Easy To Use

BITMAP

Graphic images which are formed with sets of pixels, or dots, with a specific number of dots per inch. Also called raster graphics. Bitmap images are commonly used for website graphics and are produced by many low-cost graphics programs. Most bitmap images are not acceptable to print from. We hand hand-redraw most bitmap images into vector art.

BLEED

An image that extends beyond the trim edge of the paper the image is being printed on. The paper is than trimmed to the proper edge. When you need a bleed in your art, please advise the size of the bleed you need.

CMYK COLORS

Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black. CMYK is the standard color model used in offset printing for full-color documents. Because such printing uses inks of these four basic colors, it is often called four-color printing.
     CMYK Spot Color - Spot colors using CMYK format.
     CMYK Four Color Process - Full color printing without separations.

COLOR SEPARATIONS

The division of colors of a multicolored original into basic pieces, each of which will be reproduced by a separate color impression. Color separations are not available for CMYK four color process art.

COMPRESSED FILE

Single files that contain one or more compressed files. Compressed files make it easy to keep related files together and make transporting, e-mailing, downloading and storing data and software faster and more efficient. Popular forms of compression software are Stuff-It and WinZip. We use WinZip Regular and EXE files. EXE files are self-executing files for PC computers, no program is required to open or unzip an EXE file.

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)

A graphics file format that can be used with many different computers and printers. EPS files can be imported into most graphics drawing and printing applications. It is the most commonly used vector graphics format.

FILE NAME

The name of the file that contains your image. Example : "abc.jpg" or "123.eps". We track all jobs by the name of the file you submit to us and not your PO number or a description.

FONTS CONVERTED TO CURVES OR OUTLINES

Converting text to curves or outlines eliminates the possibility of your font style being substituted and not displaying properly on another computer. Since there are thousands of font styles, not every computer will have access to the correct fonts used in every document or file. Converting text to curves or outlines changes the text into a drawing, thereby elminating the need for the actual fonts. We automatically save the art we produce as curves or outlines. This is standard for our professionally produced vector art.

HALFTONE or GRADIENT

A smooth blending of shades from light to dark or from one color to another. Partial shade of a solid color. For instance, solid color is red and the Halftone/Gradient of red is a partial shade equal to pink.

Halftone printing is commonly used to print textiles. Halftones are usually not acceptable to print on most conventional promotional products, such as pens, chip clips, flyers, etc.

LINE-ART

Line art contains solid colors without any halftones or gradients. This is the most effective type of art for the promotional products industry and vinyl signs produced by a plotter or cutter. Line-art is usually required for engraving.Following is an example of Halftones versus Line-Art:

PANTONE COLORS

Color chart by Pantone that specifies over 1,000 colors by number. Very common in the promo products and print industries.

RGB SPOT COLORS

Red, Green, Blue. These three colors can mix together to form any color. We do not normally offer this type (except by special request) since it is not commonly used in most current production formats.

TRANSPARENT / TRANSLUCENT COLOR

This means that any color you select will be a non-color. We can make any color transparent/translucent. Example : Let's use an image of the sky with white clouds. The white clouds can be produced two ways:
We make the white clouds Transparent/Translucent with a black border, thereby allowing the background color to show through. So if you print on a red background, the clouds will appear as red.
We make the clouds the color white with a black border. If you print on a red background, the clouds will print as white. By making white a color, you now have a two color imprint and we will charge for producing white as a color (an additional color charge.)

NOTE : if you want to be able to color the art in the future, white areas should be a color. Please advise us of this requirement when submitting your art for production.

TRAPPING

The process of compensating for miss-registration on the printing press by printing small areas of overlapping color where objects meet.

VECTOR FILE

A means of representing a picture as a set of geometric figures, such as lines, rectangles, arcs, circles, text etc. The advantage of vector graphics is that they may be scaled to any size without a loss in resolution, as opposed to BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF etc. graphics. The actual files themselves are very small.

Remember, vector graphics can be re-sized infinitely without losing clarity. This is the best choice for graphics that must retain crisp lines when scaled to various sizes, especially logos.

Common vector formats that we provide include: AI (Adobe Illustrator), CDR (CorelDRAW), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), PDF (Portable Document Format).

WELD

To combine two or more objects into a single curve object with a single outline. No intersection nodes are present in welded objects. This allows a cutter or plotter to proceed without constantly stopping. Very common for use with vinyl and sign cutters.

ZIP FILE

A file that contains one or more files compressed in the ZIP file format. See the definition for COMPRESSED FILE, above.