Print Settings

Seed paper is different to that of standard machine made paper. It’s handmade from recycled content and embedded with seeds. Each sheet is unique and beautifully textured with slight variations in color, thickness and the placement of seeds.

Printing and trimming of seed paper can present some challenges! The design of your artwork can effect pricing, print quality and seed germination.

WHAT IS INK COVERAGE?

Ink coverage refers to how much ink is required to print your design.

Up to about half of the page (or less) should be covered in ink. 

This allows for better seed germination and is more economical than printing with high levels of ink. All our pricing is based on artwork that requires less then 50% ink coverage.

How to determine ink coverage?

A visual assessment of your artwork is the best way along with a few questions:

  • Is the page mostly covered in ink?
  • Does your design feature a full colored background?
  • Does the artwork contain large blocks of solid colors?
  • Does my artwork contain photographs?

If answering yes to these questions, your artwork most likely requires high levels of ink. Printing with lots of ink tends to saturate the paper and can reduce seed germination. 100% ink coverage should be avoided if possible.

If printing on both sides of the paper, only one side can have high ink coverage. The reverse side must have very low ink requirements. 

WHAT IS PRINTING TO THE EDGE?

Printing to the edge is when your artwork design prints directly to the cut edge of paper.

Product pricing is often based around the amount of cards we can get from a printed sheet of seed paper.

  • Including a margin/clearance area of 5mm of all edges allows us to use the paper more efficiently. We can fit more products to a sheet of seed paper and paper waste is minimized.

If your design prints to the edge (even just one edge!) a bleed must be added to the artwork.

What is a bleed?

A bleed is extra area that is added to the edges of the artwork. Any part of the artwork design that prints to an edge must extended into the bleed area.

For example:

  • if the size of a square card is 100mm x 100mm, adding a 3mm bleed will increase the size to 106mm x 106mm.

Why is a bleed required?

Cutting precisely on a line isn't always 100% accurate. This is especially relevant to seed paper which can move slightly more than regular machine made paper when printing and cutting.

  • Without a bleed, after cutting to size there will be small white lines next to the edges and this really doesn't look great.
  • Extending your artwork into the bleed area allows us to cut off the extra 3mm which results in a much nicer cut.
  • Text or important details you don't want cut off must not be placed within 5mm of the trimmed edge. 

Does printing to the edge increase prices?

Unfortunately yes. Printing with a bleed means we have to set up artwork differently. The added 3mm bleed reduces the quantity of products we can fit to each sheet of printed paper. This increases the price per product as extra seed paper is required, cutting and printing time (we print one sheet at a time!) is longer and more waste is created. 

Please see images below showing ink coverage and edge to edge/ bleed artwork examples.

In summary, to optimize product pricing it's important to consider ink coverage and edge to edge print requirements when designing your artwork.

DESIGNING YOUR ARTWORK

Along with ink coverage and printing to the edges it's also important to consider the general design elements of your artwork to ensure they print well on seed paper. This may include:

  • text size and font styles
  • images
  • colour matching
  • plus more...

Please see our ARTWORK page for more details.

INK COVERAGE + EDGE TO EDGE ARTWORK EXAMPLES

  • Image 1 : Low Ink Coverage & No printing to the edges

    This artwork has;

    Low Ink Coverage :
    No printing to the edges :

    Notes :

    • All artwork is 5mm clear of trimmed edge (red line)

  • Image 2 : Low Ink Coverage & No printing to the edges

    This artwork has;

    Low Ink Coverage :
    No printing to the edges :

    Notes :

    • Artwork is not 5mm clear of trimmed edge (red line)
    • Artwork will need to be adjusted to include a 5mm margin/clearance from the edge (as shown in image 1)

  • Image 3 : Low Ink Coverage & Printing to the edges

    This artwork has;

    Low Ink Coverage :
    • Important details (such as text) are at least 5mm clear of the trimmed edge (red line).
    Printing to the edges :
    • Background block touches both trimmed edge (red line)

  • Image 4 : Low Ink Coverage & Printing to the edges

    This artwork has;

    Low Ink Coverage :
    • Important details (such as text) are at least 5mm clear of the trimmed edge (red line).
    Printing to the edges :
    • Image is touching the trimmed edge (red line)

  • Image 5 : High Ink Coverage & No printing to edges

    This artwork has;

    High Ink Coverage :
    • Due to colour background covering more than 50% of the product.
    No printing to edges :
    • All artwork is 5mm clear of the trimmed edge (red line)

  • Image 6 : High Ink Coverage & Printing to all edges

    This artwork has ;

    High Ink Coverage :
    Printing to all edges :

    Notes :

    • Important details (such as text) are at least 5mm clear of trimmed edges (red line).

    Text colour :

    • The "Plant me..." small white text on a solid background will not print well on the seed paper - should a larger text