Ekodisk.com - Earth Friendly CD and DVD Duplication and Replication

Artwork Design Guidelines and Specifications

NOTE: If you or your designer are adept at desktop publishing but have no experience in graphic design for print, you may want to consider hiring a graphic designer for your project, or at least consulting with one. Although we do our best to help customers through the process, professional graphic design, as is needed for high quality retail products, is a very involved process. It will likely take longer for inexperienced designers and the possibility of errors may be higher.

DISCLAIMER: To avoid added expense and/or delays to your project, when supplying graphics to EkoDisk.com, please be sure that your files are prepared to our specifications. We recommend that you use EkoDisk.com supplied template files and review our specifications prior to submitting your artwork for approval. Customer supplied graphics that do not conform to EkoDisk.com specification are subject to additional processing fees.

ACCEPTABLE FILE FORMATS
Final graphic layouts are accepted in electronic format as QuarkXpress™ (.qxd), Adobe Photoshop™ (.psd), Adobe Illustrator™ (.ai & .eps), TIFF (.tif), Bitmap (.bmp) or Adobe Acrobat™ (.pdf) from both MAC and PC platforms. If you are unsure of font availability, it is best to save text as part of the image. Fonts should be supplied formatted Mac postscript, and/or imbedded, rastorized, or converted to outlines.

FILE SPECIFICATIONS

Color images should be in CMYK at a minimum of 300dpi (600 dpi is the best resolution we can accept.)

Grayscale images should be provided at 600dpi.

When preparing .pdf files, please be sure that artwork is not down sampled to a lower resolution.

Preferred file formats are TIFF files saved at 300dpi or more in CMYK for color printing, and 600 dpi for grayscale printing.

Allow for proper bleed (1/8") on all images.

Keep all type and logos within a 1/8" safety area, do not put vital design elements close to the trimmed edge of design.

TEMPLATE SPECIFICATIONS
It is best to utilize the templates available on our website. Overall dimensions include a 1/8" bleed area for trim allowance - For a proper print bleed, we require a 1/8 outer and inner bleed safety margin. Your supplied images/color should extend 1/8" beyond the final trim size to ensure a clean printed edge after trimming. Critical elements should be placed at least 1/8" within the actual cut lines to avoid being trimmed. (click here to view our templates).

COLOR
Color you see on your monitor may not match exactly the printouts you provide to us. Likewise, the color from our printers may also vary slightly. We cannot guarantee an exact match to your printouts. It is best to design everything on the same computer and use colors that are relative to each other. It is best not to try to anticipate any variations in color between a monitor and an actual printed piece.

FILE SUBMITTAL
Graphic files that are greater than 10MB must be submitted on disk or via FTP. Acceptable media format is CD. Please specify whether media is Mac or PC formatted. Project graphics smaller than 10MB may be emailed to ekodisk@gmail.com. (Files may be compressed to Zip.)

NOTE: E-mailed files require a valid project title as part of the subject text or the email attachment may be deleted from the file server.

If you have pre-press questions, please email ekodisk@gmail.com or call (toll free) at 877-797-4528.

Due to rapid changes in the industry, we recommend that you call in advance to confirm specifications, standards, prices, and services. All standards subject to change without notice.

Supplied Media

All files must be supplied to Five Masks Multimedia via one of the following media:

• CD-R
• Via Email to ekodisk@gmail.com
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

Submit ALL Required Paperwork. When you are ready to send us in your design, please include ALL of the following documents:

• Review our Checklist to make sure you haven't missed any step that will result in your project being delayed. All supplied design jobs REQUIRE that this checklist be completed and submitted with the project.
• Include a hard copy printout of all pieces of design (there is a $15 charge if no mockup is supplied)
• Print a directory of all the files on the disc, highlighting which files are to be used
• Include any special instructions along with your project (i.e. additional scans, folding mockups, etc..)

Download Templates