DesignFix Design Studio
Production artwork
Production artwork isn't design — it's the work that makes a design usable. Nobody sees it, and it's the difference between a job that runs and a job that comes back. This is the category most print shops send us.
What this covers
What we work on in production artwork
Vectorization and redrawing
Raster images rebuilt as clean vector artwork, properly redrawn rather than auto-traced into a lumpy approximation.
Colour separation
Artwork split into the individual colours a screen-print job needs, with trapping and underbase where required.
Artwork cleanup
Compression damage, ragged edges, stray pixels and false transparency removed from files that have been through too many hands.
Print-process preparation
Files set up specifically for DTF, DTG or screen printing, each of which wants something different.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A customer's logo redrawn as vector because the only file is a small JPEG
- A design separated into spot colours ready for screens
- Artwork with a white box behind it given genuine transparency
- A scanned or photographed design rebuilt as usable artwork
- A file with soft, compressed edges cleaned up so it prints sharp
- One design prepared as separate production files for two different processes
Who this tends to be for
Print shops and decorators
The overflow work: customer files that need fixing before they can run, when doing it in-house would cost the job's margin.
Businesses whose supplier said no
When a printer says the artwork can't be used and it isn't clear what to do about it.
Anyone holding an unusable file
A logo that exists only as a screenshot, or artwork nobody can enlarge without it falling apart.
Why auto-tracing usually isn't good enough
Every vector program has a button that converts an image to vector automatically, and for simple, clean, high-resolution artwork it can do a reasonable job. The trouble is that most files needing conversion are none of those things.
Auto-tracing follows exactly what it finds, including the flaws. Compression artefacts become hundreds of tiny bumps along an edge that should be a straight line. A curve that was smooth becomes a chain of short segments that look wrong at size. Letterforms come out subtly misshapen — recognisable, but no longer the typeface, and nobody can tell you why it looks off.
It also produces artwork nobody can work with. A traced file often carries thousands of unnecessary points, which makes it slow to open, awkward to recolour, and difficult to separate for print. It's vector in format only.
Redrawing means rebuilding the artwork deliberately: proper curves, matched or reset type, colours defined as real values rather than sampled approximations, and shapes constructed so they can be separated, recoloured and scaled. It takes longer and it's the reason the result actually works on press.
If you have artwork that has already been auto-traced and doesn't look right, that's a common thing to send us.
More specific
Looking for something particular?
These go into more detail on the work people most often ask about here.
Vectorization
Artwork rebuilt as clean vector — redrawn by hand, not auto-traced.
Raster to Vector
You have a JPG or PNG that will not scale. This is the route to artwork that will.
Artwork Cleanup
Improving what you already have — edges, artefacts, transparency and stray marks.
Color Separation
Splitting a design into the colours a press actually prints, to your specification.
Print-Ready Artwork
Files prepared to your printer's actual specification, not a generic one.
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.