DesignFix Design Studio
Artwork cleanup
Cleanup is for artwork that is nearly right. The design works, somebody approved it, and then the file turns out to have been saved, resized and re-saved through four different programs and it shows. This is repair rather than creation.
What this covers
What we work on in artwork cleanup
Edges and outlines
Jagged, stair-stepped or fuzzy outlines tidied so they stay sharp at the size being printed.
Compression damage
Blocky halos and colour mottling from a file that has been through too many saves.
Transparency problems
Backgrounds that look removed on screen and print as a visible box, or leave a pale fringe.
Stray marks and inconsistencies
Specks, leftover selection edges, misaligned elements and shapes that should match and do not.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A logo with a white box behind it that must print with none
- A design with a grey halo left by a rough background removal
- Lettering with soft, compressed edges that need to be crisp
- Elements that should line up and are a few pixels out
- A design with leftover marks nobody noticed until the proof arrived
- Artwork simplified so it can survive a production process
Who this tends to be for
Anyone whose printer sent a file back
Often the design is fine and the file is the problem.
Print shops with customer artwork
Where the job is quoted and the file needs work before it can run.
Businesses reusing old artwork
A design that has been passed between suppliers usually collects damage on the way.
When cleanup is the answer, and when it is not
Cleanup makes sense when the artwork is fundamentally sound and the file has degraded. Edges can be tidied, artefacts removed, transparency rebuilt properly, elements realigned and colours brought back to defined values. The design stays the design; the file stops fighting it.
It stops making sense at the point where repairing takes longer than rebuilding. A very small or heavily compressed source has lost information that no amount of tidying restores, and past a certain threshold the honest recommendation is redrawing the artwork as vector — which also solves resolution permanently rather than for this one print size.
We would rather say that up front than take the cleanup job and hand back something that is merely less bad. If your file is over that line, we will tell you, explain why, and quote for the thing that actually solves it.
The other variable is the destination. Cleanup for a small digital use is a different amount of work from cleanup for a garment print or a large-format sign, because the size decides how much of the damage is visible. Telling us where the artwork is going lets us scope for that instead of guessing.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.