Artwork Guidelines

Ask for the Die Line First

This is the single most useful thing on this page. Every product we print has a flat shape that is not a rectangle, and a cone sleeve's flat shape is a curved fan.

We supply an editable vector template showing the cut line, any folds, the overlap area and the safe margin. Ask for it at enquiry stage and give it to whoever designs your artwork before they start. Artwork laid out on a rectangle and adjusted afterwards is where most problems begin.

File Formats

• Preferred: vector PDF, or the native Illustrator file, with the die line on its own layer.
• Accepted: EPS, SVG, or high-resolution PSD and TIFF where the design is genuinely photographic.
• Please avoid: Word documents, PowerPoint, screenshots, and images pulled from a website or a social media post.

Send the working file rather than a flattened export where you can. Small adjustments then take minutes instead of being impossible.

Resolution

Any raster element should be at least 300 dpi at final printed size. An image that looks sharp on a screen is often around 72 dpi, which is a quarter of what print needs and cannot be recovered by enlarging it.

Bleed and Safe Area

• Bleed: extend any background colour or image past the cut line on every edge. Cutting has a small tolerance, and artwork stopping exactly at the line produces a white sliver on some units.
• Safe area: keep anything that matters — logos, type, barcodes — inside the safe margin shown on the template.
• Overlap: the glued or tucked area is hidden on every assembled unit. Nothing important should sit there.

Colour

• Supply process artwork in CMYK. Files supplied in RGB have to be converted, and the conversion shifts colours.
• Name any critical colour as a Pantone reference rather than a CMYK build or a hex code. A named spot colour holds far more consistently across a run.
• Build large solid blacks as a rich black from more than one ink. A single-ink black laid thinly across a big area reads warm and patchy.
• Expect a shift on kraft and uncoated stocks. Inks are transparent, so a warm brown base pulls everything towards it and pale tints can disappear.

Type and Fine Detail

• Convert fonts to outlines, or supply the font files with the artwork.
• Avoid very small reversed-out type. Ink spreads slightly into board, which closes up fine gaps.
• On a cone sleeve, type that should read level once wrapped has to be set on the die's arc, not on a straight baseline.
• Keep barcodes on a flat panel with clear space around them. A barcode across a crease or on a curved area scans unreliably.

Leaving Room for Labels

If a sticker is applied after printing — an allergen label, a weight, a date code, a batch number — reserve a clear area of the right size in the artwork. Deciding this afterwards is how a label ends up across a logo.

Panels that are written on by hand also need to be left unlaminated, because pen does not take on a laminated surface.

What You Are Confirming

You are responsible for the content of the artwork you supply: that you hold the rights to use it, and that any wording on it is accurate. That includes food labelling, ingredient statements and any environmental or recycling claim printed on the pack. Packaging can carry whatever you specify; the specification is yours to stand behind.

The Proof

We issue a digital proof showing your artwork on the die line. It confirms position, content and spelling — not colour, which a screen cannot represent accurately.

Before approving, print the flat at 100 per cent on any desktop printer, cut around the die line and wrap it round your actual product. Five minutes there catches more than any amount of on-screen checking, and every problem found at that stage is free to fix.

No Artwork Yet?

A logo is a perfectly good starting point. A single mark repeated around a plain board is one of the cheapest and most effective specifications available, and it needs no illustration work. Send what you have and we will tell you what will and will not hold at print size.

Questions about a specific file are quickest by email — send it toinfo@conesleeves.co.uk and we will look at it before you commit to anything.