Welcome to our Artwork page where we’ll go over a few important technical terms and topics related to digital images, art files, resolution and printing. Don’t worry if any of these words sound confusing to you because many of them are specific terms related to the graphic design industry and they are rarely used in everyday life. If at any point you are unsure about something, don’t hesitate to contact us, we’ll do our best to help you understand what’s needed. You can ask us here: Contact Us
The specific type of file required to fulfill your order will depend on the print method you choose for your stubbies or promotional items.
In the case of screen printing, in order to ensure a high-quality result it’s very important that you give us a vector art file for your logo with all curves converted to outlines or curves.
In general, although any type of vector art file will work, we get the best results when using Adobe Illustrator (Ai) files, EPS files or Hi-Resolution PDF files.
In case you are not entirely sure what kind of file you have, take a look at the file extension and you’ll usually be able to figure it out.
Although JPEGs are the most common types of files that usually work great for regular photos, they don’t work well for printing.
In case you don’t have a vector art file for your logo, contact the designer who created your design or the busines who takes care of your stationery items. They probably have a copy in a format that will work for our printing process.
If everything else fails, we can get your logo redrawn for a very low cost.
Additionally, we’ll also need the PMS colour codes for your logo. You can review our PMS colours page over here: PMS Colours page
The terms four color process, digital printing or sublimation basically refer to the same thing, vibrant “full colour print” that stands out. This print type also requires vector art for your logo as mentioned before and uses CMYK printing to get full colour results.
In the case of background images (photos) a JPEG file that has a resolution of at least 300+ DPI or a high-resolution PDF will generally work well. If needed, we can add text graphics, crop the image or enlarge the logo for you when needed.
In case you have a specific corporate colour for your business, we will need the PMS colour code to make sure we get the right tone for you.
Please keep in mind that in the case of CMYK printing we cannot achieve an exact PMS match as you would with a screen print but in you give us the PMS colour we will get as close as we can during the printing process.
In the context of printing and graphic design, the term PMS means Pantone Matching System, and it is an international system used by printers all around the world to make sure colors are reproduced exactly the same in every country. Think of it like “the metric system of colours” that makes if possible to speak the same language everywhere when it comes to printing a specific colour. You can find out more about the PMS Coloring system over here: Our PMS Colours Page
These are some of the most common file types that will not work because they are not vector artwork files:
- Tif
- Gif
- Pub
- PNG
- JPEG
- Word docs or letterheads
- nor any images in low resolution
Have you ever tried dragging a relatively small digital photo by the corner to make it bigger, only to end up with a blurry and distorted image?
Well, that’s what would happen if we used low resolution files or files with the wrong format type for your project. Your stubby holders or promotional products would end up having a blurry and low quality look and that’s what we want to avoid. We want to make sure your promotional items look great, and that’s why we insist on using the right file types.
Getting a random image file from the web will usually not work because they usually are low resolution JPEG files that will get distorted and look blurry when printed. Nonetheless, if you want to get affordable high-resolution images online you can visit stock image sites like Big Stock Photos, iStock Photo or ShutterStock.
In case you are still unsure about the file type you have, or if you don’t have an easy way to convert it to the file type we need or a high-resolution; send us what you have and we’ll work with you to make things work. If absolutely necessary, we may need to redraw your files for a moderate cost to make sure of the high-quality of the end result. Plus, you’ll be able to reuse these files for future orders or other printed items requiring vector art.