How do you prepare artwork for large format printing?

Large format is where small file mistakes become large printed mistakes — a 2mm error on a business card is invisible, the same error scaled to A0 is a centimetre. The good news is that the rules are few, and they are mechanical rather than artistic.

The finished size. An A0 poster wants an A0 document — 841 × 1189mm — plus 3mm of bleed on every edge. Half-scale files with a note saying “print at 200%” do work, but every scaling instruction is a place for a misunderstanding to live; at 1:1 there is nothing to misread. Resolution is judged at the final size too: the arithmetic, with measured examples from real cameras, is in our A0 DPI guide, and the preflight checker runs it on your file in the browser.

This is why “what is it for?” is a production question, not small talk. A site plan and an exhibition print can be the same pixels, but one belongs on 80gsm uncoated and the other on photo satin — and rigid work (site boards, hoardings) moves off rolls entirely onto boards, where the Foamex vs Dibond guide takes over.

Three dominate. Resolution judged on screen — a file that fills a 4K monitor is only 3840 pixels wide, which at A0 is 82 DPI; the screen was never the test. Missing bleed — colour meant to run off the edge stops at a white line exactly where the eye goes first. Text sized for paper — type that reads at arm’s length disappears at three metres; when in doubt, stand back from your monitor at the real viewing distance with the artwork zoomed to actual size. All three are caught by the preflight we run before press — but catching them at your desk costs nothing.

On the same schedule as everything else on the floor: same day for most of the day, and the overnight run for morning deadlines — how that works hour by hour is in the night-shift guide. The products themselves — sizes, materials, finishing — live on large format printing, same day posters and banner printing.