There are many reasons for adding a coating over a printed piece. One reason is for protection. A UV coating is commonly used to avoid scuffing the ink which is important especially when you have areas of heavy ink coverage. Another reason could be for aesthetic reasons. A Spot UV coating is a competitively priced finishing option that can add a touchable and eye-catching special effect to business cards, postcards or other marketing card products. Spot UV draws the reader's eye to particular items. It can add depth and interest to a printed piece. When considering what coating to use for your job, you need to decide what you want from your marketing piece.
Whether it is a business card, postcard or some other promotion piece, your printed piece is a marketing tool, plain and simple. If your card looks like it was printed off a dot-matrix printer, you will be perceived in a similarly non-flattering way. But if your card is visually impressive, you will gain instant credibility and an immediate positive impression. One of the most cost-effective ways to boost your business is using a “wow factor” when you create your artwork, then find a printer that offers spot UV service. Spot UV business cards are typically offered by printing companies specializing in premium business cards. But luckily, this product is not cost-prohibitive like other “high-end” products such as metal business cards or plastic business cards.
Creating a piece with Spot UV can enhance your marketing pieces immensely. When applied to full-color logos, Spot UV printing creates a glossy, textured effect with a striking contrast on one or both sides of a matte/dullfinished piece. The highly reflective shiny UV and the light-absorbing matte paper create a remarkable impression of depth and maximum contrast, giving life to your print piece.
Most logos are designed to be eye-catching, so embellishing them with spot UV is a natural fit. You could also apply spot UV to the company or contact details, which produces a pseudo raised-letter effect and is extremely cool looking. You can also be creative – for example, applying spot UV to background areas to show a slogan, or doing a “reverse spot UV” technique where the background is glossed but the logo is not.
Setting up your files for Spot UV is simple. Most printers require an extra file to serve as a spot UV template, often called a “mask file.” An additional file for every spot UV side is required. These files are black and white files with black areas showing the parts to be glossed. The area to be UVed is a SOLID black 100% (no gradients) and the rest which will not have UV must be white. The grey scale mask file is sent with your CYMK file to your printer.
Spot UV serves to create a distinction between printed materials and conveys a quality that sets businesses and individuals apart from others. Spot UV adds a lot of interest, and can identify the printing as a premium piece of sales and marketing literature in the perception of the reader. It is used to enhance the printed poduct with a high gloss effect - highlighting logos, pictures, text or just to create a subtle effect on a solid area of print. Most commonly it is used on Brochures, Annual Reports, Leaflets, and Business Cards. With creativity, its uses can be limitless and its value immeasureable.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Using Business Cards for Sales and Marketing
One of the most effective means of bringing your products and services to market is your business cards. Business cards are the most effective marketing tool because they can to be carried anywhere you go. As a simple material used for campaign and advertising the business cards carries a powerful marketing feature that persuades and keeps your clients in tact. They are used to impart important information to customers and are a very inexpensive way to promote a sales campaign. In today’s market, business card printing can be printed in cheaper rates and discounted prices. By using a state of the art printing service full color business cards are discounted and have never been cheaper. Your business cards can be simple yet impressive depending on the print quality, the card stock and finish chosen for advertising your business products and services.
Even though they are just a small piece of paper a 2” x 3.5” size business card has the power to gain the attention of those receiving them. At the end of a presentation, business cards are the last material you give your clients or potential customers. By using a state of the art printing service full color business cards are discounted and have never be cheaper. Therefore you have to make them attractive and appealing enough for your customers to keep. There are several factors you need to consider in order to achieve this goal. The first is design. You need to have an eye catching good graphic design or artwork. Colors are important as you want to increase your chances of getting the attention of the beholder. And then, there is the important element which is the content. Your content should reflect what important information you want the reader to remember. Whether it is the vital information about your company, such as name, address, and contact information or a sales message, you need to project to your customers that you stand out from your competition.
You seperate your company from others by impressing them with your design as well as the quality of your card. Be sure to chose a sturdy durable and long lasting card stock such as 14 point or the extra heavy 16 point. You want a card stock that will endure wear and tear. Many printers offer these stocks at no additional cost. Next, be sure to chose a finish that will produce a stunning and brilliant card such as a glossy UV coating or a “Wow Factor” effect such as a spot UV or use metallic colors. Chose a online printing company that will give you different options of paper, fininish and Wow Factor printing effects so that your choices are widened. Using spot UV coating and metallic colored ink effects on your business cards can create inexpensive yet impressive print attention getter for advertising your businesses, products and services.
With the many printing services offered online you can significantly search the web and look for online printers offering cheap business card printing. However in choosing for your printer see to it that although cheap printing of business cards is offered, the quality of the card stock has the best weight and feel. Whether you pick a glossy UV coating or a Wow Factor special effect to add to your card, you must keep in mind that your card represents you and your company or service. To be sure, the impression you send is expressed in the quality of your business card.
There is no doubt that business cards are one of the most effective means of bringing your products and services to the market. They are among the simplest marketing tools amd yet have “more bang for your buck” than any other adverising, sales or marketing literature to keep you in contact with your customers. Business cards are the cheapest marketing tool that can easily reach a targeted audience, be carried and given out at trade shows, networking and meetings. They can easily be kept by your customers for future reference and use. Using a business card that stands out from the crowd can help your business to get more and faster response from the receiver.
In order to meet the goals you have for a successful business card that can be used as a sales and marketing tool, you should look for an online commercial printer that provides business card printing service that offers choices. In choosing the right company for your printing projects, you have to be observant enough to choose good quality, service, and product as well as a cheap price.
Even though they are just a small piece of paper a 2” x 3.5” size business card has the power to gain the attention of those receiving them. At the end of a presentation, business cards are the last material you give your clients or potential customers. By using a state of the art printing service full color business cards are discounted and have never be cheaper. Therefore you have to make them attractive and appealing enough for your customers to keep. There are several factors you need to consider in order to achieve this goal. The first is design. You need to have an eye catching good graphic design or artwork. Colors are important as you want to increase your chances of getting the attention of the beholder. And then, there is the important element which is the content. Your content should reflect what important information you want the reader to remember. Whether it is the vital information about your company, such as name, address, and contact information or a sales message, you need to project to your customers that you stand out from your competition.
You seperate your company from others by impressing them with your design as well as the quality of your card. Be sure to chose a sturdy durable and long lasting card stock such as 14 point or the extra heavy 16 point. You want a card stock that will endure wear and tear. Many printers offer these stocks at no additional cost. Next, be sure to chose a finish that will produce a stunning and brilliant card such as a glossy UV coating or a “Wow Factor” effect such as a spot UV or use metallic colors. Chose a online printing company that will give you different options of paper, fininish and Wow Factor printing effects so that your choices are widened. Using spot UV coating and metallic colored ink effects on your business cards can create inexpensive yet impressive print attention getter for advertising your businesses, products and services.
With the many printing services offered online you can significantly search the web and look for online printers offering cheap business card printing. However in choosing for your printer see to it that although cheap printing of business cards is offered, the quality of the card stock has the best weight and feel. Whether you pick a glossy UV coating or a Wow Factor special effect to add to your card, you must keep in mind that your card represents you and your company or service. To be sure, the impression you send is expressed in the quality of your business card.
There is no doubt that business cards are one of the most effective means of bringing your products and services to the market. They are among the simplest marketing tools amd yet have “more bang for your buck” than any other adverising, sales or marketing literature to keep you in contact with your customers. Business cards are the cheapest marketing tool that can easily reach a targeted audience, be carried and given out at trade shows, networking and meetings. They can easily be kept by your customers for future reference and use. Using a business card that stands out from the crowd can help your business to get more and faster response from the receiver.
In order to meet the goals you have for a successful business card that can be used as a sales and marketing tool, you should look for an online commercial printer that provides business card printing service that offers choices. In choosing the right company for your printing projects, you have to be observant enough to choose good quality, service, and product as well as a cheap price.
Friday, April 17, 2009
THE FIVE MOST COMMON ERRORS WITH SUPPLIED FILES FOR FULL COLOR PRINTING
What are the most common printing errors printers find with supplied files?
Far and away the number one problem is files missing bleed. If your artwork goes all the way to the edge of the page, you need to make sure that you have added bleed! What is bleed? If you want a background color or image to extend to the edge of the sheet so no white paper is showing you must extend the background or image past the trim edges of the layout. The part that extends past the trim edges is referred to as bleed. The best thing to do is extend the bleed edges 1/8 th or .125 past the trim. This allows for a small margin of error in the cutting tolerance and prevents a white thin edge showing around the paper.
The second most common printing problem with supplied files is fonts. You need to make sure to include all fonts used in your files, including and especially fonts that are used in linked graphics such as Illustrator files. If you are sending a high resolution PDF, make sure that the "Embed Fonts" option is chosen. Most printers prefer high resolution pdfs or eps files with embedded or outlined fonts. These files are much easier to handle and will likely speed up your turnaround.
The third most common problem with supplied files is image resolution. All of your images should be at least 300 dpi at the size used in your layout. All files for printing need to be scanned or drawn at 300 dpi. What looks great on screen at 72 dpi would look pretty bad when printed. Increasing the resolution from 72 to 300 dpi in a paint program (such as Photoshop , Paint Shop Pro, etc.) does not work as this just interpolates the image ( i.e. adds pixels to the image), which in turn can increase the image size but makes for a more 'blurry' effect.
The fourth most common file problem is incorrect color mode. Commercial printers print in CYMK, meaning there is a cyan (c) ink, a magenta (m) ink, a yellow (y) ink and a black (k) ink. Monitors, digital cameras, and other types of digital devices tend to work and display images in RGB. RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue. CYMK is used on the press in the "4-color process printing", commonly referred to as "full color printing". The combination of RGB light creates white, while the combination of CMYK inks creates black. Therefore, it is physically impossible for the printing press to exactly reproduce colors as we see them on our monitors. Many programs such as photoshop and illustrator have the capability to convert the layout/images from the RGB color space to the CMYK color space. It is best for you to convert your colors from RGB to CMYK if your tools allow you to. By doing it yourself, you have maximum control over the results. You may notice a shift in color when converting from RGB to CMYK. If you do not like the appearance in CMYK, then you should make adjustments while working in CMYK.
And lastly, the fifth most common error found in supplied files is the lack of crop marks. Crop marks are crossed lines placed at the corners of an image or a page to indicate where to trim it. These are very important if creating a "WOW" effect such as Spot UV. As the name suggests, a Spot UV is applied to chosen areas of a printed card. This has the affect of highlighting and drawing attention to that part of the design, but it also provides the additional visual stimulus of having varied textures on a single printed surface. The Spot UV technique is achieved by applying a UV gloss spot varnish on top of clay coated paper. This achieves maximum contrast between the highly reflective shiny UV coating and the more light-absorbing clay coated finish, which creates a striking first impression. An extra mask is required to produce Spot UV and proper placement of crop marks on both files allow the correct matching of position.
Far and away the number one problem is files missing bleed. If your artwork goes all the way to the edge of the page, you need to make sure that you have added bleed! What is bleed? If you want a background color or image to extend to the edge of the sheet so no white paper is showing you must extend the background or image past the trim edges of the layout. The part that extends past the trim edges is referred to as bleed. The best thing to do is extend the bleed edges 1/8 th or .125 past the trim. This allows for a small margin of error in the cutting tolerance and prevents a white thin edge showing around the paper.
The second most common printing problem with supplied files is fonts. You need to make sure to include all fonts used in your files, including and especially fonts that are used in linked graphics such as Illustrator files. If you are sending a high resolution PDF, make sure that the "Embed Fonts" option is chosen. Most printers prefer high resolution pdfs or eps files with embedded or outlined fonts. These files are much easier to handle and will likely speed up your turnaround.
The third most common problem with supplied files is image resolution. All of your images should be at least 300 dpi at the size used in your layout. All files for printing need to be scanned or drawn at 300 dpi. What looks great on screen at 72 dpi would look pretty bad when printed. Increasing the resolution from 72 to 300 dpi in a paint program (such as Photoshop , Paint Shop Pro, etc.) does not work as this just interpolates the image ( i.e. adds pixels to the image), which in turn can increase the image size but makes for a more 'blurry' effect.
The fourth most common file problem is incorrect color mode. Commercial printers print in CYMK, meaning there is a cyan (c) ink, a magenta (m) ink, a yellow (y) ink and a black (k) ink. Monitors, digital cameras, and other types of digital devices tend to work and display images in RGB. RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue. CYMK is used on the press in the "4-color process printing", commonly referred to as "full color printing". The combination of RGB light creates white, while the combination of CMYK inks creates black. Therefore, it is physically impossible for the printing press to exactly reproduce colors as we see them on our monitors. Many programs such as photoshop and illustrator have the capability to convert the layout/images from the RGB color space to the CMYK color space. It is best for you to convert your colors from RGB to CMYK if your tools allow you to. By doing it yourself, you have maximum control over the results. You may notice a shift in color when converting from RGB to CMYK. If you do not like the appearance in CMYK, then you should make adjustments while working in CMYK.
And lastly, the fifth most common error found in supplied files is the lack of crop marks. Crop marks are crossed lines placed at the corners of an image or a page to indicate where to trim it. These are very important if creating a "WOW" effect such as Spot UV. As the name suggests, a Spot UV is applied to chosen areas of a printed card. This has the affect of highlighting and drawing attention to that part of the design, but it also provides the additional visual stimulus of having varied textures on a single printed surface. The Spot UV technique is achieved by applying a UV gloss spot varnish on top of clay coated paper. This achieves maximum contrast between the highly reflective shiny UV coating and the more light-absorbing clay coated finish, which creates a striking first impression. An extra mask is required to produce Spot UV and proper placement of crop marks on both files allow the correct matching of position.
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