Please carefully review the following recommendations before placing your order.

Cubiquity accepts no liability for defects in print quality, resulting from a failure by you to follow the general recommendations referred to below.
If you are unsure regards any aspect of the below, please contact your Sales or Client Account Manager, who will be able to assist you.

Cubiquity relies on the customer supplying print ready PDF’s. Due to the large volume of PDF files that we process daily, we do not have the opportunity to visually inspect or pre-flight any PDF’s supplied.

The company does not check, amend, or accept any liability for customer supplied artwork and it is wholly the customers responsibility to ensure that all artwork and proofs are supplied using the correct specifications.

Black solids – can be enhanced by adding a 40% tint of cyan.

Total area coverage (TAC) – Combined colour values should not exceed 300 per cent. This may be required to be lower depending on the paper being printed on. This TAC applies to pictures printed in colour – 300 per cent in the darkest areas with a maximum black of 100 per cent.

Trapping – Light colours printed on dark backgrounds should be set as knock outs.

Fine Lettering – Thin lines, rules, medium and small type sizes should be reproduced in a single colour only wherever possible. Do not use rules defined as ‘Hairline’ in your DTP application. Desktop printers and similar devices will not give an accurate representation of a hairline rule on your proofs. Keep to a minimum weight of 0.25pt for a solid single colour.

Reversed out Lettering – Reversed out lettering, or knocked-out type, should be out of the least number of process colours as possible.
Type or objects smaller than 10pt in size should ideally be reversed out of one colour only. Small letters reversed out of multiple colours -particularly fonts with fine serifs – will show colour in white type areas even with the slightest mis-registration on press. Check to ensure that reversed-out lettering does not become illegible due to the text’s background.

Live Matter / Dead Zone – Our suppliers recommend a 5mm dead zone on trimmed edges to allow for any variation during the manufacturing process. Cubiquity will not be held liable should any live matter be trimmed close or trimmed into.

PDF Creation – Recommended guidance for creating PDFs can be found at www.ppa.co.uk/resource/pass4press-download

Colour Profiles – If you are unsure about the correct colour profile / Fogra dataset to use for the specific paper type you have selected, then please consult with your Cubiquity contact. It is the customers responsibility to apply the correct profile / standard to the artwork supplied to Cubiquity, based on the paper type confirmed for the job to be produced. The company does not check, amend, or accept any liability for customer supplied artwork and it is wholly the customers responsibility to ensure that all artwork and proofs are supplied using the correct specifications.

Ink Rub – Ink can be transferred through abrasive contact on press and bindery handling systems during the manufacturing process. Matt and silk/satin papers are particularly susceptible to ink rubbing. Consideration can be given to this at the design stage. Where possible avoid facing pages of heavy ink coverage against white, unprinted pages. Where possible avoid designs where the outside front cover is heavily inked, and the outside back cover has large areas of white space or vice versa. If this is unavoidable, consider a sealer, which can sometimes prevent marking.

Cracking – This can appear on a saddle stitched or perfect bound publication when heavy inking appears on the spine or fold, particularly on heavier paper stocks. The effect can be minimized by using only light ink coverage along the fold and also by pre-creasing the cover before stitching or binding. The effect can be further alleviated by Laminating the outer cover.

Folding/trimming variation – Machine tolerances can result in folding variation of +/- 2mm, and subsequent similar variation during each additional finishing processes (for example stitching / binding), our suppliers will endeavour to keep this variation to a minimum however it may be necessary to compensate for any variation by adjusting the finial time size by +/- 2mm. It should not be overlooked that each additional process applied to the product carries an element of additional variation, in essence the more processes applied the chance of variation will increase.

Perfect Binding Line Ups – Elements running across a spread can suffer from loss of image into the spine, this can be alleviated by moving the element that runs across the spine 2mm to the left for the left-hand page and 2mm to the right for the right hand. This is a guide only as there is no formula to accurately calculate this allowance. Allowances should also be made for the hinge between the inside front cover and first page of text and the inside back cover and last page of text. A 6mm hinge should be allowed for.

Shingling – Saddle stitched publication’s pages decrease in width page by page from the front cover to the centre spread. The scale of
which is dependent on the weight of the text stock and the pagination of the product. The heavier the stock the greater the increment. This can be compensated for by reducing the page width gradually. The effect of shingling should be compensated for in the design of the product.

As Cubiquity are unable to control any of the paper production process we are unable to take responsibility for any variations in coating, grammage,bulk or opacity. Paper wood fibres are hygroscopic and as such they absorb moisture depending on atmospheric conditions at the time of production, this can lead to affects such as Web Growth and Cockling.