Print Ready Artwork Files: DPI, Bleed and CMYK in Tanzania

Most reprints in this industry are not caused by bad printing. They are caused by artwork that arrives in a format the print process cannot honour, and the customer finds out only after the panels are made. This guide explains what a print ready file actually is in the Tanzanian market, in plain terms, so a business can check its own file before sending it rather than discovering the problem at the delivery date.

The first distinction is vector against raster. A vector file, exported as PDF, AI, EPS or SVG, describes shapes mathematically and can be enlarged to a building without losing quality. A raster file, JPG or PNG, is made of pixels, and every pixel gets bigger when the file gets bigger. Logos and lettering must travel as vector wherever they exist as vector, because a company logo rebuilt from a small JPG is the single most common reason a sign looks soft and slightly wrong at the edges.

The second is resolution at final size, which is where most confusion lives. A business card file at 300 DPI is standard. A banner three metres wide does not need 300 DPI, because it is viewed from several metres away and the required pixel density drops accordingly with viewing distance; asking a banner file for 300 DPI at full size creates a file so large it cannot be handled usefully. The working rule for large format is to supply the file at a scale the artwork is built for and state that scale clearly: a file built at one tenth of the final size needs its resolution judged at one tenth of the final size. What must be avoided is an image lifted from a phone camera and then blown up to six metres, which is blurry regardless of what the settings say.

The third is bleed, the margin of artwork that extends past the intended cut so the trim never exposes a white sliver. For banners and panels this is typically a few millimetres, and it only matters if the finish cuts or folds the piece. A pole banner with a pole pocket needs the pocket depth added on top of the artwork area, otherwise the printed face shrinks once the pocket is sewn. Flat panels that are simply mounted need no bleed at all, so the same file cannot be sent for both jobs with an assumption that the printer will figure it out.

The fourth is colour. Print is CMYK by process, screens are RGB, and the colours a client sees on a phone screen will not match exactly on a printed panel no matter what anyone promises. This is not a defect, it is the difference between emitted and reflected light. What can be controlled is consistency: supply a colour reference, either a Pantone number or a physical sample, when a brand colour has to be matched across several batches, and keep that reference on file so a repeat order in two years still matches. Vivid Measured keeps artwork and colour references on file between orders for exactly this reason, which is what makes the second and third order of a repeat item match the first.

The fifth is the unglamorous list: fonts either embedded or converted to outlines so a missing font does not silently substitute; images supplied as links or embedded rather than referenced from a folder that will not travel; and one final export flattened to a single file rather than an editable document that arrives on a machine without the right software. A short checklist on the client side removes most production delays, and where a business has no design resource at all, the in-house designer at the Muhoro Street, Jangwani workshop prepares artwork free before anything is quoted on production. Send the file and the finished size to WhatsApp +255 785 078 827 and the answer includes whether it will print correctly as supplied.