How to prepare packaging artwork for print

The single biggest time-saver: ask your printer or canner for their template and artwork spec before any design starts. Every printer has slightly different dieline shapes, bleed amounts, colour requirements and file preferences. Designing to a generic guess and adapting later is where delays and reprints come from.

A dieline is the cut/fold map for your pack — artwork sits inside it on its own layer, and the dieline itself never prints. Extend backgrounds and colour past the trim edge into the bleed (commonly 3mm, but follow the spec) so no white slivers appear after cutting, and keep text and logos inside the safe margin away from edges, seams and can ends where trimming and wrap distortion happen.

Screens are RGB; most packaging prints CMYK, sometimes with spot (Pantone) colours for brand consistency or special finishes. Design in the colour mode your printer specifies, and expect some shift from screen to substrate — matte board, kraft and aluminium cans all render colour differently. Ask for a proof on the actual material for anything colour-critical.

Raster images should be 300dpi or higher at final size — upscaling a small file will look soft in print. Convert fonts to outlines (or embed them) so type can’t reflow or substitute on the printer’s system. Keep an editable master separately so you can make changes later.

Most printers want a print-ready PDF (PDF/X) with bleed and crop marks, or packaged vector artwork (AI/EPS) with the dieline on a labelled layer. Name files clearly, note the finish (matte/gloss/spot varnish/foil), and include a low-res visual reference so everyone agrees what “correct” looks like.

If you’d rather not manage any of this, it’s part of what a packaging illustration or brewery branding project can handle end to end.

• No bleed, so white edges appear after cutting.
• Text too close to the trim, fold or can seam.
• RGB artwork sent to a CMYK press, so colours shift.
• Low-resolution logos or images.
• Live fonts not outlined or embedded.
• Designing before getting the printer’s template.