Artwork Guidelines

Why vector artwork is the best thing you can send

A vector file describes your design as shapes and curves rather than as a grid of pixels. There is no resolution in it, so the same file prints cleanly at one inch and at twelve. If you have an AI, EPS, SVG or vector PDF from whoever designed your logo, send that one and stop reading this section.

A pixel file, which means a PNG, a JPG or a photograph, has a fixed number of pixels. Enlarging it does not create detail that was never captured, it just makes the existing pixels bigger, which is what "blurry" and "pixelated" actually mean.

This matters most for logos and lettering, where soft edges are immediately obvious. It matters less for photographs, where a little softness reads as normal.

Resolution: the number that decides everything

Resolution only means something in relation to a printed size. A 1500 pixel wide image is high resolution at two inches and low resolution at ten.

Aim for 300 dpi at the finished sticker size. That means multiplying your sticker width in inches by 300 to get the pixel width you want:

• 2 inch sticker: about 600 pixels wide
• 3 inch sticker: about 900 pixels wide
• 4 inch sticker: about 1200 pixels wide
• 6 inch sticker: about 1800 pixels wide

Below 150 dpi at the size you asked for, our upload check flags the file. A flag is not a rejection: the order still goes through, and a person looks at it during artwork review and decides whether it will genuinely be a problem. Some artwork, particularly bold graphic shapes with no fine detail, holds up better at low resolution than the arithmetic suggests.

One thing no software can undo: a small image that has already been enlarged and saved. Upscaling bakes the softness in permanently. If you have the original, send the original rather than the enlarged copy.

Transparent backgrounds

A die-cut sticker is cut to the shape of your artwork, so the software needs to know where your artwork stops and the background starts. A transparent background makes that obvious.

• PNG, SVG, AI and EPS can all hold true transparency. These are the formats to reach for.
• JPG cannot. The format has no transparency at all. A logo saved as a JPG always carries a solid background, usually white, and that white is part of the image rather than something we can simply switch off.
• A white background is not transparency. A PNG with a white rectangle behind the logo looks identical on a white web page and behaves completely differently on the cutter.

If your file has a background you do not want, use the background removal tool on the order page. It runs in your browser, so you see the result before you pay. It does well with clean edges against a plain background, and struggles with hair, fur, smoke, glass and soft shadows. Check the preview rather than assuming.

Bleed and safe area, in plain language

Two ideas, and they pull in opposite directions.

Bleed: extend the ink past the cut

Cutting is mechanical and it is accurate to a tolerance, not to a theoretical zero. If your background color stops exactly where the cut is supposed to fall, a fractional drift leaves a thin sliver of unprinted white along one edge.

The fix is to let the color run a little past the cut line, so that wherever the blade actually lands, it lands in ink. If you are supplying a design with a colored background that goes to the edge, extend it slightly beyond the shape. If you turn on our border option, this is handled for you, which is one of several reasons the border is a good default.

Safe area: keep the important things in from the edge

The mirror image of bleed. Anything you cannot afford to lose, meaning text, a phone number, a website, the tips of a logo, should sit comfortably inside the shape rather than hugging its outline. Roughly an eighth of an inch of clearance is a sensible habit.

The practical version: background art can run past the edge, important content should stay away from it.

What to expect from color

Your screen makes color with light. A printer makes it with ink on vinyl. They are different physical processes and they do not have identical ranges, so a design will not look precisely the same in your hand as it does on your monitor.

• Bright, saturated blues, greens and oranges are where the difference shows up most. They can read slightly deeper in print than on a backlit screen.
• Matte reads a little darker than glossy from the same file. It is the same ink, the finish just reflects less light back at you. This is most noticeable across large solid areas.
• Holographic changes what sits under the ink. The effect shows through lighter and unprinted areas and disappears under heavy dark solids, so holographic rewards artwork with some open space in it.
• Consistency within a run is reliable. Every sticker in one order is printed the same way at the same time.

If you are matching a specific brand color and it genuinely has to be close, say so in the order notes and tell us what you are matching to. We will tell you honestly what we can and cannot do with it before you pay, rather than after.

What artwork review actually does

Every order is reviewed by a person before it is printed. This is included in the price, it is not an upsell, and it is the main reason to order from a shop rather than from an upload box.

What we check:

• Whether the file has enough resolution for the size you ordered.
• Whether the background is genuinely transparent, or whether something is going to print that you did not intend.
• How the cut path will fall around your shape, and whether any detail is too fine for the blade to follow cleanly.
• Whether anything important is sitting too close to the edge.
• Whether the file opens correctly at all, which is a more common problem than you would expect with AI and EPS files.

What we do not do:

• Redesign your artwork, change its layout, or make creative decisions on your behalf.
• Recreate a low-resolution logo as vector artwork. That is a separate piece of work, and if you need it, ask.
• Proofread your text. We do not know whether the date, the spelling of a sponsor's name or the phone number is right. Check those yourself before you upload.
• Change your file without telling you. The original you uploaded is kept with the order and is never overwritten.

If there is a problem

We email you at the address on the order, describe the specific problem, and tell you what would resolve it. The order waits rather than printing, and rather than being cancelled behind your back.

Usually the answer is straightforward: send a bigger version of the file, send the vector original, choose a larger sticker, or turn on a border. Sometimes it is a conversation about whether the design needs an adjustment. Either way, nothing goes to press until you know.

Production time is confirmed after we review your artwork.

A short checklist before you upload

1. Send the vector file if you have one. If not, send the largest pixel version you have, not a resized copy.
2. Check the pixel width against the sticker width you want, using the 300 dpi arithmetic above.
3. Make sure the background is transparent, or plan to remove it on the order page.
4. Move text and other essential content in from the edge of the shape.
5. Read every word on the design out loud, twice, including the date and the phone number.
6. Remember the size floor: neither side of a sticker can be under 1 inch.