Artwork · prepress · vector files · Pantone · bleed · dieline

Artwork Specification Guide for B2B Merch Orders

Most preproduction hold-ups on a custom merchandise order are artwork hold-ups rather than factory hold-ups, and an artwork hold-up is almost always a missing file, an unconverted font, a Pantone that was not specified, or a colour profile the supplier cannot use. This guide sets out what we need to take a job into production without a phone call, what we ask for when an artwork file is borderline, and where the line runs between the buyer's responsibility and ours.

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The shortest path between a logo and a finished product

Most artwork problems on a B2B merchandise order fall into four buckets, and each bucket has a defined handoff rather than an open negotiation. The first is the file format itself: we accept vector source files in AI, EPS, PDF and SVG, with vector source preferred for any artwork that includes type or geometric logos. The second is font handling: every typeface used must be either outlined to paths inside the file or supplied as a licensed file alongside the artwork, because a missing font on our system produces a substitution that no one notices until the proof is printed and the type has shifted. The third is colour: every solid colour should carry a Pantone reference or a CMYK breakdown, and any spot colour required for accurate matching must be specified by name rather than by approximate hex. The fourth is the bleed and safe-area geometry, which is the part of the file that determines whether the print will sit correctly on the substrate once it has been trimmed and finished.

What the guide below does is give each of those buckets a concrete rule with an example, so the buyer can build an artwork specification into their procurement template rather than reaching for a checklist on every order. The rules are not recommendations for an ideal world; they are the conditions under which an artwork file can move from an inbound email into prepress without a phone call in between. Files that fall outside the rules can still be produced against, but they trigger an artwork-review step that adds lead time and may add cost, and the buyer should know that before the file is submitted rather than after the proof has been rejected.

Vector source format: AI, EPS, PDF or SVG with editable vectors and fonts outlined or supplied
Bitmap resolution: 300 dpi at 1:1 placement; 600 dpi for fine halftones on small hard goods
Colour mode: Pantone spot or CMYK process; RGB files converted with buyer approval
Bleed: 3 mm full bleed on flat print; method-specific bleed on cylindrical hard goods
Safe area: Text and critical elements held 3 mm inside the trim line
Dieline: Layer named DIELINE, on a separate layer, locked and set to a spot swatch
File naming: SKU-DECORATION-LOCALE-VERSION, all capitals, no spaces, no diacritics
Submission package: Source file, preview PDF, Pantone list, dieline PDF, font folder or licence

Four blocks we ask for on every artwork submission

The prepress conversation goes more smoothly when the buyer hands off four discrete items rather than a single bundled file, because each item has a different owner inside the buyer organisation and a different acceptance test on our side. The items are the production artwork itself, a flattened preview, the colour specification, and the substrate template. None of them is exotic; all of them exist in any standard print handoff. The mistake that costs the most time is when these four items have been combined into one file and the buyer submits only that file, because each of the four is then unavailable for the part of prepress that needs it most.

Vector source versus bitmap

The production file is the source. For logos, wordmarks, illustrations and any artwork that includes curves, the source must be vector — AI, EPS, PDF or SVG with the curves preserved as editable paths rather than flattened to pixels. Vector files scale to any size without resolution loss, which is what allows the same file to print on a 6-millimetre pen barrel and on a 1.5-metre event backdrop without redrawing. Bitmap source — TIFF, PSD, high-resolution PNG — is acceptable for photography and for textures that cannot be expressed as vectors, but at 300 dpi at the actual placement size, not at a placeholder size. A 4-centimetre logo at 72 dpi on screen is 113 pixels wide; the same logo at 300 dpi at the placement size is 472 pixels. The latter is what we need; the former is what most people have on their desktop, and the difference is the gap between an approved proof and a printed image that has visible staircase edges on a curve. When the source file is mixed — vector logotype with bitmap photographic background — both layers must be supplied at the resolution and in the colour mode appropriate to their content, and the layering must be preserved so the prepress operator can manipulate one without disturbing the other.

Fonts, outlines and the substitution trap

Every font used in the artwork must be either outlined to paths inside the file or supplied as a licensed file alongside the artwork. Outlining converts each glyph to a vector path, which makes the file portable at the cost of editability; the type cannot be retypeset, but it will print exactly as drawn. This is the right approach for finished artwork that will not be edited again, and it is the wrong approach for artwork that the buyer may need to update — a date that changes, a recipient name that varies, a slogan that is updated for a campaign. When outlining is not appropriate, the font files are submitted alongside the artwork in a folder structured by font name, and the licence must permit embedding into derivative artwork; if the licence is restricted, the buyer is asked either to outline or to supply a substitute. Font substitution in prepress is the single most common cause of proof rejections on first review. The substituted face moves the metrics, the line breaks change, the cap height is wrong, and the file goes back to the buyer for a re-export that the buyer did not anticipate.

Colour: Pantone, CMYK and what happens to RGB

Every solid colour in the artwork must be specified by Pantone reference, by CMYK breakdown or by both. Pantone references are the right approach for any colour that must match across substrates and across orders — a brand red that is printed on a tote, a cap and a notebook for the same campaign must reconcile to a single Pantone reference rather than to three separate CMYK builds, because CMYK reproduction varies between presses and substrates. CMYK process is the right approach for photographic content, for gradients and for artwork that does not need to match a printed standard. RGB files are accepted but are converted to CMYK before proofing, and the conversion is not reversible; a buyer who submits RGB artwork is approving a CMYK build they have not seen, which is a workflow that produces visible colour shifts on saturated reds, deep blues and rich blacks. A practical rule is to specify Pantone for brand colours, CMYK for photographic content, and never to assume that an on-screen hex value will produce an on-substrate match without a printed proof.

Bleed, safe area and the dieline discipline

Trim is the line where the finished product is cut; bleed is the artwork that extends past the trim to ensure no white edge appears if the cut drifts by a fraction of a millimetre. On flat print — apparel, paper, vinyl, flat-pack substrates — full bleed is 3 millimetres past the trim on every edge, and the safe area for text and critical elements is 3 millimetres inside the trim. On cylindrical hard goods — mugs, bottles, pen barrels — the bleed specification is method-specific and is set out in the per-method artwork brief that the supplier issues with the offer. The dieline is the cutting, creasing and folding template for a product that requires any of those operations, and the dieline belongs on its own layer named DIELINE in a spot colour, locked and set so it cannot be deleted by accident. A dieline that is sitting in the print layer gets printed; a dieline drawn in the same colour as the artwork cannot be seen by the prepress operator and gets cut on the wrong line. The dieline for a custom box, a custom notebook cover or a custom shape matters more than for a square or rectangle, because the cost of a wrongly cut die is paid in paper and in setup time rather than in a simple reprint.

Resolution, colour profiles and the small numbers that decide the print

The numerical parameters on an artwork file are not the kind of detail most briefing documents ask for, but they are the parameters that decide whether a print is sharp or soft, colour-accurate or shifted, and properly cropped or white-edged. Three numbers matter on every job. Resolution, expressed as pixels per inch at the placement size, must be 300 dpi at 1:1 for photographic content on flat print, 600 dpi for fine halftones on small hard goods such as pens and USB drives, and effectively vector for any text or geometric shape. Colour profile, expressed as the embedded ICC profile in the file or as an instruction to leave the colours unmanaged, must match the print method: coated Fogra 39 for offset, uncoated Fogra 47 for stationery, and no profile for Pantone spot colour. The third parameter is the total ink coverage, which on offset is typically capped at 300 per cent to allow the press to dry the sheet, and on digital output is bounded by the printer\'s stated maximum rather than by a buyer-specified cap. None of these numbers is a buyer preference; each is a setting that the prepress software reads and either accepts or warns about.

A buyer who is building a reusable artwork specification template is well advised to lock these values into the template as defaults rather than as a prompt for the designer to fill in on every job. The template should also require the designer to flatten transparency where the production method does not support layered transparency — most screen-print workflows cannot read a file with live transparency, and the flattening has to happen at the buyer side rather than in prepress, because the flattened result is what determines whether the type has shifted on a stroke or a gradient. Linked images should be embedded rather than referenced, because a file that references an image that is missing from the submission produces an error on prepress rather than a placeholder, and the error is read against the buyer\'s deadline rather than against the supplier\'s.

File naming, folder structure and the audit trail

The most common cause of a wrong file going into production is an ambiguous filename, and the cost is paid both ways: the supplier produces against the wrong artwork, and the buyer approves the proof without realising it is the wrong artwork, because the filename is something like "logo_v3_FINAL.ai" and the entire chain uses that string until the printed result disagrees with the screen. The convention we apply on every submission is SKU-DECORATION-LOCALE-VERSION, all capitals, no spaces, no diacritics. An example for a 350-millilitre ceramic mug with a one-colour print on the body, in English, second revision, would read MUG-350-1COL-BODY-EN-V02.AI. The convention is descriptive enough that a file is identifiable from its name alone, and rigid enough that a search across a folder returns every file related to a SKU rather than every file with "logo" in the name.

Submissions are sent as a single zipped folder with a defined structure: source files in /SOURCE, preview PDFs in /PROOF, Pantone list in /COLOR, dielines in /DIELINE, fonts and licences in /FONTS, and a plain-text README in the root with the SKU, the contact at the buyer side, the deadline date and any production notes that are not in the artwork. The README is the file the prepress operator opens first when the conversation gets difficult, because the production notes are the place where a constraint that is not visible in the artwork — a brand colour that has to match an existing printed item, a fabric that has been pre-shrunk and cannot be ironed, a recipient whose name is in a non-Latin script — is recorded for the operator who needs to know.

What we accept, what we ask to revise, and where the line sits

The artwork review on receipt of a new file is a structured pass, not a free-form opinion. The pass checks vector integrity, font status, colour specification, bleed and safe area, dieline placement, and resolution. The output is one of three: accepted as is, accepted with a brief note, or rejected with a request for a revised file. Accepted as is is the case for roughly two thirds of submissions and is the path that moves fastest. Accepted with a brief note covers cases where the artwork is producible but a parameter is at the edge of the spec — a resolution on a halftone that is 250 dpi rather than 300, a Pantone not stated for a colour that was clearly intended as a brand colour, a dieline that is sitting in the print layer rather than on a separate layer. These files move into prepress with a note attached, and the buyer is informed.

Rejected with a request for a revised file covers cases where the artwork cannot be produced as supplied — a bitmap at screen resolution for a print that needs vector source, fonts that are not licensed to embed, an RGB build that would shift visibly in CMYK conversion, a file with live effects that the print method cannot interpret. The buyer receives a written list of what needs to change and a rough estimate of the time required to revise. Most revisions are short — an outline pass on the type, a switch to a licensed font, a flat export — and take one to three working days on the buyer side. Some revisions require the buyer to return to the original designer, in which case the production schedule absorbs the delay as a production delay rather than as a prepress delay.

A buyer who wants to keep the artwork review stage short should ask the designer to submit against this guide before the artwork is signed off internally. The cost of doing so is one round of design QA; the saving is several days of prepress back-and-forth and a proof that is approved on first review. For repeat buyers, the artwork specification is built into the procurement template and the same checklist is used on every order, with the result that the artwork review becomes a confirmation step rather than a triage step.

Hand-off formats for special cases

Three hand-off formats come up often enough to set out separately. The first is embroidery, where the production file is a digitised stitch file rather than an AI: the artwork is supplied as a vector source for digitising, and the digitised DST or EMB file is supplied back to the buyer as the production reference. The digitising charge is one-time per design and is amortised across runs of the same stitch file, so a design that will be reused across campaigns saves the digitising on subsequent runs. The second is deboss and emboss, where the artwork is converted into a metal die and the depth, position and surrounding substrate are part of the file; vector source with a depth specification is required, and a depth map is supplied where multi-level deboss is needed. The third is laser engraving on cylindrical hard goods, where the artwork is wrapped around the radius of the cylinder and the bleed specification is in degrees of arc rather than in millimetres; the wrapping is usually done by the supplier from the buyer\'s flat file, but the buyer is asked to confirm whether the artwork is orientation-locked or rotation-tolerant.

Personalised orders — runs where each unit carries a recipient name, an organisation or a number — are a separate workflow. The artwork file is the template, and the recipient list is supplied as a spreadsheet in CSV or XLSX, with columns locked to the production system: name, organisation, role, size if apparel, and any field that the decoration will print. Names in non-Latin scripts are accepted with the buyer\'s transliteration if the supplier\'s production system supports the script natively; Armenian, Russian, Georgian, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew scripts are supported. Spelling and casing of recipient names is the buyer\'s responsibility, and the production system will print exactly what is supplied. A proof of one personalised unit is produced for the buyer to confirm before the run starts.

Common submission mistakes and how to avoid them

Most rejected artwork files fail on one of six recurring patterns, and naming them helps a buyer avoid them on the second submission rather than on the third. The first pattern is the supplied logo that is actually a screenshot — a PNG or JPG grabbed from a website rather than a vector source taken from the brand library. The second is the file flattened to RGB with all spot colours converted, leaving the Pantone palette unverifiable. The third is the artwork with live transparency or live effects that the print method cannot interpret; screen print in particular cannot reproduce a Gaussian blur, a drop shadow or a transparency blend, and the artwork has to be flattened with those effects rasterised or removed before submission. The fourth is the dieline drawn in the print layer rather than on its own named layer, which produces a visible die line in the finished print. The fifth is the file that looks correct on screen but carries a different colour profile from the one the production method requires; a coated US-grade profile applied to uncoated European stock produces a print that is visibly darker and more saturated than the on-screen proof.

The sixth pattern is the most expensive: an artwork file that has been through multiple revisions, with the version reference in the filename still reading V01 or FINAL, while the production team is genuinely working from V04 of a different file. A version-controlled submission system, anchored on the convention described in the file-naming section above, eliminates this. Two further rules reduce the review cycle. Submit artwork as a single zipped package rather than across multiple emails, because each email becomes its own thread and the prepress operator opens each one in turn. And tell us, in the README or in the covering email, what the artwork is not intended to do — the parts of the file that are decorative and not subject to the print specification, the colours that are approximate and not required to match a standard, the elements that are placeholder for a later revision. Knowing what to spend prepress time on is almost as useful as knowing what to spend it on.

Questions buyers ask about artwork submission

What file format should we send for a logo or a wordmark?

Vector source is the right format. AI, EPS, PDF or SVG with the curves preserved as editable paths and the type either outlined to paths or supplied as a licensed font file alongside the artwork. Bitmap formats such as PNG and TIFF are acceptable for photographic content at 300 dpi at the placement size, but a logo supplied as a bitmap is a logo that cannot be scaled and cannot be colour-separated cleanly for screen print. Where only a bitmap is available, the supplier can redraw the artwork as vector for a fee, and the cost is generally lower than the cost of producing against a low-resolution source.

Can we send RGB artwork and have it converted to CMYK on your side?

Yes, but the conversion is irreversible, and the buyer is approving a CMYK build they have not seen. Saturated reds, deep blues and rich blacks are the colours that shift visibly under an unmanaged conversion, and the shift cannot be corrected after the file is separated for the press. The right workflow is to convert the artwork to CMYK in the buyer\'s design software using a profile appropriate to the print method — coated Fogra 39 for offset, uncoated Fogra 47 for stationery — and to supply the converted file. Pantone references should be specified separately for any brand colour that must reconcile across substrates and orders.

How do you handle artwork for a personalised run with non-Latin names?

The recipient list is supplied as CSV or XLSX, and the script is accepted in the form the buyer supplies. Armenian, Russian, Greek, Georgian, Arabic and Hebrew are natively supported. Spelling and casing are reproduced exactly as supplied, and a single personalised proof is produced for the buyer to confirm before the run is released to production. Where the buyer is transliterating from a non-supported script, the transliteration is a buyer responsibility and is checked against the buyer\'s own written approval before the proof is produced.

Is Corp-Merch affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official supplier to the brands, agencies, or institutions referenced on this page?

No. Corp-Merch is an independent B2B merchandise supplier. References to Pantone, Adobe, Fogra, ISO standards, EAEU customs procedures, Incoterms 2020 and any certification scheme, design agency, brand or institution are informational only and imply no partnership, sponsorship, endorsement or official-supplier relationship. Nothing on this page constitutes legal, design or production advice, and any quoted lead time, cost or specification describes typical practice for this category rather than a fixed commercial offer.

This page is written for marketing, design, procurement and print-management teams submitting artwork to a B2B custom merchandise supplier in Armenia. Corp-Merch is an independent B2B merchandise supplier. References to Pantone, Adobe, Fogra, the ICC, ISO standards, the EAEU customs procedures and Incoterms 2020 describe general requirements as we understand them; they are not design, legal, tax or customs advice, and current treatment must be confirmed with qualified counsel or a production specialist for your own facts. Specifications, lead times, file-size limits, colour-matching tolerance and revision cycles describe typical practice for this category rather than a fixed quotation; each order is priced individually against a written specification, a signed contract and a confirmed proof.