Envelope file supply guidelines
Bleed and Quiet Zone
Plain envelopes have specific templates for you to use. These are pre-designed in C4, C5, C5+ and DL sizes and they all have areas that cannot be printed in, these are called the Clear Zones. These are marked in quiet zone blue (removed before printing) and blanked out in white on the finishing layer to assist with avoiding your artwork being rejected.
C4 Plain Envelopes cannot have elements bleeding to the page edge. Bleed is allowed on the C5, C5+ and DL sizes, see the finishing note section further down this article.
When you save your PDF ensure that you save it at the same size as the template. Please note that no crop, bleed or registration marks are required.
Colour & Ink Coverage
Please set your vector and bitmap artwork in CMYK colour. All files must be supplied in CMYK. RGB, Pantones, Duotones and other colour spaces are not supported and will be converted to CMYK, this could cause a colour shift so we recommend that the conversion to CMYK is done prior to upload.
Ink levels must be set to a maximum of 300% total ink. Exceeding 300% may result in your job being rejected at the production stage and extending the turnaround.
The minimum tint level is 10% per CMYK channel and tints over 90% will tend to look 100% when printed.
Remember to choose the correct single or double sided product to match your design requirements.
Ink Coverage
The standard envelopes are printed with an expected ink coverage of under 30% of the printable area, for example placing a logo and some text on the envelope. If you require more coverage, for if your design covers most of the envelope then you will need to add the extra coverage finishing note. This extra coverage has a cost surcharge.
Large Areas Of Solid Colour
We would advise to avoid using large areas of solid colour. Tinted areas of more than 60% tint may cause dot gain.
Fonts
Your PDF file must have all fonts converted to outlines. We recommend keeping all text above 6pt size. Note that the minimum stroke width is 0.5mm so ensure that any text elements aren't thinner than this.
Images
If you are using bitmap based artwork then ensure your files have a resolution of at least 300 dpi. TIF, JPEG and PNG images are supported within your PDF. Images must be CMYK.
Bitmap files should be flattened and not contain any layers.
Borders
Avoid using borders as they will look uneven when printed. Do not add stroke borders to your design.
Reproduction of details
The minimum stroke thickness is 0.5 pt for positive strokes and 1 pt for negative stokes (when a line is punched out of another coloured object).
Windows
There are specific templates for the versions with windows which are marked on the template in quiet zone blue and, as with the other non printing areas, are also blanked out on the finishing layer to make it easier to set up your artwork.
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