Proofing Guide

Achieve the perfect print by being aware of our process and ensuring your designs are correctly formatted.

  1. Custom colour tips
  2. Custom artwork tips
  3. Our printing process
  4. Using the custom editor
  5. Custom colour test sheets
  6. No refunds

Custom colour tips

Advice and limitations

  • ❗ Very dark colours are tricky to print, are more reflective and require extra skill to work with, so we recommend sticking to light to mid-tone colours, i.e. with a L* (Lightness) value of 40 or more when measured in the L*a*b* colour space (see Photoshop example below)
  • ❗ Very light colours lose saturation when you add lighting, so go a bit bolder than you think
  • ❗ Certain colours can display a slight grain when viewed close-up, as colours are made up of tiny CMYK dots (which can look appealingly similar to card stock) - for this reason block colours are not recommended for extreme close-up or macro photography

Select colours with a L* (Lightness) value of 40 or more when measured in the L*a*b* colour space:

Colour conversion

Colour values can be input into our editor in either CMYK, RGB or Hex format. Hex & RGB values will be converted to our local CMYK colour space for print. Using CMYK values will give you the best on-screen representation of the final result, especially if you are working with high-chroma colours (e.g. neons), which might not be fully-achievable via CMYK digital print.

If you have Pantone references, we recommend choosing from the Pantone Uncoated Bridge Guide Set as this displays the closest CMYK/RGB/Hex representation. You can also find these conversions using Pantone Connect here →


What's the 'A' in the CMYK colour selection?

The 'A' field that comes after the C, M, Y, K in our palette selector represents the Alpha channel, or transparency/opacity of a layer/colour. In almost all instances you want to leave this at 100.


Photographing block colours

The lighting conditions under which the backdrop is photographed can strongly affect the resulting colour. Read our top tips to achieving optimal colour here →

Custom artwork tips

Custom artwork uploaded to our editor should be formatted as follows:

  • Size: large enough to fill chosen area at 300dpi
  • Format: JPG, PNG, PDF (PDF/X-1a:2001 for best compatibility) or compressed TIFF
  • Max Size: 512MB
  • Colour: RGB or CMYK (FOGRA39 profile for best results) - RGB artwork will be converted to our local CMYK colour space for print

For example, a logo uploaded to our repeating logo design template should be formatted to fit around a 12 x 6cm space at 300 dpi, which means it should be approximately 1417 x 709 pixels. Or, if you're designing to fill the full backdrop size, that's ~7k x 10k pixels for a 60 x 90cm backdrop, or ~10k x 14k pixels for 90 x 120cm.

Our editor will provide a warning if you upload artwork that is not of a suitable resolution (as shown below). You can choose to continue in which case, but please be aware we cannot be held responsible for poor quality prints as a result of low-resolution artwork.

Please note our editor will not provide a warning for low-quality artwork, so we recommend always checking over your artwork carefully at 100% zoom to ensure there are no unwanted artefacts. If you're unsure, feel free to send us a link to your artwork before committing to print as we'll be more than happy to review it for you.


Preparing gradients

If you are generating colour gradients, it's very important that you place a subtle noise filter over the entire gradient - generally in the realm of 2% to 4% - as this helps diffuse the steps between colours giving a much smoother finish. Gradient artwork that isn't finished this way can be subject to banding between steps of colour, and your artwork will be printed as-is. We cannot be held responsible for these artefacts if the artwork isn't correctly finished as suggested.

Full-size templates

To make things easier, here's some downloadable templates to get you started:

If you're having trouble, just give us a shout!

Our printing process

We print using large format CMYK digital printers and colour calibrate our all equipment and media to an industry standard. Colour profiles can vary widely across different monitors and device screens however, so take this into consideration if you're making colour selections or reviewing proofs on-screen. If you are, we recommend calibrating your screen using a device like this to ensure the best print accuracy. 

Using the custom editor

Our web based editor for creating custom colours and designs is super easy to use! Choose colours, upload artwork and proof your design in just a few steps. Whilst our custom editor works on mobile, we currently recommend using a desktop or tablet for the best experience. If you need help, check out our guide to using the custom editor here →

Custom colour test sheets

For absolute certainty when making colour selections you might want to check out our Custom Colour Test Sheet, a sample print of eight (8) custom colour swatches for you to review your CMYK, RGB or Hex references before committing to a larger purchase. Once you have confirmed your colours, test sheets are refundable on a subsequent order of three (3) or more custom colour backdrops.

No refunds on custom

We cannot offer returns on custom backdrops. We spend a large amount of time dedicated to maintaining the highest level of colour consistency and print quality and our satisfaction rate is very high. By following the above advice, you should have no problems obtaining the results you desire! 😀