How to send us your designs:

This page is used to help you save a few dollars and submit artwork to Waterford Signs that is ready to go with little or no additional design or preparation needed. We have included many different programs below to help you decide which one is best for what your finished product will be.

  

First:

Contact us. We realize that not everyone is a graphic designer or a sign manufacturer. Waterford Signs does this all day, every day. Let us tailor a project specifically for you and your needs. We can discuss cost, materials, design and a timeline. Then we will let you know what type of file to send us. Remember, this is our job……let us make it easy for you.

 

Next:

There are many ways to get your artwork to us. You can email it to info@waterfordsigns.com, use an online file transfer service like yousendit.com (see button at bottom of this page), mail it to the address on the top of our pages, drop it off at our retail store or if your artwork is too large just email us and we will fix you up with an online file folder.

  *Please use the following information to make sure your file is in a usable format and that it is properly set up. This will help streamline the process from beginning to end as well as save you money in the long run.

 

File preparation tips:

Platform

We accept artwork that is created on MAC and PC as long as they are formatted properly.

 

Color

When creating and sending artwork for printed materials such as business cards, flyers, brochures and postcards, you must use a CMYK working environment and export your file as such. You can work with Pantone colors as long as they are from the Pantone CMYK Coated fan deck.

 If your artwork needs to be turned into a sign, banner, poster, sticker, pop-up display or similar product, then we require the artwork to be created and exported using RGB color settings. You may use Pantone colors as long as they are chosen from the Solid in RGB Coated fan deck.

 

We can show you printed examples and color guides if you can make it in to our shop. This will take the guesswork out of color matching so you can know, without a doubt, that your product will look perfect.

Application Specifics

CorelDraw

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All text must be converted to curves (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• All lines must be converted to objects (or they can change thickness and even disappear when printed)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .CDR, .EPS, .PDF (.TIF and .JPG can be used, but only if they are saved at least 200 DPI at actual size)

 

Illustrator

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All images need to be embedded and not linked

• All text must be converted to outlines (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• All lines must be converted to objects (or they can change thickness and even disappear when printed)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .EPS, .AI, .PDF (.TIF and .JPG can be used, but only if they are saved at least 200 DPI at actual size)

 

Photoshop

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• All images must be created at actual size and have a resolution of at lease 200 DPI (i.e. 3’ x 6’ = 36” x 72”)

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All images need to be flattened

• All text layers must be rasterized (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .EPS, .PDF, .TIF, .JPG

 

QuarkXPress

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All images need to be embedded and not linked

• All text must be converted to outlines (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• All lines must be converted to objects (or they can change thickness and even disappear when printed)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .EPS, .PDF (.TIF and .JPG can be used, but only if they are saved at least 200 DPI at actual size)

 

InDesign

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All images need to be embedded and not linked

• All text must be converted to outlines (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• All lines must be converted to objects (or they can change thickness and even disappear when printed)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .EPS, .PDF (.TIF and .JPG can be used, but only if they are saved at least 200 DPI at actual size)

 

Freehand

• Please see above to know if your artwork needs to be created in CMYK or RGB color mode

• Do not create artwork with a bleed

• All text must be converted to paths (otherwise they will be substituted and NOT look like they do on your screen)

• All lines must be converted to objects (or they can change thickness and even disappear when printed)

• Here are the file types that we can use in preferred order: .EPS, .AI, .PDF (.TIF and .JPG can be used, but only if they are saved at least 200 DPI at actual size)

 

Microsoft Programs

• We do not accept artwork created in these programs

• Artwork created in these programs is not compatible with the software that we need to print from

 

File resolution tips:

Resolution

Always keep in mind the size and intended viewing distance of your final graphic. For instance, billboards and banners are generally viewed from a far-away distance and may not need to have photo-quality graphics in order to look great from the intended viewing distance. Posters and brochures are a “hands-on” kind of product that generally do look better with higher resolution graphics.

 

Finally:

Waterford Signs will check your submitted artwork to make sure that there will be no troubles when we produce your products for you. We will check that the size, color, material and quantities are all correct before we make anything. This ensures that there are no snags or unforeseen problems along the way. Please contact us when you are ready to place an order. We welcome your questions and comments.

 

What other fees can be involved?:

We include standard placement of your art and add copy to your product at no charge. If there are multiple revisions

at your request or further graphic design involved, there will be additional charges billed at our hourly design rate

of $90 per hour.

 

There may be an additional charge if one or more of the following occur:

 • Your supplied artwork is not to the proper scale and needs to be reformatted to our specifications.

• Your supplied artwork was sent with the wrong color profiles and you need Waterford Signs to modify the colors for you.

• You require specific color matching or Pantone color matching.

• The artwork you supply is a bitmap or flattened image and needs to be vectorized (traced in the computer) in order to be reproduced.

• We spend an unforeseen amount of time going back and forth with you making changes to any design.

 

These are the most common scenarios of additional fees. We will let you know ahead of time before any of these charges would be applied.