Print & prepress export

GS1 Export renders your Digital Links to print-ready artwork and packages it, with a manifest, as a zip you can download or hand to a printer. Rendering happens on our side, not in your browser, so it’s the same output whether one person clicks a button or your PIM calls the API.

The codes are print-standard GS1: solid dark modules, full quiet zone, sized in millimetres, with the human-readable interpretation beneath. Deliberately not the branded QR styling — logos, gradients and dot shapes hurt scannability at POS and don’t survive reproduction.

Start with a preset

The export page leads with five presets, because most of the options only matter to a repro house:

Preset	What you get
Standard	SVG vector — web, office printing, hand to a designer
Commercial print	PDF + EPS, CMYK 100% K, bleed and crop marks
Retail POS	POS-sized QR plus a paired EAN-13
Pharma / small space	GS1 DataMatrix at the minimum POS X-dimension
Label sheets	Imposed A4 PDF you can run on an office printer

Pick the one that matches how the artwork will be produced and everything else is set for you. Advanced options holds the rest, and tells you how many you’ve changed.

Sizing — total size or X-dimension

Total size fixes the printed square: 25 mm is 25 mm whatever the code contains. Fine when the artwork slot is fixed and the code isn’t being scanned at a till.

X-dimension fixes the module — the smallest square in the code — and lets the overall size follow the data. This is the one that matters for scanning: GS1’s retail-POS range is 0.396–0.990 mm, and a code below that minimum may not read reliably at a checkout. The presets offer 0.396 mm (POS minimum) and 0.495 mm (POS target).

Whichever you choose, manifest.csv records both the finished size and the module size for every code.

Ink — why 100% K

PDF, EPS and AI export as CMYK 100% K with overprint on. That’s one ink, laid over whatever is beneath, giving clean edges and maximum contrast. A “rich black” built from four plates can misregister by a fraction of a millimetre and blur the module edges — which is exactly what a scanner reads.

If a job runs on a spot ink, name it (PANTONE 3005 C) and the PDF and EPS carry a proper Separation with that name. Its tint transform falls back to solid black if the separation is ever flattened, so a mishandled plate still prints a scannable code. You can also declare a print condition such as FOGRA39 as an output intent — the ICC profile itself isn’t embedded, which the zip’s README states plainly.

SVG is RGB #000000, because SVG has no CMYK. Use the PDF, EPS or AI files for anything going to press.

Bleed and marks

For die-cut labels, add bleed — the page extends past the trim line by up to 10 mm, and the PDF carries a /TrimBox so the RIP knows where the cut falls. The artwork’s own edge is the trim line, so the quiet zone stays intact wherever in the bleed band the knife lands.

Crop and registration marks adds hairline crop marks at the corners, just outside the bleed, plus registration crosshairs on all separations.

More than a QR

• GS1 DataMatrix carries the same Digital Link in a denser symbol — the usual choice in pharma and anywhere space is tight.
• EAN-13 pairing renders the linear barcode from each GTIN alongside the 2D code, at 100% magnification, for the transition period while checkouts read both. Only GTIN-14s beginning 0 have an EAN-13 form; anything else is skipped and counted in the README.
• Label sheets impose the codes N-up as a multi-page PDF: generic A4, Avery L7160 on its fixed die-cut pitch, or 100 mm roll stock. Print at 100% scale — never fit-to-page. If the artwork is too big for the stock you chose, the sheet isn’t generated and the README says why rather than silently cropping it.
• Raster copies at 300 or 600 dpi (PNG, or CMYK TIFF) for workflows that can’t take vector. They omit the HRI caption and any marks — use the vector files where you can.

Verifying

manifest.csv has a checks column per code: GTIN check digit, X-dimension against the GS1 POS range, quiet zone and error-correction level.

Those are digital checks on what we generated. They are not a print grade — print quality can only be measured from a printed sample, to ISO/IEC 15415 for 2D or 15416 for EAN-13, where GS1 asks for a minimum grade 1.5 (C). Before a production run, verify real samples. Keep the code dark on light, and never print it over busy artwork.

Download and share

Exports are packaged as a zip and kept for 30 days — they’re regenerable, so nothing is stored that you can’t recreate. Download fetches it; Link copies a shareable download URL you can send to a printer without giving them a console login. Large exports are capped at 5,000 codes per job; narrow by tag or filter and run more than one.