Most printing problems happen long before anything reaches the press. They happen at the artwork stage — wrong file format, missing bleed, low resolution, or colours set up in the wrong mode. The good news: getting your artwork right is straightforward once you know what each setting does and why it matters.
This guide walks you through everything you need to do to send print-ready artwork for custom stickers or custom labels. Whether you’re a designer who already uses Adobe Illustrator daily or a small business owner using Canva for the first time, the principles are the same.
File formats — what to send
The format you send matters because it determines whether your design prints exactly as designed, or with quality loss along the way.
Best: vector formats (AI, EPS, SVG, PDF with vector content)
Vector files are the gold standard for sticker printing because they scale infinitely without losing quality. A vector circle drawn for a 25 mm sticker prints just as crisply at 300 mm. They also keep your text editable, which means we can fix small typography issues at no charge if we spot them.
Use vector if you’re working in Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape, or exporting from Figma with vector preserved. Logos and type-heavy designs should always be vector if possible.
Acceptable: high-resolution raster (PNG, JPG, PSD, TIFF)
If your design has photographs, complex gradients, or artwork you got from someone else who only sent a PNG, raster is fine — as long as the resolution is high enough. We accept PNG, JPG, PSD and TIFF files at 300 DPI minimum at the actual printed size.
The “actual printed size” bit is crucial. A 300 DPI image at 50×50 mm is print-ready. The same image stretched to 100×100 mm is effectively 150 DPI and will print blurry. Always check resolution against final sticker size.
Avoid: low-res web images and screenshots
Anything pulled from a website, social media, or a screenshot is almost certainly too low-res for print. Web images are typically 72 DPI; print needs 300 DPI. Sending these means we’ll come back to you asking for higher quality before we can print.
Resolution — the 300 DPI rule
For any raster artwork, the magic number is 300 DPI (dots per inch) at the final printed size. Here’s how to check:
- Open your image in Photoshop or any image editor
- Go to Image → Image Size (or equivalent)
- Make sure “Resample” is OFF
- Set the resolution to 300 pixels/inch
- Look at the dimensions — these are your maximum print dimensions
If your sticker needs to be larger than what the image shows at 300 DPI, you need higher resolution source artwork. Don’t try to fix this by resampling up — it doesn’t add real detail, it just makes the file bigger.
Bleed and safe zones
Bleed is extra design that extends past where the sticker will actually cut. Without it, you’ll get tiny white slivers along the edges because no cutting machine is precise to within 0.0001 mm.
The numbers we use
- Bleed: 2 mm beyond the cut line on all sides
- Safe zone: Keep text and important design elements at least 3 mm inside the cut line
So if you’re designing a 100 mm round sticker, your artwork should be 104 mm round (2 mm bleed on each side) and any text should sit within a 94 mm zone (3 mm safe area inside the cut line).
If you don’t add bleed, we will — by stretching your design slightly. This usually works fine but can shift important elements. Adding bleed yourself gives you full control over how the edges look.
Colour mode — CMYK vs RGB
Screens display colour in RGB (red, green, blue). Printing presses use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). The two systems don’t perfectly overlap, so colours that look fine on your screen can print darker or duller than expected.
Best practice: design in CMYK from the start. In Photoshop, Image → Mode → CMYK Color. In Illustrator, File → Document Color Mode → CMYK. Watch out for super-bright neon colours (vivid greens, bright oranges, electric blues) — these are often outside CMYK’s range and will shift on print. If brand colour accuracy is critical, use Pantone references and tell us in your order notes.
If you send RGB, we’ll convert it to CMYK before printing. The conversion is usually fine but very saturated colours can shift slightly.
The “rich black” tip
Pure black in print can look washed out if it’s only printed with the K (black) ink. For solid black backgrounds, use “rich black” — typically C:30 M:20 Y:20 K:100. This gives a deeper, more visually solid black. Don’t use rich black for small text though — single-channel black is sharper at small sizes.
Die cut lines — for custom shapes
If you’re ordering custom die cut stickers, you need to tell us where to cut. The cleanest way is to include a separate spot colour line in your artwork — typically called “CutContour” or “DieLine” and set to a magenta spot colour.
This line should:
- Be a single, closed vector path (no overlaps, no gaps)
- Be set as a spot colour, not a CMYK build
- Be set to overprint so it doesn’t knock out the underlying print
- Sit on its own layer named “CutContour”
If you can’t include a cut line, no problem — send your artwork and we’ll add one for you. Just describe the shape you want in your order notes (“Cut around the outline of the logo with a 2 mm offset”).
Fonts — outline before sending
If you send a layered file (PSD, AI, EPS, Indd) with live text, our system might not have your font and the text could shift or default to a fallback. The fix is simple: convert your text to outlines (Illustrator: Type → Create Outlines) or rasterise text layers (Photoshop) before exporting.
The downside is you can no longer edit the text after outlining. So keep an editable backup file, and only outline the version you send to us.
Final pre-flight checklist
Before you upload, run through this list:
- ✓ Vector format if possible, otherwise 300 DPI at final size
- ✓ 2 mm bleed on all sides
- ✓ Text and key elements 3 mm inside the cut line (safe zone)
- ✓ CMYK colour mode (or note that you need Pantone matching)
- ✓ Fonts outlined or embedded
- ✓ For die cut: separate CutContour layer as magenta spot colour
- ✓ File size under 100 MB (compress PSDs if needed)
If artwork prep feels like too much
You don’t need to handle any of this yourself. Every StickerPlus order includes free design service — send us your logo, a rough sketch, or even a description, and our team will prepare print-ready artwork for you at no charge. We’ll also send you a digital proof showing exactly how it’ll print so you can approve before we go to press.
For most small businesses, the free design service is the easiest route. Designers who want full control over every detail tend to prefer preparing artwork themselves. Either way, the result is the same: a sticker that prints exactly as intended.
Ready to order? Browse custom stickers or custom labels to configure your first order, or visit the free design page to get help with artwork.
Free delivery, free proof, no minimums.
