Do you design the artwork, or do you print it as well?

We design and prepare the artwork, and we do not sell the print run. That is a deliberate separation on a page where most of the competition does both: when the same company designs the file and quotes the production, you have no independent read on whether the file is right or the price is fair. We will work alongside whichever press or fabricator you use, brief them, and check their proof. If you would rather we managed that relationship, we will, on your behalf rather than as the supplier. Where the whole brand programme is the question rather than one surface, that starts at branding in the UAE.

Our signage artwork came back. What is usually wrong with it?

Most often the Arabic, then the name, then the dimensions. The Arabic is frequently present but under-sized or in the wrong position, the name on the artwork is the trading name rather than the one the licence carries, or the submission does not state the dimensions and the projection clearly enough to be assessed. None of those is a design fault, which is why a redesign rarely fixes it. Send the artwork and what came back and we will tell you which of the three it is. How the name itself is settled on the register is argued at branding in Dubai.

Does the Arabic have to be on the sign, and where does it go?

On a Dubai sign, yes, and it is a proportion rather than a line. Article 11(7) of Decree 6 of 2020 requires the Arabic to occupy at least half the sign, set above the English or to its right, so the placement is a layout decision taken before anything is quoted. Above is one permitted position and not the only one, which matters when a board is wider than it is tall. The Arabic is drawn as a companion to the Latin rather than typed in whichever face the sign-maker has installed, because at two metres the pair has to read as one mark.

We are opening in another emirate. Does the same artwork work there?

Not automatically, because the rule most people quote is a Dubai one. Article 11(7) of Decree 6 of 2020 governs signage in Dubai, and the other emirates set their own requirements, so a fascia designed to clear one is a starting point elsewhere rather than an approved answer. In practice the artwork travels and the specification does not: we draw the board so the Arabic proportion, the name and the dimensions can each be adjusted for a second emirate without redrawing the mark or reordering the substrate.

What does a fabricator in Al Quoz actually need from us?

Outlined vector at scale, a cut path and a colour they can physically match. In practice that means the type converted to outlines so nothing reflows on their machine, the artwork at the fabrication size rather than scaled to fit a page, a single-ink version for cut vinyl or a channel letter, and a spot colour reference beside the screen values. One thing to check before the file goes out: the typeface licence has to cover the supplier who will set it, and that is argued at brand identity design.

Can you make our existing artwork press-ready without redesigning it?

Usually, and it is the cleaner answer when the design is fine and the file is not. Colour space, bleed, trim, resolution at size, embedded fonts and overprint are all file properties rather than design decisions, and most of what a press sends back lives in that list. Where the artwork itself is the problem, at a size or a distance it was never drawn for, we will say so rather than preparing a file that will be legible and wrong.

Who applies for the permit, us or the sign company?

Usually the fabricator or a contractor acting for you, and it is worth confirming who before anyone starts. The chain has more than one authority in it: signage sits with the emirate, while printing and circulating published material sits under Federal Decree-Law 55 of 2023 with the National Media Authority. A Sharjah SAIF Zone distributor on a free zone licence taking a stand at a Dubai hall can touch both in one campaign. Our part is the artwork and the submission pack, prepared so whoever files it has what they need. We do not obtain permits, and any page that implies its designer can is describing somebody else’s job.

Print design · UAE

Print design that clears Dubai signage rules.

A fascia, a hoarding and a stand fascia are permitted objects here, not just artwork. Webzenia prepares the file the press runs and the one a reviewer reads.

Send the artwork and the surface it is going on

Two files, not one

Print design means two files.

A printed surface in this market answers to two readers, and they check different things. A file can satisfy one of them and fail the other, which is where most of the delay comes from.

What goes to a press

Bleed, CMYK, registration and a resolution matched to the substrate rather than to the screen. The press does not read the artwork, it runs the file, and it will run a wrong one just as willingly.

What goes to a reviewer

The Arabic and its placement, the trade name, the dimensions and the projection. A reviewer is reading compliance, not design, and nothing about the layout being good helps at that desk.

What the distance decides

Type, contrast and effective resolution set to how far away the surface is read from. A hoarding read at fifty metres and a shelf strip read at fifty centimetres are not the same craft at different sizes.

What we design

Six surfaces we design and prepare.

Six surfaces, three of which answer to somebody other than the printer. The approval decides the artwork long before the substrate does.

Campaign set across sizes

One design produced at every size it has to appear at, so a site board, a poster and a lift panel read as one campaign

Output

a set rather than six separate jobs

One designMany sizes

Hoarding and vehicle livery

A six by three metre hoarding read at fifty metres, or a fleet wrapped so the name still resolves at a junction

Output

artwork sized to the distance it is read from

At distanceFleet

Press-ready artwork and preflight

Bleed, colour, embedded fonts and overprint checked against the specification of the press that will run it

Output

a file that does not come back with a list

PreflightTo spec

Signage and wayfinding

A directional system where every sign carries both scripts on one baseline logic, so the fortieth sign matches the first

Output

a suite, not forty separate signs

Both scriptsA suite

Retail and point of sale

Shelf strips, danglers and standees built to travel across locations and be assembled by someone who was not briefed

Output

a run that survives being distributed

Across sitesAssembled

Exhibition stand

Graphics drawn to a three by three metre shell scheme, with the panel joins planned rather than discovered on the build day

Output

a stand that reads as one brand on the floor

Shell schemePanel joins

Three ways it gets made

Three ways artwork reaches a press.

A Business Bay brokerage on a DET mainland licence opening a second office will be offered all three, usually in that order.

	A screen exportSent as it looked on a monitor	The press in-house designerBundled with the print run	A prepared technical fileBuilt for the press and the reviewer
Up front	Nothing, because the file already exists.	Nothing extra, because it comes with the run.	A prepress fee, once, before anything is committed.
At the press	Colour shifts, the trim eats the artwork, and a reprint is quoted.	It runs, because they built it for their own machine.	It runs, and it would run at a different press too.
At an approval	Nobody checked the Arabic or the name before it was sent.	They set what you gave them, in whichever face was installed.	The placement, the name and the dimensions are answered on the sheet.
With a second vendor	The same problems again, plus a new set.	The file belongs to their workflow, so the next quote starts over.	The same artwork goes out for a second quote unchanged.
Next year	Whoever made it has left, and the source is gone.	A version exists, at the press, in a format you cannot open.	You still hold the editable source and can change one line.

When the bundled route is fine

For a roll-up or a leaflet run, the press designer is a reasonable answer and we will say so rather than quote for it. The route stops working the moment a reviewer is involved, or the artwork has to be quoted by more than one fabricator. At that point the file is the asset and it has to belong to you. Where the piece is a single printed item read without you in the room, that is brochure design; the system it all sits inside is brand identity design.

The UAE context

Four things decide a permitted surface.

Webzenia has worked with Gulf clients since 2018. Four things decide whether a printed surface can go up, and only one of them is the design.

01of 04
The Arabic decides itDecree 6/2020
Arabic is a sign proportion.
Article 11(7) of Decree 6 of 2020 requires Arabic across at least half the sign, set above the English or to its right. That is a sizing decision taken at the layout stage, and it is a Dubai rule covering one emirate rather than a national one.
Our methodThe proportion is set in the layout, before the board is quoted.
02of 04
One name, the licensed oneDET shopfront rules
The licence sets the name.
DET regulates what a shopfront may display, and the string on the artwork has to be the licensed one rather than the name the company uses in conversation. Where those differ, the wordmark has to hold its proportions at the longer length, which sometimes changes the drawing.
Our methodThe licensed string is confirmed before the artwork is set.
03of 04
The fabricator needs a fileNot a PDF that looks right
Fabricators need vector geometry.
A workshop in Al Quoz works from outlined vector at scale, a cut path and a colour it can physically match. Send an export and they will redraw it, and their redraw is what goes on the building. That is the single most common way a mark ends up wrong at two metres.
Our methodThe vendor receives the file in the format the vendor asked for.
04of 04
Heat is a substrate callNot a finish preference
Heat decides how surfaces age.
An Al Quoz F&B producer on a DET mainland licence has point-of-sale sitting under store lighting all year, and an outdoor board takes far worse. Ink, laminate and substrate are specified for the position rather than for how a sample looked on approval day.
Our methodThe substrate is specified for the position, not for the proof.

Our stack

Our stack for two readers.

The kit behind artwork that satisfies a press and an approval at once. Select one to see why it earns its place, and what we do with it that most do not.

Illustrator

Why Illustrator

Large format is a scale problem. The artwork is drawn at a fraction of the finished size and output at metres, and everything on it has to survive that multiplication without a single raster edge appearing.

How we excel

We set type to the distance the surface is read from rather than to the size of the board, so a hoarding at fifty metres and a fascia at eight are each sized to their own reader instead of scaled from one another.

Scales cleanlySized to distanceOutput at

IllustratorAny size

Affinity DesignerAny size

A raster fileOne size

A scaled-up exportSoft

How the work runs

Approvals come first.

The order is set by which surfaces answer to somebody other than the printer. Those go first, because they are the ones that can stop.

01Before drawingScoped

Sort surfaces needing approval.

We list every surface going up and separate the ones a reviewer will read from the ones only a press will. The licensed name, the dimensions and the position are confirmed here, and where a surface needs an approval its artwork moves to the front of the schedule rather than the back.

Every surfacelisted and sorted
The licensed nameconfirmed, not assumed
Approvalsscheduled first

02Both scriptsBuilt

Draw the surfaces and files.

The surfaces are drawn as one set so a hoarding, a fascia and a stand read as the same brand, with the Arabic proportion set in the layout rather than fitted afterwards. Each vendor then gets the file it asked for: outlined vector at scale for a fabricator, press-ready artwork for a printer.

One setacross every surface
The proportionset in the layout
Each vendorgets the file it asked for

03Then pressRunning

Submit the pack and deliver.

The submission pack goes out dimensioned and annotated, and nothing reaches a press until whatever needed approving has it. Then the proof, at size where the surface is large enough to warrant one, and the editable source over to you so a second fabricator can quote against the same artwork.

Submissiondimensioned and annotated
The presswaits for the approval
Source filesyours, for a second quote

Nothing reaches a press before whatever needed approving has it, and the source goes to you.

Approval before the press

Both scriptsTechnical filesEditable source

Our commitment

Before anything is printed.

Print work here fails at the approval, at the fabricator and at the second quote. These four are about those three.

Read in both scripts first
Every bilingual surface is read by someone who reads Arabic before it leaves us, and the proportion is checked against the rule rather than the last job. What we cannot promise is an outcome at another desk, and we will not imply one.
We use the licensed name
The string on a permitted board is taken from the licence rather than a brief, and where it differs from the name you trade under we raise it before the artwork is drawn. That difference changes wordmark proportions, not a line of text.
Vendors get their own file
A fabricator gets outlined vector at scale with a cut path; a printer gets artwork preflighted to their machine. Sending both the same export is how a mark gets redrawn by a workshop and ends up on a building slightly wrong.
The editable source is yours
You hold the working files in your own name, so the next quote is like-for-like rather than a rebuild. To be plain about the limit: we prepare artwork and submission packs. We do not obtain permits and we do not sell the print run.

Common questions

Print design questions, answered.

We design and prepare the artwork, and we do not sell the print run. That is a deliberate separation on a page where most of the competition does both: when the same company designs the file and quotes the production, you have no independent read on whether the file is right or the price is fair. We will work alongside whichever press or fabricator you use, brief them, and check their proof. If you would rather we managed that relationship, we will, on your behalf rather than as the supplier. Where the whole brand programme is the question rather than one surface, that starts at branding in the UAE.
FAQ · 01
Most often the Arabic, then the name, then the dimensions. The Arabic is frequently present but under-sized or in the wrong position, the name on the artwork is the trading name rather than the one the licence carries, or the submission does not state the dimensions and the projection clearly enough to be assessed. None of those is a design fault, which is why a redesign rarely fixes it. Send the artwork and what came back and we will tell you which of the three it is. How the name itself is settled on the register is argued at branding in Dubai.
FAQ · 02
On a Dubai sign, yes, and it is a proportion rather than a line. Article 11(7) of Decree 6 of 2020 requires the Arabic to occupy at least half the sign, set above the English or to its right, so the placement is a layout decision taken before anything is quoted. Above is one permitted position and not the only one, which matters when a board is wider than it is tall. The Arabic is drawn as a companion to the Latin rather than typed in whichever face the sign-maker has installed, because at two metres the pair has to read as one mark.
FAQ · 03
Not automatically, because the rule most people quote is a Dubai one. Article 11(7) of Decree 6 of 2020 governs signage in Dubai, and the other emirates set their own requirements, so a fascia designed to clear one is a starting point elsewhere rather than an approved answer. In practice the artwork travels and the specification does not: we draw the board so the Arabic proportion, the name and the dimensions can each be adjusted for a second emirate without redrawing the mark or reordering the substrate.
FAQ · 04
Outlined vector at scale, a cut path and a colour they can physically match. In practice that means the type converted to outlines so nothing reflows on their machine, the artwork at the fabrication size rather than scaled to fit a page, a single-ink version for cut vinyl or a channel letter, and a spot colour reference beside the screen values. One thing to check before the file goes out: the typeface licence has to cover the supplier who will set it, and that is argued at brand identity design.
FAQ · 05
Usually, and it is the cleaner answer when the design is fine and the file is not. Colour space, bleed, trim, resolution at size, embedded fonts and overprint are all file properties rather than design decisions, and most of what a press sends back lives in that list. Where the artwork itself is the problem, at a size or a distance it was never drawn for, we will say so rather than preparing a file that will be legible and wrong.
FAQ · 06
Usually the fabricator or a contractor acting for you, and it is worth confirming who before anyone starts. The chain has more than one authority in it: signage sits with the emirate, while printing and circulating published material sits under Federal Decree-Law 55 of 2023 with the National Media Authority. A Sharjah SAIF Zone distributor on a free zone licence taking a stand at a Dubai hall can touch both in one campaign. Our part is the artwork and the submission pack, prepared so whoever files it has what they need. We do not obtain permits, and any page that implies its designer can is describing somebody else’s job.
FAQ · 07

Keep exploring

Explore Branding

Part ofBranding

Brand Identity Design

Marks, a bilingual system, and the files your team can run.

Brand Strategy

A position your licence supports and a buyer can verify.

Logo Design

A mark drawn in both scripts, and made to be fabricated.

Pitch Deck Design

A deck built for the pocket of capital reading it.

Company Profile Design

The document a vendor registration checks before anyone reads it.

Presentation Design

One master that sets decks in both directions.

Social Media Design

A master set your own team can fill, in both scripts.

Explainer Video

Written twice, because a committee watches it twice.

Product Video Production

One permitted shoot, cut for every place it sells.

Next step

Check the file before you print.

Send the artwork and the dimensions. We will come back with what the press needs and what the approval needs, in one list.

Tell us what you need.

Print design means two files.

What goes to a press

What goes to a reviewer

What the distance decides

Six surfaces we design and prepare.

Campaign set across sizes

Hoarding and vehicle livery

Press-ready artwork and preflight

Signage and wayfinding

Retail and point of sale

Exhibition stand

Three ways artwork reaches a press.

Four things decide a permitted surface.

Arabic is a sign proportion.

The licence sets the name.

Fabricators need vector geometry.

Heat decides how surfaces age.

Our stack for two readers.

Approvals come first.

Sort surfaces needing approval.

Draw the surfaces and files.

Submit the pack and deliver.

Before anything is printed.

Print design questions, answered.

Explore Branding

Brand Identity Design

Brand Strategy

Logo Design

Pitch Deck Design

Company Profile Design

Presentation Design

Social Media Design

Explainer Video

Product Video Production

Check the file before you print.