What Are Vector Graphics?

Vector graphics are created using mathematical equations that define shapes, lines, curves, and colours. Because of this, vector images are resolution-independent, meaning they can be scaled up or down without losing quality.

Typical uses for vector graphics include:

– Logos

– Icons

– Illustrations

– Business cards and flyers

– Signage and large format prints

Common vector file types: `.svg`, `.eps`, `.ai` (Adobe Illustrator)

What Are Raster Graphics?

Raster graphics are made up of thousands (or millions) of tiny coloured pixels. They’re resolution-dependent, so enlarging a raster image can result in pixelation or blurriness.

Raster images are best used when high levels of detail are required, such as:

– Photographs

– Complex digital paintings

– Web images

Common raster file types: `.jpg`, `.png`, `.gif`, `.tiff`

The Benefits of Using Vector in Print Design

For anyone creating artwork for print—whether it’s for a business card, banner, or custom signage—vector graphics have some clear advantages:

Need Help with Your Artwork?

At FAS Printing, we’re happy to check your files and ensure they’re suitable for high-quality print. If you’re unsure whether your design is a vector or raster, just ask—we can help convert certain files or guide you through the best way to prepare your artwork.

Tip: If you’re working with a designer, ask them to supply the final artwork in a vector format like `.pdf`, `.ai`, or `.eps`.

If you’d like us to review your file or if you have any questions about artwork setup, contact the FAS Printing team—we’re here to help!

The post Understanding Vector vs Raster Graphics: What You Need to Know for Print Design appeared first on FAS Printing.

Take books, for example. When the Kindle was first released in 2007, many declared it the end of the printed book. Yet here we are in 2025, and books are still a preferred choice for millions. There’s something about the tactile nature of a printed book—the feel of the pages, the weight in your hands—that digital can’t replace.

That said, times have changed, and so has our approach to print. We are more conscious of waste and more mindful of when and how we print. The industry has had to adapt, innovate, and refine itself to remain viable in an increasingly digital world. As businesses close, it’s easy to dwell on the losses, but we must also acknowledge the improvements and efficiencies that have emerged along the way.

For those of us still in print, the challenge is clear: we must think on our feet, embrace new opportunities, and not rest on past successes. This means looking for ways to branch out, refine processes, and offer smarter, more sustainable solutions.

If you’re searching for a reliable print company to meet your needs, get in touch—we’d be happy to help. But no matter where you go, you’ll find that the print industry is one of resilience. We’ve seen changes, closures, and challenges before, and through it all, we’ve had each other’s backs. The print community knows how to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward.

The post The Changing Landscape of Print: Reflections on Acorn Press and MPD Offset’s Closure appeared first on FAS Printing.

When you design for print, there are rules you must follow. Especially when you are going to have the work printed by a professional digital  or lithographic printing company like us 🙂

I know it can be tempting to break certain rules, but many are there for our protection, especially in print. You want your printed material to be the best it can be, right?  Well, so do we!

The process starts when you’re first setting up your document to create your design, whether you’re using InDesign, Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator or any of the similar programs available.

Let’s look at what bleed, slug and crop marks actually are. Why they are vital (even if you are the rebellious sort) and how to set them up. Let’s go!

Bleed and Why It’s Absolutely Vital!

Bleed can be confusing, especially if you don’t know what it’s for and why it’s important. Bleed refers to the area of the artwork that extends beyond the size of the document. The idea is that you won’t see the bleed; it will be trimmed. But, if there was no bleed, when we trim the printed material to size, white paper may be seen if the cut isn’t exact – usually due to the margin of error with sheets of paper that are so big.

The idea of extending the image or background colour beyond the actual finished print size protects you. If there is any variation when cutting, you won’t see the end of the print or white, unprinted paper. As you can imagine, not including bleed is a mistake people don’t make many times after the first. It looks pretty horrible. The bleed is a way to stop problems occurring with the fine tolerances when cutting the printed paper.

So to recap: the bleed area will be trimmed off, but is there as a safety zone so that any variations in trimming or cutting down don’t show. If there is a blue background over the whole printed area, then the blue should extend to cover the bleed area. If a photo/image is going to be placed right up to the printed document edge, then it should go into the bleed area. Bleed really is one of the most important aspects of document layout and design and should never be overlooked if you want to achieve professional results.

The image above is a common A4 sheet

A4 Paper = 210mm x 297mm
210mm + 6mm* = 216mm
297mm + 6mm* = 303mm
Total Document Size = 216mm x 303mm

*6mm because 3mm bleed is needed on each edge, 3mm on the left & right is 6mm across, and 3mm on top & bottom adds 6mm to the height.

How do I apply Bleed?

The way we apply bleed is similar for all desktop publishing programmes. You need to extend the object box, whether picture or colour, out beyond the edge of your page. Then, when it’s time to create the PDF, you need to set your bleed margins to 3mm (possibly more for some projects, i.e. banners ).

Unfortunately, with programmes such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Adobe Photoshop, you do not have the ability to add bleed when creating a PDF. You must make your page/image size 6mm bigger at the start. This extra 6mm (3mm all around) will then be treated as bleed, which is removed when your job is trimmed. For example, an A4 sheet is 210mm x 297mm. Your A4 page with adequate bleed will be 216mm x 303mm.

We will add tutorials for various software packages in the coming weeks.

Margins and Safe Zone

In many ways, directly related to the bleed is the margin – the margin creates the internal “safe zone” for the print area. The margin is usually a personal preference, but you should always include some. You see, if the printed document is 210mm wide and you need 3mm bleed on each side for any variations when trimming, then surely you should allow a minimum of 3mm margin for your safe zone (5mm is the preferred standard) in case the trim goes too far the other way. You can, of course, have more of a margin depending on the size of the printed document and your preference – but I would always include a minimum of an equal distance to the bleed for safety so no important information is accidentally cropped.

Why do we need a bleed?

You may see a piece of paper and wonder why bleed is even necessary for printing in this day and age with all the technological breakthroughs in printing. Well, paper is still paper, which means it can vary in size depending on humidity or moisture in the air and many other factors. This is why we need bleed and a safe zone.

Putting it simply, bleed means you get a better-finished product by ensuring you don’t get any white bits of unprinted paper at the edge of your print. If you have a border at the edge that isn’t printed, you will still need bleed, but it will be easy to add if missing.

What is Slug (in inDesign)?

It was recently pointed out to me that de didn’t cover slug, so here we go. With the caveat that we will be talking about what slug is in InDesign and other similar software – because the term slug has had a few different meanings over the years.

In the old days, when people used lead letters to create a print layout, one type of slug was a piece of spacing material used to space paragraphs.

In modern typesetting programs such as Adobe InDesign, slugs hold information that relates to printing, such as a colour bar, or information or other instructions that are used between editors and designers that won’t get printed. For example, if you were working on a magazine layout and multiple team members – it can be helpful to use the slug next to sections to convert information would don’t want to be printed, e.g. ‘we are waiting for the final article’ or ‘the advert is going to be changed’, or ‘the article is in its final form’.

The slug is the area outside the bleed and is mainly extra space for utility and any notes you may need during production that you wouldn’t want to print.

Unlike bleed, the slug is not necessary but can be helpful on certain projects.

Printer’s Marks in InDesign

Sources: Wikipedia

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The difference between RGB vs CMYK

The problem is RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is made up of mixing light and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) from mixing inks. They are different colour models used in different applications.

RGB can show off vivid colours, including glowing and bright lights, exceptionally well – think of your phone screen or TV, for example – because they are made of mixing coloured lights.

RGB is a colour model used primarily for electronic displays and digital media. It creates colours by mixing different intensities of red, green, and blue light. RGB has a wider colour gamut than CMYK, meaning it can produce a wider range of colours, making it well-suited for digital media with high colour accuracy. RGB applications include website design, digital photography, video editing and computer graphics.

CMYK, on the other hand, is a colour model used primarily for printing. It creates colours by mixing different amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. Because it is used in printing, it has a more limited colour gamut than RGB due to ink limitations. Examples of CMYK applications are print designs such as brochures, magazines, posters, and books.

Here are some pros and cons of RGB:

Pros:

• Wider colour gamut
• Better colour accuracy
• Suitable for digital media and electronic displays

Cons:

• Not suitable for printing*

And here are some pros and cons of CMYK:

Pros:

• Suitable for printing
• More cost-effective for large print runs – using the three primary colours and black is the least amount of colours you need to reproduce a full range of colours. You need more colours to reach a wider colour gamut, but more colours increase the cost. Some fine art prints use 6 to 12 inks to get closer to the RGB colour gamut, but this increases the costs drastically.

Cons:

• Limited colour gamut
• Not suitable for digital media and electronic displays

In summary, RGB is a colour model used primarily for electronic displays and digital media, which can produce a wider range of colours. At the same time, CMYK is a colour model mainly used for printing, which has a more limited colour gamut but is more cost effective for large print runs.

Why do we ask for CMYK Files?

When you save a file to CMYK, your computer usually tries to give you a representation of what it will look like, and it will usually appear slightly duller and flatter than its RGB counterpart.

That means you will have seen that version and approved the colours before sending it to us. There would be nothing worse than sending us an RGB file and expecting the colours to POP the same way.

*Some printing techniques may ask for an RGB file if they use more than a 4-ink process. These are usually for artist prints or limited edition runs.

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It is pretty sad that after 116!! years, they are closing down for good.

I had to pay my respects and visit them a few times in their last few weeks, because I won’t get another chance. They have been selling items off for 25% – 75%, gradually increasing each week until everything was sold, or nearly.

I have never seen the shop so busy, but that may well be the problem. Though they were profitable, the owner wanted to retire and no-one in the family wanted to take on the shop.

If you ever ventured down the back of the shop, you would find a printers, that recently rebranded to PrintCafe Uxbridge. This allowed them the autonomy of being their own independent print shop, but also being part of a bigger network, and the benefits that comes with it.

I for one will miss the Boville Wright art supplies, and the print shop. But as with so many shops in Uxbridge that are closing, we will just have to remember them fondly in our hearts and memories.

Here’s to you!

About Boville Wright

The below information is taken from their LinkedIn Profile. But as I am not sure how long it will be maintained, I thought I’d add it here:

We cover various areas of Art & Design Supplies, both in our stores at Uxbridge and Maidenhead (Bovilles Art Shops) and through our commercial delivery service (Bovilles Business Graphics): Art Materials Professional Design Materials Professional Drawing Office Materials Computer & Printer Supplies. CopyShop Services Bespoke Picture Framing. The business started in as Picture Framers and Artists Supplies in 1904 (Incorporated in 1996) evolving over more than a century into specialists on creative materials. The team at Bovilles are all creative in their own right and are eminently qualified to advise customers on the right product, gaining us a good reputation for being traditional and honest in our selling.

Website http://www.bovilles.co.uk

Industries: Arts and Crafts

Headquarters: UXBRIDGE, Middlesex

Founded: 1904 & Incorporated in 1996

Specialties:

• Art Materials
• Professional Design Supplies
• CopyShop Services
• Picture Framing

Locations

• Primary127-128, High Street UXBRIDGE, Middlesex UB8 1DJ, GB Get directions
• 124, High Street Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 1PT, GB Get directions

https://www.linkedin.com/company/a.-boville-wright-ltd

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It is always sad when things change, sometimes it may work out for the better, but change is hard.

Drayton Press was one of those places that always stands out when you drive past. The slightly shabby building that seems entirely out of place in the area – The row of shops are all single-story, bungalow style buildings. Behind them is the canal and they are built pretty close to it. On the opposite side of the road, there were new flats built that overlook the canal, the close proximity to West Drayton station makes them more favorable to commuters going into Central London.

Drayton Press was one of the biggest printers in the area and they were usually the first place I sent people looking for T-shirt printing or emblazoned mugs. I guess I noticed them because I was  into printing myself.

A few years later (and a few years ago now), one of my closest friends worked for them, it put them back on the map for me. He’d often talk about how it was working there and what new things they had started to print, which printing process he had learned this week etc. It was interesting, it was the first time he had worked in a similar area as me and we enjoyed talking about the similarities and differences.

They also had a location in Uxbridge town centre, I had used them a few time to print t-shirts. This was the first location that my friend worked at before the location was sold or sub-let and they amalgamated all their business locations to the West Drayton location. the location was where most of the printing took place, with the Uxbridge location being mainly customer facing. When it closed, my friend moved to the West Drayton shop and started learning more about the  print process.

Talking to my friend I found out that they had moved to Reading after the Pro Logis development wanted to buy up the land on the canal-side. They had apparently been turning down offers for a while but must have been made a decent offer that allowed them to move and get a nice new location.

I wish them the best of luck in their new location and hope they continue to grow. 🙂

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At FAS we pride ourselves on being a helpful, reliable, budget-friendly and high quality. But there’s more to picking your printing companies or suppliers for your next project.

Tips for the companies

You learn a lot as a customer, whether you take it onboard or not. Whenever I talk to small businesses as part of my consultation work we discuss how their customers perceive them. You might think it’s simple and straightforward, but you would be surprised how often this is what catches us out the most. Sometimes people want to hear about ROI and market share – but more often people want to be spoken to in a friendly informative way that doesn’t talk down. Dry business speak will only get you so far, and 90% of your customers won’t care about it.

The problem is that you KNOW what your business does so you don’t often have to explain it to yourself. You need to imagine that you have never seen your company before. Do you make the right statement? Do you promote the most important and interesting parts of your business to your potential customers?

Being a customer can be an important learning experience if you think about it. Think about why you shop somewhere and why you don’t shop somewhere else. What you want a company to tell you about their products before you buy and what is less important. Use that information and build upon it. When I started looking into print, I realised that though I may now the sizes of A4, A2, DL etc., many customers wouldn’t. So when I set up the flyer printing section, I decided that a graphic representation of the relative size of flyers  would be helpful to some people. Not all people, but some. And why not try to make it easy for as many people as we can?

Be Helpful

For printing companies and suppliers, it’s important to be helpful and customer service is vital. But this includes telling a customer when their demands are slightly outside your expertise or ability. When a customer asks for something to be printed by tomorrow, it is definitely better to admit that you might not be able to hit the target than say you can and miss it. Yes, you might lose the sale. But they might come back again. If you let them down, then they may not.

Featured Products

Business Cards

Folded Leaflets

Flyers & Leaflets

Postcards

Posters

Roller Banners

Labels & Stickers

Vinyl Banners

Outdoor Signs

Business Cards

Folded Leaflets

Posters

Flyers & Leaflets

Postcards

Roller Banners

Labels & Stickers

Vinyl Banners

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What we do

• Business cards
• Flyers
• Postcards
• Christmas cards, birthday cards, wedding invites, occasion cards etc
• Booklets
• Posters
• Vinyl Banners and Pop-up banners
• Canvas prints

Time to Focus on Print

FAS Media is great, really! But we started noticing that people would come to us, not just for design, but also when they had something they needed to be printed. They would come to us when they needed personal projects printed, such as family photos printed on canvases, or when they needed posters printed that were already designed. That’s great! We love the fact that we are producing high-quality printed materials at a price that often beats in-house print shops, and that we are trusted by them time and time again to be a partner as they grow their business. But the printing had started to tie up the phones and emails and was starting to get in the way of our other customers. So we decided to start FAS Print. FAS Print will be the main hub for all printing that we do going forward. We hope to be able to include many user-friendly features for when you just need something printed, but also keep our designers on standby when you need the helping hand of skilled creative people to get those business cards you’ve been dreaming about into reality.

This article was written by
Luke Bryant

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