Ad Copy or Type:

Lettering imprinted on any item. Often includes your company or facilities name, sales message, trademark or slogan.

Artwork:

Any combination of art, drawings, illustrations (hand or computer generated), photographs, wording, type, lettering or logo that comes together to display the image that will be transferred onto one of our products.

Bitmap Image or Font:

A bitmap is usually associated with graphics objects, in which the bits are a direct representation of the picture image. One bit represents one pixel on a screen. For gray scale or color, several bits in the bitmap represent one pixel or group of pixels. Artwork in this format cannot be reproduced or printed with clarity and will be jagged.

Bleed:

This refers to when your artwork extends all the way to the edges of the page or sheet after it’s trimmed like a borderless photograph. Artwork must be set up to extend 1/8" past each margin in order to allow for trimming.

Boldface:

A heavy typeface used for titles or emphasis.

Branding:

A mark or design burned onto wood, leather or the hide of an animal with a hot iron.

Camera-Ready Art:

Any drawing, photo, illustration or lettering suitable and ready for scanning, camera, film, photographic or print production without manipulation, correction or intervention by others.

Color Separations:

The separation of multi-colored original art by camera or laser-scanning techniques that produce individual separated colors. There are four common separations: yellow, magenta, cyan and black often referred to as CMYK.

Continuous Tone Art:

Photograph, painting or other piece of art in which black and white tones gradually merge into one another.

Crop:

To trim a portion of the artwork, photograph or illustration in order to eliminate unnecessary areas or highlight a portion of the area or image.

Deboss:

A depressed image is created when a machine presses a die into the surface of the material.

Deboss with Colorfill:

After an image is press into the surface, color or ink is filled in.

Decal:

Artwork that is specially prepared to be transferred onto another material such as plastic used to identify an asset, brand, facility, or individual. We classify decals as sheets from a plastic based material such as vinyl or polyester, with adhesive backing or in the case of static cling, a non-adhesive backing.

Decalomania:

This word comes from the French décalcomanie, from d’calquer, to transfer a tracing + manie, craze (from its popularity in the 19th century) (from Late Latin mania, madness). It involves the process of transferring pictures or designs printed on specially prepared substances to materials such as plastic, glass and metal.

Die Struck:

This is a process where a reverse die is made of your imprint. This is then machine struck onto a hard surface (commonly a metal).

DPI:

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch which is sometimes noted as Pixels Per Inch.

Emboss:

A die is made of your imprint, and then a machine presses the die into the material which results in a depressed area surrounding your imprint. The end effect is that your imprint is raised and stands out.

Embroidery:

Your artwork is computer digitized onto a tape so that a machine can “read” the instructions of the color of thread, number of stitches and design.

Engraving:

Metal, wood or other material is cut with a graver or by photomechanical processes, then filled with ink for transfer under pressure for print reproduction on other surfaces.

EPS File:

EPS stands for “Encapsulated Postscript”, which is a file format for capturing precise image and text information. EPS files are the most reliable method for communicating artwork because of the mathematical basis for building the format and can be enlarged and reduced for best reproduction. Filenames end in eps ie: filename.eps.

Etching:

Artwork is scratched or etched into a hard surface such as a metal with methods such as acid, laser, UV light, sandblasting and resist film.

Font:

Describes a complete typeset from a particular typeface such as Arial, Helvetica, Times Roman etc.

Foil Stamp:

A special film-backed foil is stamped onto another material such as paper.

Four Color Process:

A typical printing press uses four ink plates (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK) to reproduce full-color photographic quality images. The inks are placed in layers using dots patterns that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. Also known as 4-color, process colors and CMYK.

GIF File:

A service mark used for a raster-based color graphics file format, often used on the World Wide Web to store graphics. Filenames end in gif ie: filename.gif.

Pantone Matching System (PMS):

A patented process where each color has a code to indicate instructions to reproduce precise colors for printing. PMS Color Mix: Using the PMS system, colors are mixed as opposed to using a PMS premixed ink can. Mixed colors are less precise than premixed cans.

Pad Print:

Used often for small or difficult to get at areas and bulky or contoured items. An inked image is transferred from a photo-etched plate to a thick, soft silicone pad. The pad is then pressed against the plastic part. The pad can wrap itself as much as 180° around a small object, and ink coverage is excellent. Cost effective for one color imprints.

Plastics:

are used for a variety of products. Some recycled and biodegradable materials are available. Corrugated plastic, 23, 35, and 55 point plastic and opaque polyethylene are the only plastics suited for outdoor use. These plastics are recyclable.

Pressure Sensitive Polyesters:

are very “dimensionally stable.” They will not stretch or shrink. Therefore, they do not conform well to irregular surfaces or compound curves. They are very resistant to chemicals. Polyesters are suited for indoor or outdoor use.

Pressure Sensitive Vinyls:

are flexible, scuff resistant, plasticized films. Vinyls will stretch and shrink slightly. They are for indoor or outdoor use.

Raster Graphics:

Raster graphics are generally a square or rectangular grid of individually colored pixels (dots) or points of color on a display device such as a computer monitor. Raster graphics cannot be scaled to a higher resolution without loss of apparent quality. High-quality raster graphics create large files and must be compressed. Raster graphics are best for photographs and photo-realistic images.

Reflective:

material is an enclosed lens, retroreflective film. This material is often used with transparent inks to allow the reflective properties of the substrate to show through the ink. This material is appropriate for indoor or outdoor use.

Screen Printing:

 printing process that uses ultraviolet (UV) inks light cured, pigmented colors. They are glossy and very resistant to chemicals and abrasion. Some ink colors can last from 3 to 5 years outdoor.

Silkscreen:

A form of printing where an image is obtained by squeezing ink through silk or a fine screen onto another material such as paper, plastic or fabric.

Spot Color:

A single consistent color that is printed from one printing plate which contains one matched color of ink. Spot colors are used when only one or two solid colors are needed on a page or when a color has to match perfectly and be consistent such as with a company logo or when colors are the trademark of the organization or message. If spot color is used along with process color, then a four-color print job becomes a five or six-color job.

Static Cling Vinyl:

is a highly plasticized vinyl film that does not require an adhesive to adhere to polished or smooth surfaces such as glass or mirrors. This material is recommended for indoor use only.

Sublimation:

A heat transfer method of imprint using heat-activated dyes that “sublimate” into the fabric; becoming part of the fabric, unlike silk-screening which sits on top of the fabric. Because the color infuses with the material, it is less vulnerable to fading and distortion over time.

TIFF File:

Tiff Stands for Tagged Image File Format. It is a raster file format for digital images. Filenames end in tif ie: filename.tif.

Typeface:

A general term used to describe the styles of lettering available in typesetting. See also FONTS.

Underrun:

Orders subject to overrun/underun means your order for 100 products has a ± of up to 10% in the number of pieces you will be receiving and paying for. You will only be charged for the exact quantity of products but it can be 10% less than 100 or as few as 90 on an underrun and 10% more or as many as 110 on an overrun or anywhere in between. 90 and 110 pieces.

Vector Graphics:

Vector graphics easily scale to the quality of the device on which they are rendered. Vector Graphics are the most practical for typesetting and graphic design since they represent an image using geometric objects such as points, lines, curves, and polygons.