Using Artwork Templates for Launch Lab Components

When preparing your artwork for Launch Lab components, it's important to follow our guidelines to ensure your product is printed correctly and professionally. This article explains how to use our artwork templates (dieline guides), submit your files, and avoid common pitfalls.

What is an Artwork Template?

An Artwork Template—also called a Dieline Template—is a visual guide that helps you position your design elements correctly for print production. It includes key indicators:

• Bleed – Extend background artwork into this area to avoid blank edges after trimming.
• Cut Line – The final edge where your artwork will be trimmed.
• Margin – Keep text and critical elements within this area to ensure they are not cut off.
• Fold Line – Indicates where folds will occur (if applicable).
• Profile – Shows the outline of the component's shape or size.

Submitting Your Artwork

Launch Lab supports JPG and PNG file formats. When you upload these files, our system automatically converts them into production-ready PDFs.

⚠️ Important: Do not include dielines in your submitted images. If the template lines (cut, bleed, fold, etc.) are still visible in your artwork, they will appear on the final printed product and cannot be removed.

JPG and PNG files are raster formats—they don’t support layers. This means that if you export your artwork with the template still visible, those lines become part of the image itself and will be printed.

Why do I still see dielines after uploading?

After you upload your artwork, Launch Lab generates a production-ready multi-page PDF. As part of this process, we automatically apply the correct dielines to each page to align your images with our production specifications.

This is intentional and expected.

These system-applied dielines are for internal use only—to guide our print and cut processes. They are not part of your submitted image and will not be printed on the final product.

If you’re comparing this to customers who submit production-ready PDFs:

• They are required to include dieline layers themselves.
• For JPG/PNG uploads, we handle this for you behind the scenes.

So if you see cut lines, fold marks, or margins in the final production PDF:

• ✅ Don't worry—this is normal.
• ✅ It doesn’t mean you forgot to remove dielines.
• ✅ It simply means your file has been prepared for print following our standard workflow.

Prefer Working With PDFs?

If you're familiar with commercial print production and prefer to handle your own PDF generation, you're welcome to submit production-ready PDF files directly. This bypasses the image-to-PDF conversion process.

Learn more here: Preparing your own production-ready PDF

Best Practices

• Always use the dieline template as a reference during design—but remove it before exporting your final files.
• Ensure your artwork dimensions match the required specs for your chosen component.
• Double-check bleed and margin areas to prevent unwanted borders or trimming issues.

Resources

• Launch Lab Knowledge Base
• Launch Tabletop Website