page count, saddle stitch or perfect bound, and the cover. Saddle stitch pages come in multiples of 4. Pages near the fold creep; keep words away from the spine.