What is four colour process?
To reproduce full-color photographic images, typical printing presses use 4 ink colours. The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colours. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colours used by the printing press. C is cyan (blue), M is magenta (red), Y is yellow, and K is black.
Also Known As: 4-colour | process colour.
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What is the best print process we should use?
That depends on the job. The quality of image that you require, how many you require and your budget. To answer a question like this, we would need to look at the details of your job and advise you from there.
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What is the advantage of digital over Litho printing?
Digital printing has become more popular over the last 15 years, as distinguished from litho print. digital print is used by those requiring the following: short to medium run colour and mono work, fast turnaround, personalisation (as the image is reproduced each time, variations can be easily introduced), print on demand (i.e. with an automated ordering system). The advantage over litho for short run work is that no plates are needed, therefore, reducing the initial set-up costs substantially.v
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What is a pantone reference?
Pantone guides consist of a large number of small, thin cardboard sheets, printed on one side with a series of related colour swatches and then bound into a small flipbook. For instance, a particular "page" might contain a number of yellows varying in luminance from light to dark. Annual editions of the Pantone Guides are released, since the inks in each edition will fade over time.
In theory, the idea of the Pantone system is to pick desired colours from the guides, and then use their numbers to specify how to colour the finished article. In the case of printing, one might ask the printer to "print this area using Pantone 655". The print shop will have instructions on how to produce colour 655 on their equipment, and the output will look as expected.
People often mistake Pantone for a colour management system. While the majority of home and office printing is done on 4 colour printers, using the CMYK system, the Pantone system actually defines mixes of base inks, and are called spot colours. As such Pantone colours do not really fall into the RGB (ie. screen) or CMYK (i.e. 4 colour print) gamuts, and are often used to extend the possibilities of color in print (including metallic and "day-glo").
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Can we colour match to an existing job?
It is impossible to guarantee 100% colour accuracy - but you can get to within acceptable visual limits. Using the Pantone system reduces this problem.
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What are standard paper sizes?
There have been many standard sizes of paper at different times and in different countries, but today there are basically only two systems in place: the international standard (A4 and its siblings), and the North American sizes.
The international paper size standard, ISO 216, is metric (the base format is a sheet of paper measuring 1 m²) and has been adopted by all countries in the world, except the United States and Canada. However, although Mexico and the Philippines have officially adopted the ISO standard, the US."letter" format is common in Mexico, as is the US "legal" format in the Philippines. The most widely known size in the ISO format is A4.
A6 = 105x148.5mm
A5 = 148.5x210mm
A4 = 210x297mm
A3 = 297x420mm
A2 = 420x594mm
A1 = 594x840mm
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What paper should I print on?
Depends on the job and the finish you are looking for. The best way forward is to discuss your requirements and then specify the paper from the paper merchants, get a blank dummy of your job made up so you can see and feel how your job will look, - we can provide this as a service to you.
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Can you print from a pdf?
Yes, and it is becoming more popular to colour seperate and go directly to plate (without transfering to film first) Image setters are now capable of dealing with pdf files as a four colour split (CMYK) and also seperating out spot colours. This means saving time and cost in the print process. It can also help with advertising deadlines as ads. can be e-mailed (after approval) to the production house, rather than send them by post or courier.
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Job related questions
What are royalty free images?
In general royalty-free products may be used by you multiple times for multiple projects without incurring additional fees. Royalty-free pricing is based solely on the file size of the product you need and the number of people entitled to use it (maximum 10), not the specific use. You don't have to pay any additional royalties on a use-by-use basis. However, the rights granted are not neccessarily transferable and are personal to you. Royalty-free licences are always non-exclusive. Always check the licencing agreement when you purchase your images.
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Is a photoshoot expensive?
Not nessacerily, it can often be cheaper than selecting a selection of rights-managed shots. It depends on what is required, budgets and usage. One advantage is that the shots will be exclusive to you.
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What is an EPS?
also see below: What is the difference between raster and vector?
An encapsulated postscript file is a postscript file which describes a single page. Typically, the purpose of the EPS file is to be included (encapsulated) in another PostScript file (e.g., the EPS file is a figure to be included in the PostScript rendering of a page of a document). The EPS file can contain any combination of text, graphics, and images. Some EPS files contain a bitmapped image preview, so that systems that can't render PostScript directly (Macs and PCs, for example) can at least display a crude representation of what the graphic will look like. There are three preview formats: PICT (Mac), TIFF (IBM), and a platform independent preview called EPSI.
Why does this matter? - The file format of the graphics you want to include in your text document matters because it affects the quality of your output and certain file formats are not compatible with certain text-processing applications. EPS is the most widely usable file format for graphics which are to be included in page-layout and text processing applications.
Basically, it is best to supply logos in an Illustrator vector based EPS format - as the image can be scaled up and reproduced without and loss of image quality.
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What is a JPG?
Short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, and pronounced jay-peg. JPEG is a lossy compression technique for colour images. Although it can reduce files sizes to about 5% of their normal size, some detail is lost in the compression.
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What is the difference between raster and vector?
Graphics fall into to two main categories: vector graphics and bitmap graphics (raster)
The difference between these two types is what they're made up of. Vector graphics are made up of lines and curves. Bitmap graphics are made up of little squares called pixels. When you enlarge a bitmap graphic you'll notice pixelation because the software has to guess where to put the extra pixels necessary to make it larger.
Graphics file formats
There's a bewildering amount of graphics file formats out there. The most common file formats in the graphic design world can be counted on two hands:
Vector: Encapsulated Postscript (EPS): Adobe Illustrator (AI), Windows Metafile (WMF)
Bitmap: TIFF, JPG, GIF.
A word about "native formats": almost every software programme has a file format that is native to that programme, and that programme alone. Photoshop's is PSD; CorelDRAW! is CDR; and so on. Always save your graphic in your software's native format before saving it in the file format you'll be using in the end. That makes it really easy to make changes to the original graphic.
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So which format do you use?
At the moment, the only format that can be easily viewed on the Web is bitmap graphics, GIF and JPG. There are a few vector formats that can be viewed on the Web, but they all require plugins. Your viewers shouldn't be left in the cold if they don't happen to have a plugin installed.
Given the limitations of the bitmap format, you may be wondering why you'd ever use it outside of the Web. If you scan a photograph, you'll be forced to save it as a bitmap; the same is true of digital pictures.
Vector graphics are great because of their easy scaleability. Be careful, though: EPS graphics require a PostScript printer to print correctly. If you try to print an EPS graphic to a non-PostScript printer, the only thing that will print is the low resolution header.
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Why do designers use macs?
Because they are cool, and you don’t have to go to start to shut down! Seriously though the graphic user interface is visually easier to navigate and the graphics control is far greater. Although the real reasons is that we always have and we don’t like change!
also see:http://home.cfl.rr.com/juval/care.html for an article on Care and Feeding of Your Graphic Artist/Designer
A Guide for Civilians (its quite funny)
Also see:http://www.switchingtomac.com/macorpc.html
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Company related questions
What services do you offer?
A full mix of creative design and marketing services. Also partnering with specific web and internet based technology techniquies, PR and Print based solutions. Please see our creative services page and exhibition page for more details.
Can I come and see you?
Yes we would love to see you. Just give us a call and we’ll put the kettle on, and get the chocolate biscuits out!
Will you come and see us?
Not a problem, we think it best to meet face-to-face and we all love driving!
Why should I choose you?
Because we are passionate about what we do, we have a proven track record of delivering the right solutions on time, and we provide great value for your budget, by deliberately keeping our overheads to a minimum.
Why haven’t I heard of you?
Because it is our job to make sure you stand out in the limelight, not us. You might not have heard of us but we expect you will have heard of our clients and seen some of the work we have produced for them. Please view our portfolio section for examples of our work.
If your so good why aren’t you working with us?
Good question, lets meet up and have a chat about that one.
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Random questions
Is Elvis really dead?
No, the king lives!
Do elephants sleep standing up?
Only on trains!
Give me a really good quote?
“That’s great, don’t change a thing...it’s perfect!”
Why do designers wear square glasses?
Have you seen what shape a monitor is?
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