You may have built your business on a whole lot of sweat equity and the willingness to get in there and do what needs doing. We get it, and we admire the grit we see in all the entrepreneurs and small businesspeople we get to work with every day. But successfully creating, configuring, and submitting your bag artwork requires a certain level of skill. If you’re not a designer, and we mean a bona fide print designer who could (or does) do this for a living, your do-it- yourself inclinations could lead to a lot of painful cycles and a long, drawn-out project process. Find yourself a talented print designer, and you’ll be that much closer to putting your beautiful custom-printed bags in front of your target customers.
If you have ready access to a print designer, you're one step ahead of the game. Send them to our artwork resources page specifically for designers, and they'll find all the specs, templates, FAQs and other resources they need to get started.
See designer resourcesWe’ve gotten to work with a lot of talented designers over many amazing bag projects, and, while we’re not directly associated or affiliated with any designers, we can help you get connected with someone great. Visit our designer directory, or go take a look at our custom bag design portfolio and reach out to someone whose design you particularly like.
Go to Designer DirectoryArtwork prep resources for your designer
We love working with designers and have compiled a sizeable toolkit to help your designer create, configure, and submit your custom bag artwork with a minimum of fuss. Here are just some of our designer resources:
Covering topics from accepted file types to image resolution, color conversions to crop marks, this is your designer’s place to get the in-the-weeds details for setting your bag’s artwork up for success.
View Artwork SpecificationsThe template your designer should use is entirely determined by the bag type and configuration you’ve decided on for your project. We can point them to the correct one to download, but we’ve also got them all in one place for reference.
View Artwork TemplatesWhile your designer might come up with a truly unique question, it’s increasingly likely we’ve covered at least some of their topics of concern with other designers before. And, if our FAQs don’t answer their questions, we’re only a chat, phone call, or email away.
View Artwork FAQsYou and your designer may have a beautiful shorthand, and he or she may be excellent at taking your bag design ideas and turning them into something amazing. Even when the creativity is flowing, successfully configuring and submitting artwork doesn’t happen by accident. You and your designer will likely have some questions along the way. Good news is, we’ve been through this a few times, and likely have answers. If not, you can always contact us or fire up a chat with one of our customer service reps.
How do I save a file as a PDF?
Generally, from whatever program you are working in, you should be able to go to ‘File’ and choose ‘Save As’. From that window you can than choose the PDF file format to save it as. For more detailed instructions, see below.
How do I save each SKU's artwork separately?
You can either Export each page from your InDesign file separately, or export your multi-page PDF from InDesign, open that file in Acrobat, and Extract each page individually from there.
If you have built each SKU on a separate artboard in Illustrator:
How do I set my artwork color profile?
Any color swatches you use should be set up in CMYK by selecting Process in the Color Type dropdown and CMYK in the Color Mode dropdown of the Swatch Options menu.
Go to File > Document Color Mode and select CMYK Color.
Go to Image > Mode and select CMYK Color.
All Spot colors need to be converted to Process before submitting any artwork files. From InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, you can convert a Spot color to Process by selecting Process in the Color Type dropdown.
How do I convert text to outlines?
If you’ve properly converted all the text in the document to outlines, there should no longer be any font information in the file. In Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, you can confirm this by going to the Type menu and selecting Find Font…
You should see a resulting window that says there are zero (0) fonts in your document. If you get a list of one or more fonts, there is un-outlined text that needs to be addressed.
INCORRECT:
This document still shows there are fonts in use.
CORRECT:
This document still shows there are NO fonts in use.
Bleed is the area outside of the trim line that will get cut off. While it ultimately gets removed, it plays a critical role in the final presentation of your product. Designing for bleed makes sure your design, whether photo, graphic, or solid color, reaches all the way to the edge of your bag when it’s trimmed, avoiding unintended white edges.
A minimum of .0625” (1/16”) of bleed is required. We require you use our templates for your artwork, as they already include the required amount of bleed.
If you're not finding the answers you need, or aren't sure you're asking the right questions, we're only a phone call, email or live chat away. We want to help you knock your bag artwork out of the park. Don't hesitate to reach out.
Contact us