$50 Discount for Print-Ready Art

Artwork Guidelines and Downloadable EPS-Format License Plate Templates

Important: Plate artwork submitted using a template to qualify for the order discount is printed “as is,” and does not receive our “before and after” design service.

The $50 discount also applies to reorders that reuse identical plate artwork. No time limit, art kept permanently.

Standard no-charge colors vary depending on the type of license plate ordered. Links to the relevant color charts are provided below for each plate item number.

To qualify for our $50 order discount you must use a template below to prepare digital print-ready art, and follow the artwork requirements. The templates are intended for professionally trained graphic designers or those with equivalent experience who work regularly with Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. In addition, you should be familiar with standard printing industry trade practices for preparing your file for spot-color or CMYK output (whichever the case may be) to qualify for the discount. These are covered in the artwork requirement links further below, but the main requirements are:

• Professionally drawn and built vector paths and objects that color-separate cleanly and can be trapped easily.
• Use of defined color swatches, consistently applied, that enable proper color separation.
• All fonts converted to outlines/paths.
• Bitmap (pixel-based) artwork used only for full-color files (i.e., CMYK process-color).
• Mounting holes do not punch through critical artwork unless you notify us it’s okay in advance, so we don’t spend time to fix.
• Save or export the file in Adobe Illustrator .ai or .eps vector format, any version through CC (Creative Cloud).
• Include a JPG, PNG, or PDF version separately for visual reference, so we can verify that your vector .ai or .eps file opens and displays correctly.

The idea is that you should have enough experience with professional graphics file preparation that you readily understand how to meet the outlined requirements, to save us the majority of the file prep work we would otherwise perform. If you, or any outside designer you may have worked with to create your art, are not familiar with Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, or what vector artwork is, it’s unlikely your artwork will qualify for the discount. If you’re unsure about anything, ask ahead of time — we’re more than happy to answer questions about artwork. Ensuring properly built art is in everyone’s best interest in saving time and money, not to mention seeing that your artwork gets printed as intended.

We will in some cases give partial discount credit, at our discretion, depending on how much time your file saves us, even if it does not fully meet the requirements, so it’s not an “all or nothing” proposition. But be reasonably certain you have the know-how before investing your time. Normally this means you’re skilled with a vector-drawing program like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. Or Photoshop may be used to prepare artwork for process-color output, but the art should still be placed and cropped as it is intended to print in one of our vector templates, and saved as an Illustrator vector .ai or .eps file (not Photoshop .eps).

Be sure to choose the appropriate product template for the item number you’re ordering. Templates contain plate and mounting hole outlines, and specify margin areas to aid in making allowances for art placement. (Exact plate size, corner radius, mounting hole shape/size, and margin requirements vary depending on the item number.)

Standard full-size plastic auto plates

#40235, #40255, #40275: 12x6” Screen-Printed Polyethylene Plastic License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Printed on white bla nks, but can be printed full-bleed, so any other background color is available using ink (which counts as an ink color for pricing purposes).

  (40255-template-02.eps.zip)

#40237, #40257, #40277: 12x6” Full-Color Digitally Printed Polyethylene Plastic License Plate

• Printed in full process-color, so standard ink colors do not apply.
• Artwork requirements for full-color digital printing.
• Printed on white bla nks, but can be printed full-bleed, so any other background color is available using ink.

  Same template as #40235, #40255, and #40275 above (40255-template-02.eps.zip)

Standard full-size aluminum auto plates

#40124: 12x6” Screen-Printed Flat Aluminum License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40126).
• Printed on white bla nks with white background only. (Colored backgrounds using ink do not look good on this item, due to 1/16” ink margin requirement around mounting holes on these plates, which use pre-cut bla nks.)
• Outer printing margin requirement of 3/16”.

  (40124-template-02.eps.zip)

#40127: 12x6” Full-Color Digitally Printed Flat Aluminum License Plate

• Printed in full process-color, so standard ink colors do not apply.
• Artwork requirements for full-color digital printing.
• Printed on white bla nks with outer printing margin requirement of 3/16”.

  Same template as #40124 above (40124-template-02.eps.zip)

#40031, #40033: 12x6” Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-items #40032 and #40034).
• 11 different tag-bla nk colors available for item #40031 at no extra charge, including painted gold, painted silver, and natural aluminum. Item #40033 comes in deluxe gold or silver only (both with a near mirror-like surface).
• Outer printing margin requirement of 1/4”.

    (40031-template-02.eps.zip)

#40066, #40067, #40069: 12x6” Full-Color Resin-Printed Aluminum License Plate

• Printed in full process-color, so standard ink colors do not apply.
• Artwork requirements for resin-printed process-color.
• Variable-data layout and submission format requirements for items #40067 and #40069. (The guidelines begin about one-third of the way down the linked page.)
• Printed on white reflective sheeting permanently affixed to aluminum. Can be printed full-bleed, so any background color can be achieved using ink, including dense high-gloss black.

  (40066-template-02.eps.zip)

Oval and capsule-shaped
full-size aluminum auto plates

#40035: 12x7” Oval-Shaped Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40036).
• 3 different tag-bla nk colors available at no extra charge: white, black, painted gold, and natural aluminum.
• Standard outer printing margin of 1/4”, but can be printed full-bleed at no additional charge.

  (40035-template-02.eps.zip)

#40037: 12x6” Capsule-Shaped Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40038).
• 11 different tag-bla nk colors available at no extra charge, including painted gold, painted silver, and natural aluminum.
• Outer printing margin requirement of 1/4”.

  (40037-template-02.eps.zip)

Half-size aluminum auto plates
for fire departments and EMS

#40063: 12x4” Half-Size Full-Color Resin-Printed Aluminum License Plate

• Printed in full process-color, so standard ink colors do not apply.
• Artwork requirements for resin-printed process-color.
• Printed on white reflective sheeting permanently affixed to aluminum. Can be printed full-bleed, so any background color can be achieved using ink, including dense high-gloss black.

  (40063-template-02.eps.zip)

European auto plates

#42031: 20.5x4.5” European-Size Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #42032).
• 5 different tag-bla nk colors available at no extra charge.
• Outer printing margin requirement of 5/32”.

  (42031-template-02.eps.zip)

Motorcycle/ATV license plates

#40635, #40637: 7x4” Spot-Color Screen-Printed Polyethylene Plastic Motorcycle/ATV License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Artwork requirements for full-color digital printing (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40637).
• Printed on white bla nks, but can be printed full-bleed, so any other background color is available using ink (which counts as an ink color for pricing purposes).

  (40635-template-02.eps.zip)

#40431: 7x4” Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum Motorcycle/ATV License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40432).
• 3 different tag-bla nk colors (white, black, and natural aluminum) available at no extra charge.
• Outer printing margin requirement of 5/32”.

    (40431-template-02.eps.zip)

Bicycle license plates

#40831: 6x3” Screen-Printed Embossed Aluminum Bicycle License Plate

• Standard spot ink colors.
• Spot-color artwork requirements.
• Full-color artwork requirements (these apply only to related full-color sub-item #40832).
• 11 different tag-bla nk colors available for item #40831 at no extra charge, including painted gold, painted silver, and natural aluminum.
• Outer printing margin requirement of 5/32”.

  (40831-template-02.eps.zip)