Illustrator CS4 — How to set up a lettehead file for a commercial printing company

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Adobe Illustrator CS4 is a great program in which to create your letterhead file. Simply put:

  • Adobe Illustrator CS4 has an easy set-up at the start of the file creation program, and 
  • Adobe Illustrator CS4 allows for bleeds. 

 

This page is in two parts:

While the images on this page relate to Apple-Macs, the theme is the same if you are using a PC.

  

How to create a letterhead printing file in Adobe Illustrator CS4

Choose "File", then choose "New" (as shown in the below image.

 

You will then be presented with a "New Document" dialogue box that is similar to the below screenshot.
There are five matters that must be addressed correctly in that box:

  1. Name your file and, given all commercial printing companies use the name of the file to identify your job through the printing process, you should give it a meaningful name — normally the name has two parts:
    • Identify the specific piece of artwork. In our example, we shall be creating a letterhead for Printing-Online.com.au Pty Ltd, and the letterhead will have the company name clearly identified at the top. Therefore, the name of the file will identify Printing-Online.
    • Identify the type of product that you want printed. In our example, we want a letterhead, so our file name will include the term letterhead.
  2. Set the number of "Artboards" to "1". If your commercial printing company offers dohble-sided letterhead, then you will select "2". TheOnlinePrinter, however, only offers single-sided letterhead, so we will select "1".
  3. Select the size of the product.
    • In Australia (in fact, almost all around the world) the standard size is A4, so select A4 from the drop-down menu. If there is no drop-down menu, then just enter the measurements in the height and width boxes (i.e.: 297mm high x 210mm wide).
    • If you want A5-sized letterhead, then the measurements should be 210mm high x 148mm wide.
  4. Have a 3mm bleed on each and every edge. You do NOT need to know what bleeds are just yet (bleeds will be described leter); just make sure that the bleeds boxes are set at 3mm.
  5. Make sure that the Color Mode is set at CMYK, the Raster Effects are set and 300ppi, and the Preview Mode is set at Default.

If all the boxes and drop-down menus are set correctly, then you can click the "OK" button at the top-right of the dialogue box.

 

You will now be presented with a blanl letterhead file, and it will look at bit like the below screenshot — but the red and black boxes on your screen will not be as bold as the ones shown below).
The black box is the size of the letterhead, and the red box represents the bleeds (more about bleeds below).

You cannot yet start creating your A4 letterhead file. You need to create some Safety Margin lines.

 

Placing safety margin lines on your letterhead file is an easy process — if you do NOT have a ruler at the top and on the left of the page, then choose "View" then choose "Show Rulers". Once the rulers are displayed on your screen:

  1. Place your mouse in the lefthand ruler, hold down the mouse, drag the mouse to the right, and stop when the mouse is 5mm inside the left side of the black box (look at the top ruler to find the 5mm mark). This is the left-hand safety margin line.
  2. Place your mouse in the lefthand ruler again, hold down the mouse, drag the mouse to the right, and stop when the mouse is 5mm inside the right side of the black box (look at the top ruler to find the 5mm mark). This is the right-hand safety margin line.
  3. Place your mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, drag the mouse down, and stop when the mouse is 5mm under the top of black box (look at the left-hand ruler to find the 5mm mark). This is the top safety margin line.
  4. Place your mouse in the top ruler, hold down the mouse, drag the mouse down, and stop when the mouse is 5mm above the bottom of black box (look at the left-hand ruler to find the 5mm mark). This is the bottom safety margin line.

 

You should now have a page that look sometjing loke the below image. The important things to know about all these lines and boxes are:

  1. If you have any images, or any background colours, that are to be printed to the very edge of your letterhead, then you MUST continue those images (or background colours) all the way out to the red bleed line.
  2. If you have any text, images or background colours that are NOT meant to go to the very edge of the page, then you MUST keep that text (and those images and background colours) inside the safety margin line.

 

The next two images show you a letterhead file that has been created properly — the second image is magnified). The things that you will notice are:

  1. The green and lemon background colours continue past the black box, and all the way to the bleed line (i.e.: the red box); and
  2. The company logo and the text is inside the safety margin lines.

So, you are now free to create your own letterhead file using Adobe Ullustrator CS4 and, provided you take not of the blled and safety margin lines, you will creat a file that your commercial printing company will be happy to print.

 

Once you have created your letterhead file, you will (quite obviously) want to send it to your commercial printing company; there are a couple of things that you can do that will make sure that your job proceeds through the printing process with no problems, and it is to those matters that your attention is now drawn.

 

How to create a 100% press ready PDF file in Adobe Illustrator CS4

All commercial printing company would prefer to receive a 100% press ready PDF letterhead file. It makes their jobs easier.
The reason you should want to present create a 100% press ready PDF letterhead file is simple: your job will get printed faster if your file needs no (or very little) adjustments between the time you submit it and the time that the presses start rolling.

There are two simple things you can do to make your file 100% press ready:

 

Outlining text in Adobe Illustrator CS4 letterhead file.

Fonts can become a big problem if your commercial printing company is NOT licensed to use the fonts that you have used. This matter can be avoided in its entirity if you outline all your text, and this is just so simple to achieve.

Choose "File", then choose "All" (see below image).

 

Your screen will look a bit like the below image. Specifically, each and every item will be outlined with blue boxes and blue lines.

 

Now choose "Type", then choose "Create Outlines" (see below).

 

The text in the file will now be surrounded with a blue mottled outline (see below). This means the text has been converted to outlines.

You should now save your file, but please ansure that you save the file with a new name (e.g.: "Printing Online Letterhead Outlined"); this means you can still access your old file if you need to change anything (e.g.: change a web address or telephone number, etc).

 

Converting an Adobe Illustrator CS4 file into a press-ready PDF.

Creating a 100% press-ready PDF will ensure that your letterhead is printed quickly — the job will join the front of the printing queue now, rather than join it later.

Choose "File", then choose "Save As...." (see below).

 

You will be presented with a "Save As" dialogue box. Make sure that you select Adobe PDF from the bottom drop-down menu (see below).

 

Your screen will go to the "Save Adobe PDF" dialogue box, and the left-hand blue tab should be on "General" (see the blue box - outlined in red - on the left of the below image). If it is not set at "General", then click once on the "General" tab and you will go to that page. You then:

  1. Select "Press Quality" from the top Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu.
  2. Make sure that the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" box is the ONLY box that is ticked.
  3. Click once on the Compression tab (just below the General tab).

 

The Save Adobe PDF dialoge box will now change to something similar to the below image. The Compression tab should now be blue.
Ensure that:

  1. Color Bitmap Images setting is the same as the setting shown below.
  2. Greyscale Bitmap Images setting is the same as the setting shown below.
  3. Monorchrome Bitmap Images setting is the same as the setting shown below.
  4. Once the setting are correct, click once on the Marks and Bleeds tab.

 

The Save Adobe PDF dialoge box will now change to something similar to the below image. The Marks and Bleeds tab should now be blue.
Ensure that:

  1. The Trim Marks box is the ONLY box that is ticked. Please, we do NOT want Registration Marks, Color Bars or Page Information.
  2. Each and every Bleed box is set at 3mm.

You can now Save your file, and you will now have a 100% press-ready PDF letterhead file that you can send to your printing company.
AND, given you have taken the time to outline the text and created a 100% press ready PDF letterhead file, you can be sure that your letterhead file will join the front of the print queue almost as soon as it is submitted.