We recommend adding extra length to your canvas dimensions to account for the bleed and safe margins. This ensures there won’t be a white border around your design once printed. To do this, go to "Create a design" > "Custom size," and enter your dimensions. For custom printed sheets, add a bleed of 0.125" (0.3175 cm or 12 px) on all sides, making sure there's a safe margin of 0.125" between the design elements and the edge of the label. This will result in 0.25" increase to both the height and width of your custom size. For custom printed rolls, add a bleed of 0.0625" (0.15875 cm or 6 px) to all sides, also allowing for a 0.0625" safe margin, to increase the width and height by 0.125".
Once you’re finished designing, save the file as a PDF Print. When submitting your artwork to us, let us know the finished label size (dimension of your label not including the bleed area). If you’ve already created your canvas and completed your design, you will need Canva Pro to resize your canvas. If you don’t have Canva Pro, try this secondary method:
Turn your margins on by going to "File" > "Show margins." This is your safety area so make sure all of your text and important elements are within this line. Next, add a bleed by going to "File" > "Show print bleed." Save as a PDF print and check the box for "Crop marks and bleed," then download and submit to us.
Other things to keep in mind:
Be aware that designs in Canva are created in RGB color mode which is best for digital artwork. We print using CMYK color mode, so the colors may not look the same once printed. After saving your artwork, you can convert your file to CMYK using an online CMYK conversion tool before submitting it to us.
Images
If your design requires importing an image into Canva, make sure the file is set at a high resolution. We recommend a resolution of 300 dpi.
Fonts
When submitting artwork to us, it’s best practice to convert your fonts to outlines, otherwise they may not look the same when the file is opened. There is no way to convert fonts to outlines in Canva. However, Canva mainly uses Google fonts, so you can take note of which fonts you use then let us know what they are when you submit your artwork to us. If your chosen font is a common font, we will be able to download the fonts and outline them on our end. If it is not a common font, you will need to send the font file to us with the artwork so that we have the correct version.
Specialty Coatings / White Ink
If your design requires a white layer, UV, tactile, or foil elements, some additional steps will be needed to prepare your artwork for printing. Once you have completed your design, click the menu (3 vertical dots) in the upper-right corner of the thumbnail in the page bar and select “Duplicate.” Anything you want to print in white ink, or other specialty coatings, should be changed to black; the remaining elements should be changed to white. If your design contains an image, select the image and choose “Edit Image” from the top navigation. Scroll down to “Duotone” and choose any of the presets shown. After selecting your preferred option, you will see slider bars appear on top of the selected preset. Click to open the adjustments and change the highlights and shadows to black (note: images must have a transparent background for this to work correctly). Click “Share” to save, then select “Download” and choose “PDF.” Make sure to save all pages. Your PDF will contain 2 pages; one for printing color and the second black and white page for the specialty coating or white ink.
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