1. Spot vs Process Color
2. Camera Ready Art
3. Art Services
4. Art Requirements
5. Embroidery
6. Screen Printing
7. File Upload
8. Ink Colors

1. Spot vs Process Color
Recognizing the Differences

Spot color printing

Colors created without screens or dots, such as those found in the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM®, are referred to in the industry as spot or solid colors. From a palette of 14 basic colors, each of the spot colors in the PANTONE MATCHING System is mixed according to its own unique ink mixing formula developed by Pantone. You probably mixed yellow and blue paint to get green in your youth. Creating a PANTONE Spot color is similar in concept, with the added need for precision.

		Standard Pantone Spot Colors
Example of a spot color print

Process Color Printing

This method of achieving color in printing is referred to as CMYK, four–color process, 4/c process or even just process. To reproduce a color image, a file is separated into four different colors: Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K).

During separation, screen tints comprised of small dots are applied at different angles to each of the four colors. The screened separations are then transferred to four different printing plates, one for each color, and run on a printing press with one color overprinting the next. The composite image fools the naked eye with the illusion of continuous tone.

There are additional art separation fees involved for this type of printing ranging from $150 to $275 depending on complexity. Four–color process is the most basic method of printing photo quality images. We now offer 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 color simulated process printing. The more colors we add in, the sharper your print. The minimum order for 4cp is 72 units.

Examples of Process Printing

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2. Camera Ready Art
Recognizing the Differences

This information will help you prepare your art files in an optimal format that will enable us to give you the highest quality print. All art files submitted with orders are reviewed by one of our design team members. If there are additional art fees, we will let you know.

Camera Ready art refers to the sharpness of your design which ensures the highest quality print.

Preferred Art File Types

• Adobe Illustrator (ai)
• Corel Draw (cdr)
• Adobe Acrobat (pdf)
• Adobe PhotoShop (psd)
• Corel Photo Paint (cpt)
• Encapsulated Post Script (eps)

Vector Images/ Line art Images

These images have clearly defined edges no matter how much you zoom in and each color can be selected individually. Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw are the two main applications used to create these images. Ultimately, your art will end up in this format.
Please remember that placing a web image or pixilated image into a program listed above and saving the file does not convert the image to a vector format.

Images from Web Sites

Graphic images taken from web pages are generally 72 dpi and not suitable for printing. Images that are not vector based need to be at least 150 dpi.

Vector Art 100% Zoomed in

Jpeg or Gif Web Art 100% Zoomed in

Color Palettes

When designing please use PANTONE colors not CMYK.

Fonts and Text

When saving your file, please remember to convert your text to outlines or curves. This will prevent any missing font issues.

Image Size

It is always a good idea to create your art actual size (the size you want it to print). This is especially important for non-vector images.

Halftones

This refers to printing dots or percentages of a color. A color that is 50% will only allow 50% of the ink to flow through the screen generating a lighter shade of the color. Many artists use halftones to create multi-color effects while using 1 color and saving money. These shades do not print smooth as they do on your inkjet printer, but rather grainy or dotted.

Example of halftones 100% 80% 60% 40% 25% NOTE: Halftone percentages appear smooth on you monitor.

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3. Art Services
What We Can Do

Art Department

We can handle any art needs you may have from fixing, duplicating, and creation.

The primary function of our design team is to review your submitted art files and design requests. We then prepare digital mock-ups for your order and e-mail them to you for approval. It is important to be prompt with replies so your order does not get delayed. Production time lines do not start until your art is approved.

30 free minutes of art clean-up and design time: This covers most tasks, however, there are designs that require more work and these projects are quoted on a per job basis. Our art department charges $45.00 per hour.

Logo conversions from JPEG style or pixilated files to vector artwork is $25.00 for basic jobs and $60.00 for complex multi-color or fine detail projects.

Custom logos or event designs are quoted after we get some details from you. Please call our art department to get your design moving along.

Samples of Custom Illustrations

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4. Art Requirements
File Specifications

First of all, please make sure your image is suitable for the decoration method you're using.

For screen-printing we can work with black and white photographs or illustrations with clear, distinct areas of color as opposed to multiple shades and tones. You can submit images for screen-printing that c-ontain half tones (also known as gradients). Vector art files will help you avoid additional art fees.

The best types of images for our service are vector illustrations created in programs such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW because they create art in a vector format. Please outline all fonts.

Raster images, such as those created in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-paint should be high-resolution. The final product won't look good unless your image is at least 300 dots per inch (DPI) at the actual size you want it printed.

• Fonts must be converted to curves
• Colors must be PANTONE spot colors
• Image size should be actual size; what it will print on your product.
• Compress files over 2 mb using WINZIP or STUFFIT
• Send JPEG files when possible to help us confirm your file opens correctly

For embroidery images must only contain clear, distinct areas of color. Subtle tones and fades can't be embroidered. Your file does not need to be in a vector format for digitizing. Some common file types are jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp and pretty much everything else.

Of course we will work with whatever you have from sketches to other file types. The information above will help you prepare your file properly when possible.

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5. Embroidery
Good Things to Know

Stitch Count

Online pricing includes up to 5,000 stitches of embroidery. Each additional 1,000 stitches increases your price .25 per piece. Certain types of stitches are more dense than others such as fill stitching.

3.0" x 2.6" 6,800 stitches	2.7" x 3.0" 9,000 stitches	2.14" x 2.5" 5,500 stitches

Here are the 3 major types of stitches

Fill Stitch: The Fill Stitch is used for filling in larger areas of the design. Fill stitches can also be used for lettering and large column areas when it is too large to use a satin stitch.

Satin Stitch: Satin stitches are essentially columns of stitches used for making letters, borders, and areas of a design that need columns of stitches.Satin stitch sizes can go from approximately 1/16th of an inch wide to .25 inches wide. Rarely do you want to go wider than .25 inches because of the risk of "picking" the stitches of the finished design.

Run Stitch: Run stitches are single lines of stitches primarily used for thin outlines or borders, and for connecting individual elements of the design.

Digitizing

This is the process of converting your design into a computer file that the embroidery machine can read. Not every digitizer is as good as the next. The cost of digitizing is $10.00 per 1,000 stitches.

Embroidery Size

Below is a list of general embroidery sizing.

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Screen Printing
How it is Done

The 5 Steps of Production

1. Film Output
2. Screen Preparation
3. Printing
4. Ink Curing
5. Packing and Shipping
6. Print locations and artwork sizing

Film Output

This is a process of taking a design from the computer and printing each color onto its own clear film. It is just like printing to your inkjet or laser printer.

Screen Preparation

A screen is made for each color in a design. They are rectangular in size and vary in mesh count. Each screen has a color punched out (exposed) to let ink flow through onto the product. A three color design would have 3 screens, each printed separately to create the final 3 color effect.

Printing

There are two types of printing machines; manual presses and automatic presses. They both function the same way by layering colors down onto the product. Smaller jobs will print on the manual press. Machines come in many sizes; some can print 1 color and others can print 16 colors.

Ink Curing

Screen-printing is a wet process. When the product comes off the press the ink is still wet and needs to be dried/cured using heat. Below are pictures of a small dryer and a larger dryer.

Packaging and Shipping

Most orders are shipped out UPS ground unless otherwise specified. We offer additional packaging services such as poly bagging, folding, and tagging. These services are quoted on a per job basis.

Print Locations and Sizing

Below are some ideas on screen-printing locations and print are sizing.

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7. File Upload
Send Us a File

You can use this tool to upload large files or any file you want us to see.

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8. Inc Colors
Standard Pantone Chart

White	Lemon Yellow 108 c	Yellow 115 c	Light Gold 1235 c	Gold 137 c	Rebel Flesh 156 c
Dolphin Orange 165 c	Bright Orange 1665 c	National Red 179 c	Rebel Red 1795 c	Scarlet 1797 c	Brock Red 185 c
Russel Cardinal 1945 c	Dallas Scarlet 200 c	Panther Pink 211 c	Burgundy 229 c	Brandywine 234 c	Purple 2665 c
Russel Purple 2695 c	Deacon Purple 2748 c	Bears Navy 2767 c	Contact Blue 2825 c	Light Royal 194 c	Winter Blue 299 c
Turquoise 320 c	Deep Aqua 322 c	Kelly Green 3425 c	Dallas Green 348 c	Backlight Green 367 c	Dark Gray 430 c
Spice Brown 4835 c	Maroon 5185 c	Navy Blue 5395 c	Dark Brown black 4c	Russel Gray coolgrey 4c

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