PDF, AI, PNG or JPG: which file to send your printer

The formats, ranked

In rough order of how much trouble they save you.

• PDF (print-ready) — vector, embeds fonts, carries bleed and trim information. Always the first choice.
• AI or EPS — the designer's working file. Fine, but fonts must be outlined or supplied.
• TIFF — high quality raster with no compression loss. Large files, but safe.
• PNG — lossless and fine for logos, but has no CMYK support and no bleed information.
• JPG — compressed and lossy. Acceptable for photographs, poor for text and logos, where compression leaves visible fuzz around edges.
• Word, PowerPoint, Canva share links — not print files. Export a PDF first.

The two things that break a PDF

Fonts that are not embedded, which means the press substitutes a different typeface and your layout reflows. And artwork exported at screen resolution, which looks fine on a monitor and soft on paper.

Both are fixed at export time: tick "embed fonts" or convert text to outlines, and export images at 300 DPI rather than 72.

The specifications this applies to

For reference, here is how it works out on the products this comes up on most often.

• Standard Visiting Cards — 89 × 51 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹2 per unit with a minimum of 100.
• Letterheads — 210 × 297 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹4 per unit with a minimum of 100.
• Flyers — 148 × 210 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹2.5 per unit with a minimum of 250.

Ordering

Every file is checked automatically before printing, so a mistake in any of this is caught while it can still be corrected rather than after a run is on paper.

Standard delivery is free to every PIN code in India — two working days to a metro, up to twelve to the islands — and prices include GST, so the figure on the product page is the figure charged. Add a GSTIN at checkout and the invoice carries it for input credit.

If something still looks wrong

Preflight catches size, resolution, colour mode and page count automatically, and it errs toward warning rather than refusing — a file that would print acceptably is never blocked just because it is not perfect.

What it cannot judge is whether the design says the right thing. Proofread names, phone numbers and dates with a second pair of eyes before approving, because approval is the point at which the file goes to a press and the cost of a change stops being zero.

Common questions