A print preflight checklist is the last thing standing between your artwork and a mill running meters of the wrong file. Preflight is simply the final review of a production file — resolution, color, repeat, bleed, gamut, and format — done before anything goes to press. In textiles the stakes are high because the mill prints continuously; a broken seam or a low-resolution file is not one bad sheet, it is a whole roll.
Most rejected files fail for the same handful of preventable reasons: wrong resolution, a repeat that does not tile, the wrong color mode, or missing bleed. None of them are hard to catch — they are just easy to skip when you are rushing to send. This checklist walks through each check in the order we run it, so you can clear a file with confidence before it leaves your machine.
1. Check DPI at Final Print Size
Resolution is the number-one thing designers get wrong, because DPI is meaningless without a size attached. A file can read "300 DPI" and still be low resolution if that figure is measured at a thumbnail size rather than at the meters it will actually print.
- Set the document to the real output dimensions first, then read the DPI.
- Target 300 DPI at final size for most fabric work; 150 DPI is a common baseline some mills accept.
- If the file is short on resolution, upscale before you do anything else — never after recoloring or trapping.
- Confirm the mill's minimum and match it; do not assume 300 is universal.
If any of this is unclear, our explainer on DPI for fabric printing shows how to read effective resolution at print scale. Get this right first — everything downstream assumes the file is genuinely at size.
2. Confirm the Color Mode and Profile
The wrong color space is a silent killer: the file opens fine, looks fine, and prints wrong. Which space you need depends entirely on the printer.
| Printer type | Usual color mode | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional mill | CMYK + embedded ICC profile | Often means a CMYK TIFF at 300 DPI |
| Digital / POD | RGB (converted on their end) | Confirm they handle conversion |
When a mill asks for a "production-ready file," they almost always mean CMYK at 300 DPI with the correct profile embedded. Do not convert blindly, though — an unmanaged RGB-to-CMYK conversion shifts colors, sometimes dramatically in saturated areas, because the two color spaces describe different ranges. Convert through the mill's profile, soft-proof the result, and correct any color that shifts before you commit. Ask the mill which profile they want and embed it rather than leaving the file in a generic working space.
3. Verify the Repeat and Seam
For any all-over print, the repeat has to tile with no visible seam. This is one of the most common rejection reasons because a seam that is invisible in a single tile becomes an obvious stripe once the fabric runs.
- Run an offset test — shift the tile by half in both directions and check the new center for mismatches.
- Preview a 3x3 grid at print scale to catch repeating seams and tramlines.
- Confirm motifs that cross the tile edge line up exactly on the opposite side.
- Check the repeat size matches the machine — a rotary screen has a fixed circumference (for example a 64cm repeat), and your file must divide into it cleanly.
Do not trust a single small preview. Our walkthrough on checking seamless pattern tiles covers the tests that expose seams before the mill does.
4. Add the Correct Bleed
Bleed is the extra artwork beyond the trim line that prevents a white edge if cutting is slightly off. The amount is set by the print house, not by a universal rule.
- Common values are 3mm for general textile products and up to 5mm for thicker cuts or less precise cutting.
- Ask the mill for their exact requirement — always confirm rather than guess.
- Extend the design into the bleed; do not just pad with white.
- Keep critical motifs inside a safe margin so trimming never clips them.
A missing bleed is cheap to add and expensive to discover after cutting, so make it an explicit step, not an assumption.
5. Soft-Proof the Gamut
Every printer and substrate can only reproduce a limited range of colors. If your file contains colors outside that gamut, the RIP will clip them — and it will do so however it likes unless you correct them first.
- Soft-proof against the mill's profile so out-of-gamut colors are visible on screen.
- Pay attention to saturated brights and deep darks, which clip first.
- Pull offending colors into gamut yourself rather than letting the RIP decide.
- Where color accuracy is critical, tie key colors to a physical Pantone TCX reference so the mill matches a chip, not your screen.
Soft-proofing turns a nasty on-fabric surprise into a controlled decision you make at your desk. The alternative is finding out at the strike-off that your brightest accent came back dull, after the mill has already committed ink and time. A few minutes of proofing against the real profile is always cheaper than a color correction round on printed fabric.
6. Export the Right File Format
The container matters as much as the contents. For mill production, format choice comes down to preserving quality and metadata.
- TIFF is preferred for professional mills — it supports CMYK, embedded ICC profiles, and lossless compression.
- Avoid JPEG — lossy compression leaves blocky artifacts in gradients and soft edges that show at fabric scale.
- Flatten only when the mill asks; keep a layered master for edits.
- Confirm the mill's required format, resolution, and color space in one message before you export.
If you are weighing formats, our comparison of TIFF vs PSD vs PNG for textile printing lays out which to send when.
7. Final Pass and Handoff
Before you hit send, run one consolidated pass so nothing slips through. A short checklist is faster than a reprint.
- DPI verified at final print dimensions.
- Color mode and ICC profile match the mill's spec.
- Repeat tiles cleanly; repeat size fits the machine.
- Bleed added to the mill's stated value.
- Gamut soft-proofed; out-of-range colors corrected.
- Exported as TIFF (or the mill's format); no JPEG artifacts.
- Files named clearly and any color list attached.
Send this alongside a short note stating size, color space, and repeat so the mill can confirm before running. A minute of preflight saves a roll of fabric.
Talk to the Mill First
The single most useful preflight habit is not a software check at all — it is asking the mill for their spec before you export. Every one of the items above has a value the mill sets, and guessing at any of them is how files get rejected.
- Minimum resolution — some accept 150 DPI, some want 300. Ask, do not assume.
- Color space and ICC profile — which CMYK profile do they want embedded, or do they take RGB?
- Bleed — 3mm, 5mm, or something specific to the product being cut.
- Repeat size — the machine's fixed repeat that your tile must divide into.
- File format — TIFF is the safe default, but confirm.
A two-line email up front replaces a round of rejected files later. Most mills would far rather answer these questions before you build than untangle a wrong file after. When they say "production-ready," pin down exactly what that phrase means in their workflow — it usually resolves to a CMYK TIFF at 300 DPI, but their profile and bleed are theirs to specify.
Why Preflight Pays for Itself
Preflight feels like friction when you are eager to send, but the economics are lopsided. A textile mill prints continuously, so an error is not one bad page — it is meters of fabric, machine time, and a delayed delivery. The errors that a five-minute check would have caught are exactly the ones that are expensive to catch on press.
- A low-resolution file prints soft across the whole run — unrecoverable without a reprint.
- A broken repeat turns an invisible seam into a stripe down every meter.
- A wrong color space shifts every color, sometimes subtly enough to pass casual review and fail the buyer's.
- A missing bleed shows as a white edge after cutting, on every piece.
None of these are exotic. They are the same handful of mistakes behind most rejected files, and every one is a checkbox on a preflight pass. Treat the checklist as insurance: the cost is a few minutes, and the payout is not losing a roll of fabric and a week of lead time.
What to Read Next
Preflight assumes your file is already built to size and color. To go deeper on the two checks that trip people up most, read DPI for fabric printing and how to check seamless pattern tiles. When you are ready to run these checks and export a production file in one place, use the Texloom Studio production workspace. For background on how color reproduction works across print processes, Wikipedia's overview of color printing is a useful outside reference.
