Advertising Specifications
City Lifestyle’s ad specifications ensure high-quality print results and a professional appearance in all publications. By following these specifications, advertisers can feel confident that their ads are ready for print production, integrating smoothly into the magazine layout while meeting the high standards for clarity and consistency. This readiness prevents delays, ensures visual impact, and helps maintain a seamless experience for advertisers and the production team. This information can be found at Business Help City Lifestyle - Advertising Specifications.
Ad Sizing
Full Page Ads
- Total Ad Area: 8.5” x 11.125” (Bleeds included)
- Safe Area: 7.75” x 10.375”
- Trim: 8.375” x 10.875”
- Bleed: .125” on all sides
2 Page Spread
- Total Area: 17” x 11.125” (Bleeds included)
- Safe Area: 7.625” x 10.375” (each page)
- Trim: 16.875” x 10.875”
- Bleed: .125” on all sides + 1” in center
* Important: Ensure all important information is within the safe area. Content outside of the safe area is at risk of being trimmed off in the cutting process.
Fractional Ads
- 1/2 Vertical: 3.458” x 9.875”
- 1/4 Vertical: 3.458” x 4.75”
- 2/3 Vertical: 4.667” x 9.875”
- 1/2 Horizontal: 7.083” x 4.75”
- 1/3 Horizontal: 7.083” x 3.15”
* Background: Background colors/images must bleed to the edge of the document (white page). For fractional ads, if background colors/images aren’t used, the ad must contain a 2 pt border.
Color Mode
CMYK
CMYK Color Mode is a color model used in printing that stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black). These four ink colors are combined in varying amounts to create the full spectrum of colors on printed materials. This mode is ideal for print production because it produces accurate, vibrant colors that appear consistently across different types of printers and materials.
It is important to keep in mind the colors you see in ad proofs on a computer screen might look a little different compared to the printed advertisement because a computer screen is backlit, which can make colors appear brighter than they do in a print magazine.
Here are some photography tips that may help your photographer understand the colors vs overall ink-limit required to help with printing:
- Follow standard specs and save everything as CMYK
- Images that are submitted as RGB are converted to CMYK for print.
- Set the overall ink limit at 240%.
- Highlights should be: 10c, 5m, 5y, and no more than 3k.
- Midtones should be around 50c, 40m, 40y—adjust on this scale if needed.
- Shadows should be: 85c, 75m, 75y, and 10-20k—adjust if more black and less detail are needed.
- Here’s a useful link for skin tone colors: Skin Tone Color Palette.
- SWOP standards for dot gain on a 60# gloss text sheets range from 7 to 20%.
- Everything we run is to pleasing color standards, like green grass, blue skies, red apples, and yellow bananas.
File Type
PDFs are ideal for printing because they keep everything exactly as you designed it, including fonts, colors, and layout. They’re high-quality, support professional color settings, and are compatible with almost all printers. Plus, they embed fonts and images, so nothing changes when printed, making them reliable and consistent.
PDF Export Preset
We offer a PDF Export Preset to help you prepare high-quality PDFs with exact print specifications for City Lifestyle. Using the preset is optional but recommended for the best results. For more information or to download the PDF Export Preset, visit: City Lifestyle Advertising Specifications - PDF Presets .
Resolution
Resolution is the degree of detail in an image, measured in dots per inch (DPI). For City Lifestyle ads, images must be 300 DPI. Enlarging images lowers resolution, which can make them blurry. Images found online or used for the web (72-96 DPI) are typically too low-quality for print. Upsampling low-resolution images does not improve their quality. To avoid issues, ensure all images meet the 300 DPI standard before submission.
Crop Marks
Crop marks are unnecessary. Please DO NOT include crop marks in your final files. We cannot accept files that include crop marks or printer's marks. Our PDF Presets are built so that no crop marks or printer marks are included.
Ad Templates
InDesign
- 2 Page Spread
- Full Page
- 2/3 Page Vertical
- 1/2 Page Horizontal
- 1/2 Page Vertical
- 1/3 Page Horizontal
- 1/4 Page Vertical
Illustrator
- 2 Page Spread
- Full Page
- 2/3 Page Vertical
- 1/2 Page Horizontal
- 1/2 Page Vertical
- 1/3 Page Horizontal
- 1/4 Page Vertical
Photoshop
- 2 Page Spread
- Full Page
- 2/3 Page Vertical
- 1/2 Page Horizontal
- 1/2 Page Vertical
- 1/3 Page Horizontal
- 1/4 Page Vertical
Canva
- Full Page
- 2 Page Spread
- 2/3 Page Vertical
- 1/2 Page Horizontal
- 1/2 Page Vertical
- 1/3 Page Horizontal
- 1/4 Page Vertical
Exporting From Canva: Click Share > Choose Download > Change File Type to PDF Print > Adjust Color Profile to CMYK > Select Download