Getting content to us

You can get your art and text to us in a variety of ways:

• Uploading to our FTP site (we will provide you details when you're ready)
• Mailing a CD/DVD to the address on our contact page
• If all else fails, you can probably email the files to us.

DPI and File Formats

The short version: 300dpi or better from beginning to end.

If your art is in traditional media, then we need scans at 300dpi or better. If you start in traditional media and then move to digital for finishing, then the scan of the linework must have been at 300dpi or better and you must have continued to work at that resolution. And, if your art is purely digital, you must have worked at 300dpi or better. Why? Well, if at any time in the process you worked at a lower dpi, then at least part of your art is going to look like it's been through a fax machine when it gets printed. Lower-resolution work may look great on your monitor, but monitors have much lower resolution than printers and are more forgiving that way. Note that a program like Photoshop can increase the dpi of a file, but that just divides each existing pixel into a group of pixels of the same color, and your art will still have jaggies and other artifacts.

A simpler way to look at it is this: we're printing at 300dpi, so you can calculate the size of your art on the physical page by dividing the pixel dimensions of the image by 300. An image which is 900 pixels on a side may look pretty big on the screen, but it's only three inches on a side on paper. Another important note is that white borders (blank space) around the actual art don't count for this calculation: if the art only occupies 300 pixels of that 900, then the art will only be one inch on paper! On the other hand, if you have a non-white border, meaning it's actually part of the art, then that does count. If you do this calculation and find the image is larger than the page, that's great! Shrinking art is fine, and the programs we use are very good at it. Enlarging is the problem, because no program can psychically produce detail which wasn't in the file it was given.

Please send your files to us in TIFF or PSD format. Yes, they'll be large, but that's pretty much unavoidable for scans which will print well. Please don't use JPEGs — the smaller file size is tempting, but you may end up with visible artifacts in your art.

Where possible, you can reduce the file sizes by ensuring that they're in grayscale mode, or even bitmap mode for pure black and white lineart. Covers are always in color and require color files. If you're doing an ArtZone or WCA with a color interior, then any color art you are providing should be left as color files too. In the TIFF format, you can save even more by turning on LZW compression.

As for text, you can write it in Notepad (or the text editor of your choice), or just write it directly in an email to us. We can also read any of the Word formats.

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