The packaging artwork pre-press checklist: files, colour, bleed, barcodes and proofs

1. Document and dieline

• The artwork is built on the converter's current dieline, at 100 percent, with the dieline's version number recorded in the file name.
• The dieline sits on its own locked layer as a named spot colour (Dieline or Cutter), set to overprint and non-printing or flagged for removal.
• Document size matches the dieline including bleed; no artwork is scaled.
• Layers are named: Dieline, Artwork, White, Varnish, Foil, Emboss, Notes. No stray hidden layers with old content.
• Each SKU is its own file, named to the agreed convention (brand, product, variant, size, dieline ref, version, date).

2. Bleed, safe area and panels

• Bleed extends 3 mm past every cut line (2 to 3 mm on labels), on every edge, including inside flaps that show.
• All text, logos and barcodes sit inside the safe area (3 to 5 mm from cut) and clear of creases, perforations, seals, zips and glue zones.
• The front panel is the panel the retailer displays; verified on a folded mock-up, not assumed from the flat.
• Artwork across a crease or a gusset has been checked folded; nothing critical sits on the fold.
• Glue flaps and seal zones are free of ink or varnish where the converter requires.

3. Colour

• Document colour mode is CMYK. No RGB images, no RGB swatches, no Lab or Index colour.
• Spot colours are the intended Pantone or printer-mixed colours, named exactly, and nothing else in the swatch palette is set to spot by accident.
• Every element that should be process is process, every element that should be spot is spot; the separations preview shows only the plates that will be printed.
• Rich black is built to the printer's recipe (commonly 60/40/40/100) for large solids; small type is 100 K only.
• Total ink coverage is within the printer's limit for the substrate (often 280 to 320 percent on coated, less on uncoated and corrugated).
• Overprint settings have been checked in the output preview: black type overprints, white knocks out, nothing unintended overprints.
• Brand colours have been checked against a printed drawdown on the real substrate, or a note states that the first proof will do so.

4. White, varnish and finishes

• White underprint is its own spot swatch (White) on its own layer, set to overprint where it sits under colour, with the choke or spread the printer specifies.
• Varnish, spot UV, foil and emboss are each a separate spot swatch and layer, 100 percent solid, with any required registration offset.
• Foil and emboss areas respect the minimum feature size the finisher quotes; hairline foil and tiny emboss detail will not hold.
• Nothing that must be legible (mandatory text, barcode) is under a reflective foil or a gloss spot that reduces contrast.

5. Images and vectors

• Raster images are 300 ppi at final printed size (effective resolution), CMYK, embedded or linked with links up to date and packaged.
• No image is upscaled beyond about 120 percent of its native size.
• Cutouts and clipping paths are clean at print size; no fringes from an RGB background.
• Vector artwork has no stray points, open paths with fills, or extreme flatness; effects (drop shadows, transparency) are checked in the flattener preview.
• Logos are the current master versions in vector, not placed PNGs.

6. Type and content

• All type is at or above the process minimum (see the print processes guide) and above every regulatory minimum: 1.5 mm medicines, 3 mm warning statements on food, NMI heights for net quantity.
• Reversed type meets the reversed minimum and is sans serif on flexo and corrugated.
• Fonts are embedded in the PDF, or outlined where the printer requires outlines; a live-type master is retained.
• Final copy is the signed-off copy; the proof PDF the client signed matches the file byte for byte apart from the export.
• Mandatory content is present and placed per the regulatory checklist: ingredients, allergens, NIP or analysis, date mark, lot, country of origin, net quantity, supplier, warnings, AUST L or APVMA number, recycling label, Health Star Rating where used.
• Spelling, units and punctuation checked once more in the exported PDF, not only in the layout file.

7. Barcodes

• The GTIN is the one on the New Line Form or article record, allocated from the brand owner's GS1 prefix; the check digit computes.
• The symbol is EAN-13 on the retail unit, ITF-14 or GS1-128 on the trade unit, at a magnification within the allowed range for the process (not below 80 percent on retail units, not below 50 percent on cartons, with bearer bars on corrugated).
• Bar height is not truncated; quiet zones are clear; bars are a single dark colour on a light background, never reversed, never red, never on foil.
• The barcode was generated from a GS1-compliant tool at the correct bar width reduction for the process, not drawn or scaled from a web image.
• Placement: lower right of the back, on a flat panel, away from seams, gussets, curves and the dispensing or coding zone. Ladder orientation on cylinders.
• A verification report will be obtained from the printed job before the first delivery.

8. Export

• Exported to the printer's specified standard, usually PDF/X-4 (or PDF/X-1a where the printer asks), with bleed, trim and registration marks as requested.
• The dieline is included as its named spot colour (or on request, supplied separately) and all finish layers are included as spots, not flattened to CMYK.
• Transparency and overprint preview checked in Acrobat; separations preview confirms the plate list.
• The file is accompanied by a specification sheet: SKU, dieline reference, process, substrate, colour list in order, white and varnish instructions, finishes, quantity, delivery, and the contact for queries.
• A low-resolution PDF of the same export is sent to the client as the record of what went to print.

9. Proofs and press

• A soft proof (the printer's ripped PDF) is checked against the artwork for dropped elements, font substitution, colour changes and dieline position.
• A contract proof is checked for colour on a calibrated device or against a drawdown; a press proof or wet proof is requested on long runs and critical colours.
• The printer's pre-press report is read, every query answered in writing, and any file change is re-exported and re-proofed, never patched at the printer without a record.
• Press check on hero SKUs: compare the sheet to the signed proof for colour, registration, barcode and dieline position, and sign the sheet.
• First delivery is inspected: a sample is folded, filled if possible, scanned for the barcode and kept with the project file.

Written by

Morice Kastoun, Founder & Creative Director

Morice Kastoun is the founder and creative director of Morice&Co., an independent Melbourne branding and packaging studio. His packaging has shipped through the compliance processes of Coles, Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, Priceline, Petbarn, Big W, Myer and Sephora US.