How to Set Up Pouch Artwork Files

Pouch print files have one requirement that catches most brands out before anything else: the substrate you choose determines how the entire file needs to be built.

On Opaque White, standard CMYK artwork prints directly onto the surface. On Metallic Silver or Clear Film, it doesn’t — colours applied directly to a transparent or reflective substrate appear dull, translucent, or distorted. A white ink layer has to go down first. Without it, the file that looks correct on screen produces a result that bears little resemblance to the design.

Confirm the substrate before the file is opened. Everything that follows depends on it.

Substrate and What It Means for Your File

Three substrates are available across both stand up and layflat pouches: Opaque White, Metallic Silver, and Clear Film.

Opaque White provides a solid white base. CMYK colours print directly onto the surface and reproduce close to what you’d expect from a screen preview. No white ink layer is needed. File setup follows standard CMYK print requirements — the same principles that apply to most commercial print formats.

Metallic Silver is a reflective film. The surface is not white — it’s semi-transparent with a metallic finish. Colours applied directly appear muted and shifted by the silver base. A SPOT white layer applied beneath the artwork creates opacity, giving colours a solid base to sit on and allowing them to reproduce accurately. Without it, lighter colours in particular become nearly invisible, and the overall design loses contrast and legibility.

Clear Film is fully transparent. There is no base colour at all. Artwork applied without a white layer is essentially printed onto air — the contents of the pouch show through the design, colours lose all vibrancy, and text becomes difficult to read. A SPOT white layer is essential for any area of the design where colour accuracy or legibility matters. Clear areas can be left without white ink deliberately — for a window effect where the product shows through — but this needs to be a designed decision, not an accidental one.

Setting Up a SPOT White Layer

For Metallic Silver and Clear Film substrates, the white ink layer needs to be set up as a separate SPOT colour in the file — not as a standard CMYK white, which doesn’t exist in print.

In Adobe Illustrator:

1. Open your document
2. Select the object or area that needs the white ink base
3. Open the Swatches panel — Window > Swatches
4. Click the Swatch Options menu icon at the top right of the panel
5. Choose New Swatch from the dropdown
6. In the New Swatch dialog, set Color Type to Spot
7. Set the colour to White
8. Name the swatch — “SPOT White” is the standard convention
9. Click OK
10. Apply the SPOT White swatch to the selected object or area

The SPOT White layer should sit beneath all other artwork layers and cover every area where colour needs to appear opaque. Areas intentionally left without white ink — clear windows, transparent effects — should have no SPOT White applied.

Check the layer order before export. SPOT White beneath artwork, artwork above. Reversed layers produce the wrong output.

Colour Mode

All files must be set to CMYK colour mode before export.

RGB is the colour model screens use. It has a wider gamut than what ink on flexible film can reproduce. Files built in RGB and converted at export shift in colour — sometimes subtly, sometimes significantly. Build in CMYK from the start and what you see in the document is closer to what prints.

If the file was started in RGB, convert the document colour mode before finalising. Check all colours after conversion — some RGB values shift noticeably when converted to CMYK and may need adjusting.

Black Values

The same rules that apply to corrugated print apply to flexible film — but the consequences of getting them wrong are more visible on a pouch surface, particularly on Metallic Silver where contrast is already in play.

Black text and fine linework: 0-0-0-100

Pure black only. No cyan, magenta, or yellow. Composite black on fine text causes misregistration — the four colour layers print slightly out of alignment, producing blurry or fringed edges on text that should be sharp. One ink channel can’t misregister with itself.

Large solid black fills: 60-40-40-100

Rich black on large fills prevents banding — uneven ink coverage across a wide area. Pure black on a large panel can show streaks or patches. The rich black value distributes ink across all four channels and produces a more even result.

Grey tones: 0-0-0-[percentage], no other channels

Black only for grey. Adding cyan, magenta, or yellow to a grey value introduces colour cast that is unpredictable on flexible film, particularly against a metallic or clear substrate where the base tone is already influencing the output.

Raster Images

Raster images — photography, textures, product shots — must be 300 pixels per inch at the final print dimensions.

Not 300ppi at the size the image is saved. 300ppi at the size it will actually print on the pouch. A 72ppi image scaled up in Illustrator to cover a large panel produces visible pixelation at print that cannot be corrected after the file is submitted.

Common raster formats: .jpg, .png, .psd, .tif. PDFs can contain raster images — check resolution even if the file appears to be vector-based.

On Metallic Silver and Clear Film, high-contrast images with strong edges reproduce better than soft, low-contrast photography. The SPOT white layer creates a solid base but fine photographic detail — subtle gradients, soft shadows, delicate texture — can lose definition on flexible film. If photography is central to the design, Opaque White gives the most predictable result.

Fonts and Typography

Outline All Fonts

Every font in the document must be converted to outlines before the file is exported.

Outlined fonts become vector shapes — the printer’s system cannot reflow, substitute, or lose them. A file with live fonts requires the printer to have the exact same font installed. If it doesn’t, text shifts position, line breaks change, and layouts break. This is found at proof stage at best, after print at worst.

In Adobe Illustrator: Select All, then Type > Create Outlines. Alternatively, Ctrl + Shift + O on Windows or Cmd + Shift + O on Mac.

Save a version of the file with live text before outlining. Outlined text cannot be edited.

Minimum Font Size

Text below 6pt risks becoming illegible on flexible film. Ink spreads marginally on contact with the surface. At small sizes that spread fills in the gaps between letterforms.

6pt is the minimum. For anything that needs to be clearly readable — ingredients, nutritional information, legal copy — 8pt or above is safer.

Font Weight

Thin, light, and script fonts lose definition on flexible film. Fine strokes fill in. Hairline connections in script fonts can close up and become unreadable.

This is a particular risk on Metallic Silver where the reflective surface reduces contrast between fine letterforms and the background. White or light-coloured text on a metallic base needs to be bold enough to hold against the glare.

Review thin and script fonts at actual print scale before finalising. A font that looks refined at screen zoom may not hold at the size it prints.

Bleed

All artwork must include 3mm (0.125 inches) of bleed on every edge.

Bleed is the area of artwork that extends beyond the final trim line. When the pouch is cut and sealed, the trim never falls in exactly the same place twice. Without bleed, that small variation produces a white edge at the border — unprinted film showing at the edge of the finished pouch.

Extend all background colours, images, and design elements that touch the edge of the document 3mm beyond the trim line. Elements that don’t reach the edge — text, logos, centred design elements — don’t need to extend into the bleed area, but should sit at least 3mm inside the trim line to avoid being cut uncomfortably close to the edge.

To set up bleed in Adobe Illustrator: File > Document Setup > enter 3mm in the Bleed input fields > OK. Build all artwork within and beyond this boundary.

Embed All Images and Flatten Transparencies

Any image placed in the file via File > Place must be embedded before export. Linked images that aren’t embedded produce missing image errors when the file is opened on a different system. The printer sees a blank panel.

Embed via the Links panel in Illustrator, or ensure all images are embedded in the PDF export settings.

Transparencies — screens, overlays, multiply effects, anything running below 100% opacity — must be flattened or converted to a solid CMYK colour value. Transparency effects are a known source of print artefacts on flexible film. An overlay that looks intentional on screen can produce an unexpected edge or colour shift in print.

Before the File Goes to Print

Work through this before export:

• Substrate confirmed — Opaque White, Metallic Silver, or Clear Film
• SPOT White layer set up and applied correctly for Metallic Silver or Clear Film
• SPOT White layer sits beneath all artwork layers
• Document colour mode set to CMYK
• Black text and linework set to 0-0-0-100
• Large black fills set to 60-40-40-100
• Grey tones use black only — no cyan, magenta, or yellow
• All raster images at 300ppi at final print dimensions
• All fonts outlined
• All images embedded
• All transparencies flattened or converted to solid CMYK
• No text below 6pt — thin and script fonts reviewed at print scale
• 3mm bleed applied on all edges
• Background colours and edge elements extended into the bleed area

Export as a high-quality PDF with bleed and crop marks included.

If the file is ready, it can be uploaded when configuring your pouch on the stand up pouch product page or the layflat pouch product page.

If you’d rather have the artwork prepared or checked before it goes to print, the in-house design team can handle file setup from your brand assets — including SPOT white layer setup, colour correction, and dieline placement.