Emma Davis, 4OVER4 print production voice (illustration)
Emma Davis Print Production Specialist at 4OVER4.COM

Emma is our prepress and print production voice, built from the knowledge of our production team, with over 20 years in printing.

Question

Should I include the guides and layers when submitting my final design file?

Answer

Your final print file should carry only the artwork and bleed, not the setup guides. Turn off or delete the guide layers before you export.

  • Keep the bleed in the exported file so color runs cleanly to the trimmed edge.
  • Remove or disable the guides layer, including trim and safety guides.
  • Flatten or hide any non-printing markup so it does not end up in the print.

Guides left visible in the file can be misread as design elements, so clearing them keeps the output clean.

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