Design

Depending on the Item, customer supplied art may need to be built as simple black and white files (Laser Engraving project). Some art may need to have all colors called out as PMSÆ colors from the solid coated swatch palette (Digital Print projects). Other products may require that the color be built or converted to CMYK. (Digital Print, Sublimation Or Magic Touch projects).

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In addition, every product has a specific maximum imprint area. Some art may need to be built a bit smaller than the product and some may need to be built with 1/8 bleeds over the edge of the product.

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Why is this important?

It is best to discuss design, layout and art specifications with us before our graphic designer spends time building the files.

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Quick-Tips to Art Preparation for most products with a one or more color imprint:

• Vector art is preferred: Corel Draw (.cdr) Adobe Illustrator (.ai)

• Raster art is not recommended. Art created in Photoshop and other applications have extensions such as .psd, .tif, .bmp or .jpg format.

• Fonts should be converted to outlines or paths.

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Artwork Specifications

There are two types of art files on the computer:

Vector is the recommended file format. It is also known as line art. Vector art is made up of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. All art must be created as (or rebuilt as) vector for most of our imprinted product. Vector art is resolution independent. Therefore, it can be scaled to any size without loss of quality.

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Raster art is not recommended for printing on most products. Raster art is known as bitmap art, and is created using a program like Adobe Photoshop or scanned art which has not been converted to vector. A raster image consists of a grid, or bitmap, of small squares known as pixels. Raster images are resolution dependent (set at a fixed resolution). If you send raster art we may be able to use it as a template to convert the art into vector format. If you are thinking about using an image from a web site, this is not recommended. We cannot use highly compressed web images (such as .gif or .jpg). Their resolution is far too low to use for your imprint. Art supplied as Raster may incur additional art charges.

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Note:

It is often easier to create the correct format from the start of a project then trying to get customer supplied art work reformatted or recreated.

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Preferred File Formats

• .CDR Corel DrawÆ

• .AI or .EPS AdobeÆ IllustratorÆ

• .PDF AdobeÆ format ( in some cases it will not work )

• A CSR or Graphic Artist will have to verify the file is acceptable.

• Artwork created in another program and merely saved as one of these file extensions does not guarantee acceptable artwork (e.g. a JPEG saved in IllustratorÆ as an ìAIî file does not make it a vector file).

• The file formats below will NOT always be acceptable depending on the product being ordered and the quality of the submitted file. Art supplied as Raster may incur additional art charges.

• .JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group

• .GIF - Graphic Interchange Format

• .PDF - Portable Document Format

• .PSD - Photoshop Document

• .TIFF - Tagged Image Format File

• Not acceptable: Microsoft Paint, PowerPoint, Word and Publisher 

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Delivery

Please call for pricing and instructions for delivery.