Receive print-ready files from clients

A client calls on Tuesday to say the artwork is ready. The file is a 2.4 GB print-ready PDF, or a banner TIFF, or an InDesign package with fonts and links. The client is not a designer; they run a firm that wants 5,000 flyers, and last time they sent the artwork as seven hand-split archives, one of them corrupt. You do not need them to learn a tool. You need the right file, once, in a form that can go into production. Email will not carry it, as the guide on how to send large files by email explains.

Transferify turns the direction round. Instead of waiting for someone to send you something, you ask for the files, by email or with a link, and the client uploads them in the browser after confirming their email address with a one-time code: no password, no sign-up form and no app or extension to install.

How you ask for the files

1. On the home page, switch the panel from sending to Request files.
2. Write what you need. It becomes the subject of the email and the message on the upload page.
3. Add the client's email address, or leave the field empty to get a link you share yourself.
4. Choose when the request goes out, whether it repeats, and how long it takes files.
5. The client opens the link, confirms their address with a code and picks the files in their browser.
6. The files appear in the Requested tab of your transfers, where you download them.

The upload page shows the client your message and how much room the request has left, so they know from the start whether the file fits. They do not choose a password, fill in a form or install anything.

Why this matters in a production workflow

A print-ready PDF with bleed, crop marks and an embedded colour profile cannot take recompression. Through Transferify the file arrives byte for byte as it was sent: we do not recompress it, make variants of it or touch its contents. What you receive is exactly what you can send to the RIP.

All the uploads to one request share one allowance, your plan's hosted upload size. On Basic that is 50 GB, enough for whole catalogues and for InDesign packages with images at print resolution. On Plus it is 100 GB and on Premium 1 TB, which covers complete campaign archives. The free plan gives each request its own allowance too, and the upload page always shows the client what is left.

How many requests can take files at once, and how many of them can repeat, grows with the plan. The current price of each plan, and the saving on yearly billing, are on the pricing page, which reads them from the same catalogue the product enforces.

Clients who come back every season

A print shop has seasonal clients: the yearly calendar, the spring catalogue, the summer cards. A request can repeat, so it goes out by itself on the date you set, with your words, to the people you chose. You no longer have to remember to call in the first week of February, and the client gets the request in the inbox they already watch. Each email opens the request for the number of days you chose, or, from Basic, it can stay open until you disable it.

The way back: proof, correction, archive

The same account sends in the other direction. The proof or the checked file goes out through a link the client opens without an account. From the Basic plan you can ask for a password for the download, set a download limit, and get an email when a download starts, so you know whether the proof was opened at all. The alert tells you whether and when, never who opened it.

You choose the expiry on each transfer, within your plan: 1–3 days on the free plan, up to 7 days on Basic, up to 30 days on Plus, and on Premium up to 30 days or never. For a production archive with a deletion date, still choose an end date, even though Premium also allows a link that never expires.

When a very large file has to go to someone who is at their desk, there is also Instant peer-to-peer: the files stream straight between the two browsers, end-to-end encrypted, as long as you both keep the tab open. Instant is free up to 5 GB on the free plan, and any paid plan unlocks any size.

Keeping unreleased artwork private

Hosted files are encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before upload and stay encrypted at rest. For artwork under embargo, turn on the Zero-Knowledge mode of the Premium plan: the key stays only in the link you hand out, so we cannot read the contents, and we cannot open them for you if the link is lost.

See also how to send large files, the features page, and the pages for designers, agencies and retail and manufacturing.