Please read Important Printing Terms for more information.

HIRE A PROFESSIONAL GRAPHICS DESIGNER - IT'S WORTH THE INVESTMENT

While computers have made graphic design easier, it still takes a great deal of practice to do it well. The design of your CD has an enormous impact on its appeal and sales potential- while you "can't tell a book by its cover", you certainly can sell one. You take your music seriously - shouldn't you take your CD packaging as seriously? Improperly designed files are the single greatest source of delays and extra costs. Spin can do your design for you, just call us!

USE QUALITY SOFTWARE

Professional level design requires professional level software. See our Art Requirements page for the software packages we support.

CHOOSE PROPER FONTS, DON'T TRY TO USE EVERY ONE YOU HAVE.

Fonts are the single greatest source of problems when designing for print - ask any designer. To avoid delays and expensive redesign, avoid using a large number of fonts, don’t mix types of fonts (Truetype, Type 1, Postscript,etc). Mac users - use postscript fonts that include both screen and printer fonts. PC users, use Truetype only. Be ready to accept changes in your font choice - many fonts look fine onscreen, but will not print. ALWAYS SUBMIT THE FONTS USED WITH YOUR PROJECT (if needed).

USE CORRECT COLOUR MODEL FOR BEST COLOR ACCURACY

Full colour artwork is usually printed in 4 colour process (CMYK), so all source files and images must be compatible. If using bitmap images (pictures), use TIF file format, 300-350 dpi, CMYK/grayscale only - No RGB images!

ALLOW SUFFICIENT "BLEED" & "GUTTER" ON ARTWORK

Your print job will be printed on larger sheets of paper, and then cut down to final size. There can be slight variation in the cut, so we have to build in some safety areas. There are actually two things we watch for, "bleed" and "gutter". Bleed is the artwork that goes past the final cut line, which will be cut off (usually any background image or image that goes all the way to the edge). This is a safety measure so that there won't be a white line along the edge if the cutter is off slightly. Gutter is the safe area on the inside of the cut line, where any important text and images shouldn't go, in case the cut is too far inside. It's also a good idea to avoid having any border or line that runs right along the cut line, it can be lost.

Normally we ask for 0.125" bleed and gutter, which gives us a nice big safety margin. The templates already include the bleed area, so just take any artwork all the way to edge of the templates. Keep text inside the gutter areas.

USE THE PROPER DIMENSIONS

All our standard package dimensions are available, either direct from us or on our website. We also offer free templates for the more popular software packages.

Download our CD Manufacturing Guide and CD Standard Specifications.

KEEP TRACK OF INK COLOURS

Avoid the temptation to specify new colours as Pantone colours, unless you actually intend to pay for extra inks. Only CD faces are printed with spot colours - all paper is printed CMYK process. If you want to specify new colours, set them up as CMYK process colours, and name them accordingly.

COLLECT ALL FILES FOR OUTPUT AND CHECK YOUR FILES

When the design is ready to go, collect all the images, files, and fonts under one folder, so that nothing is missed (even better, have a folder for each type of file - files, images and fonts). DO NOT SEND multiple versions (this may cause confusion). Send us ONLY the final, complete version! If you want to include other files (such as original images or scans), place these in a separate, clearly labelled folder.

A NOTE ON FILE NAMES

Starting at the very beginning of your project design, please pay close attention to using correct file name conventions. File names should be descriptive, concise, and helpful. Feel free to assume that our designers are not telepaths and won't know which file is the one you meant for us to use. Indicate page numbers for booklets (where applicable). File names should also include file extensions indicating the type of file (Mac users take note - the information that tells the system the type of file in use often gets lost during transfer).

Be neat and organized. Create a text file with project information and include it with your files. Take your time - rushing to get files submitted usually leads to problems that delay your project and cause extra costs.