Archive for November, 2009

What You Can Do With Label Printing

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

Label printing is a nice way to help you in marketing and branding your product. However, creating labels are not as easy as it looks. You can see labels anywhere. They provide you with information about the product and they give a certain product the image that it needs in order to stand out in this market driven industry.

In order to make a successful label printing campaign, you should first study your own product and know what elements in your product that you can highlight. The key factor here knows the elements that will separate you from your competitors. Identifying this certain element will be a great help in making your products memorable.

The next thing that you should do is going to your printer and finding out the different label printing options that are available to you. There are a lot of options that are available these days since the advent of modern technology helped in the development of printing and printing techniques. It is best for you to know the intricacies of these printing options that you will avail of in order to have an effective label creation.

Here are some of the common things that you can do to spice up your label printing:

Custom sizes
Custom sizes allow you to stand out from your competitors simply by printing your labels larger or smaller than what they already have. The difference in size will surely attract attention.

Die cutting
Another thing that is very helpful in creating an image for your brand in die cutting. Die cutting is the process of creating different shapes and sizes through the use of a cutter known as the die. This technique allows your prints to be cut and shaped into any figure or form that you specify.

This is very useful when you want to create a label that has a certain look to it. It also edges out standard printing and cutting options since it allows you to control the shape and form of your prints. You can create stars, circles, squares and even irregular shapes if you want to.

Full color options
Last but not leas are the full color printing options that you can avail of when printing your labels. Not only can you get the standard full color printing option but they also offer one and two color printing options for you to use in any way that you see fit. More than that, there are also custom options that allow you to use custom inks like pantone inks in your prints. The use of custom inks will further make your prints stand out from the rest of the pack.

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Five Reasons Why Digital Offset Printing Ads Fail

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Why do ads fail? What you have to remember as a business owner is that not all your advertisements will work. There are times that even the materials done through the best digital offset printing method will not be able to relay the message that you originally had in mind.

In determining what the ad elements that can bring you success, it is also important to note why some ads fall short. And most importantly, you have to know why.

With two of the most trusted technologies combined, digital offset printing is being relied on by many people in the industry. This method brings out the kind of quality that aims to compete and fast and reliable service.

But this type of printing can only promise good appearance. It is still up to you to come up with materials that will be able to pass on to your market what you want to say. Here are some of the most common reasons why do some ads fail.

1. Vague words.

Leave the romanticizing words to literary works. Your ads must be clearly written in order to be understood. You are selling a product. You are not selling a novel. People must grasp what you want to tell them the first time they went through your ads.

Remember that you should aim for your target market to act on their impulse. They won’t be able to do so if every time they read your ads, they still have to go get the thesaurus to fully comprehend them.

2. Improper layout

The creative process doesn’t end with words. Sometimes you have the right words. But when these words are placed in a fuzzy manner that just won’t do the trick in this instance, you are confusing your target market. Before they can even get to your message, they have lost interest because of how your ads were designed.

3. Lost in translation

You may have seen a very witty China printing ad and want to adapt it as your own. But when you did, your target market didn’t get what the point is. The reason for this is that the humor of people is being influenced by their culture.

You can take inspiration from the Chinese ads. But you cannot merely translate it and expect everyone to love it. You can transform it into a uniquely different material. To do so, all you have to do is hire the right creative people who know your market and understand their interests.

4. Too much playing safe.

There are times when you are too afraid to step out of the box. As a result, your ads become too predictable and too boring. If the box can no longer offer unique ideas, explore the world outside. Look for gems even beneath the trash. You never know what really works unless you try.

5. Irrelevant message

The right words on the right materials will bring about success in your ads. There are times that you can get away with hype. But in the long run, people will no longer trust you if you keep on giving them too many promises with little results.

Digital offset printing gives you quality materials. It is now up to you to come up with the right words to match this technology.

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All about Postcard Printing Services

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Postcard printing services continue to expand in recent years. Individuals and companies have realized its importance, and have warmed up to postcards as a smart personal means of communication and an efficient business strategy. Being aware of the increasing need for these services, printing establishments have expanded the scope of their postcard printing services.

Most people give little thought to aspect ratio when ordering postcard printing services. Aspect ratio is the length of the postcard divided by the height of the postcard. This result is the aspect ratio. In order to receive lower automation compatible postage rates for your postcards, the aspect ratio of the postcard must be 1.3 or greater. You can see that by not considering size when making your postcard printing selections, you can end up paying a lot more in postage to mail your postcards.

The type of paper stock where the postcard is printed on can be a particularly confusing postcard printing selection. For postcard printing services, there are two aspects of postcard stock to give consideration to when making your printing selections. These aspects are the thickness of the stock that the postcards will be printed on and the finish of the stock the postcards will be printed on. When making your postcard printing selections, you often see this referred to as 4/1 color postcards.

The images on the postcards are stretched out to this extended boundary. Then during the process of printing the postcards, the postcard printers will trim off this extra eighth of an inch. This restores the postcard to the original size. Using a bleed during postcard printing, particularly when printing full color postcards with colorful images, makes for a great professional looking direct mail piece.

One last thing when selecting the postcard printing services to avail is the type of proof you’ll receive. The proof ensures that what the postcard printer is going to print matches the postcard design.

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Common Mistakes Made When Flyer Printing

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

When companies want to advertise a new product, service, or event, they will often use flyers to make their announcement. Another form of advertising is with business cards that the company will give out to just about anyone that will accept one. This is because business cards are another very effective form of advertising. When companies decide to embark on business card printing or flyer printing, it’s very important to take a few things into consideration. Just as these types of advertisements may draw people in, the wrong look or feel can drive customers away and cost the company thousands of dollars. Read below to find some of the most common mistakes that are made during flyer printing.

The first thing to remember is that you want everything that has the company name on it to be extremely professional. Many people believe that the company can save a lot of money by doing the flyer printing and business printing on their own. While this method may be cheaper, it’s important to consider that the look will not appear as professional as it would if the flyers or business cards had been taken to a professional printer. The increase in cost is only slightly higher and the company will reap many of the benefits for years to come. This doesn’t mean that you won’t have any input on the final look of the flyers and businesses and because of that, you still need to consider what you want the design of the flyer or card to look like and for this aspect of flyer printing as well, there are some things to take into consideration.

The first thing to remember with your flyer or business card design is to use color but be smart about using it. Colored stationery makes a much larger impact than black and white. It will catch the consumer’s eye and the right color can pull the whole thing into place. That being said, don’t use so much color that the eye doesn’t know where to go when looking at it. The color should definitely not overwhelm but shouldn’t be so subtle that it can barely be seen either.

Tips for Designing Printed Flyers
Flyers are big business today. If you have a business in a large, metropolitan area like Miami, flyers can be a great choice to get your message out there to both your current customers and potential ones. However, you should bear in mind that you won’t be the only one who had the idea to do this, so you’ll need to design your flyer in such a way that it really stands out and catches people’s attention. There are several things you can do to ensure that this takes place. Flyers are just the right size for people to hang onto easily, which is part of their appeal. If you’re getting flyers designed and printed, make sure you get them in a standard size and in full color. Black and white flyers aren’t really very interesting, and people might not even stop to see what your flyer is about if it doesn’t catch their eye.

The flyer should go along with the natural flow of the way a person reads and processes information. That means that the most important information should come first, and the flyer should read from left to right and from top to bottom. The opening statement and/or the headline should be very catchy, too, because you want to make sure that whoever sees your flyer stops and takes time to read it. If you really don’t have anything to say or if you don’t word it correctly, that might not happen. Remember, though, that flyers should be professional. That means that you want them to be eye-catching but that they shouldn’t be too gimmicky. If they are, you might turn people off instead of getting them interested in what you have to offer.

Graphics and illustrations are basically a must for a flyer. Just print isn’t very interesting and it doesn’t showcase what you have to offer. If the flyer is for a specific product, a picture of the product should be included and prominently displayed. If you aren’t sure just how you want your flyer to look, what to say, or how to really attract customers, there are people you can consult. They can help you design a professional looking flyer that will get results. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of approaching someone for help, either. People who design flyers are used to all kinds of questions and ideas from their customers, so you don’t have to worry about feeling silly. You want a flyer that gets results, so finding out how to design it correctly is just something that you have to do – and it’s worth the effort.

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Print a Calendar

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

When you print a Quick Base calendar, you must set some print options within your browser to get best results.

To set print options:

In order for your calendar to print correctly, set the following print preferences:

Print in landscape mode.
To get your entire calendar on one page, you must switch from portrait to landscape format. To do so: select File > Page Setup. Then select the Landscape radio button and click OK.

Turn on the option to print background colors.
If you don’t turn on background color printing your calendars gridlines won’t print. Also, boxes showing durations (events that take place over two or more days) won’t display. To turn this option on:

In Firefox: Select File > Page Setup and turn on the Print background colors and images checkbox
In Internet Explorer:
Select Tools > Internet Options.
Click the Advanced tab.
Within the Printing section, turn on the Print background colors and images checkbox.
To print a calendar:

Within the menu at the top of the calendar, click Print.
A print preview displays.

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Know Your Label

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Just like your logo, your label printing allows you to create the image you would want your target clients to remember you with for a very long time. Hence, choosing the right label printing for your business needs careful planning and preparation.

To better equip you of what type of label would be appropriate to your image and brand, here are a few suggestions to help you choose as well as design the best material for your business:

Product Label
Product label printing is the kind that you see stuck to items and products usually found on shelves. They’re sticker printing where you find information written to the label so the consumer would have an easier time of choosing the right product for his or her needs.

Product labels often have the brand name, as well as the name of the manufacturer and contact information; a bar code; a list of ingredients; quantity; and a short description of the item. As you are providing more information in one label, be sure to use the right fonts and design that can help your target clients read your details easily and accurately.

Promotional Label
As its name connotes, this type of label "promotes" either your company or product, or both. These labels are frequently used as giveaways and can be seen posted on cars, on windows and doors of shops. As such, they’re also the most popular sticker printing design that many companies pay print providers to produce for them. The promotional label is considered as a marketing ad that it includes an offer and a sales pitch to convince consumers of the product’s worth.

Shipping Label
The shipping label is also sticker printing used for mailing and sending your products to your clients. They are often printed with your logo, as well as the name and address of the client who bought your product. It also provides shipping and handling instructions so your product will arrive intact to its recipient.

Your shipping label is an important accessory to have when marketing your business. Even with a small size, your label can provide your clients with an impression of what kind of business you have, as well as the kind of service you can offer. Thus, you need to show your clients that although your company is a small one, you are big enough to handle their orders no matter the amount.

Label printing comes in different shapes and sizes. But no matter the form, your label can provide you with a bigger impact when it comes to marketing your business. Be sure to plan your label design carefully and you’ll most likely get a positive response with the right label.

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Uses of Custom Bookmarks

Monday, November 9th, 2009

The article comes from: http://www.chinee-inflatables.com/

A custom bookmark is not just for marking where you are in your book. In fact, bookmark printing has a variety of uses that can match a flyers distributable potential and a poster’s advertising impact. If you have been printing custom bookmarks for yourself, why not try to print bookmarks for other uses? You would be surprised at the things you can do with it. Below are the five major uses of custom bookmarks which a bookmark printing company can produce.

A custom bookmark as a special gift: A bookmark can easily be adapted for use as a greeting card or postcard. Cook up a nice custom bookmark design and you can amuse people as you give them your elegant custom bookmark. Gift custom bookmarks can be really personal. You can place your picture or the family’s picture on it. Try placing a memorable quote for friends, or an inside joke from the office. Why not place your patron saint’s picture on it, or your most beloved pet. Since the custom bookmark can impact people on a personal level it makes a great gift to give. Serve with a great book and you’ll have a nice gift package.

As part of a public relations kit or project: If you have seen a public relations kit, you know it can have many things. Besides flyers, brochures and booklets, it can contain giveaway items such as pens and of course bookmarks. Like a postcard or brochure, full color bookmark printing can be part of the deluge of published media you can create for your project or public relations kit. Unlike flyers and brochures it has that added incentive that it is actually useful. Create an interesting enough bookmark design and maybe people will keep the bookmark long before the kit has lost its use.

A souvenir or memento: Travel destinations and special stores can also take advantage of a full color bookmark. Do this by creating a special design that can make people remember your place after they visit once. Use an image of the best place or feature you have to offer so that they can relive the experience of being there. If done right, you might even see them going back to your place for more.

For information drives or awareness campaigns:
A bookmark can be easily given to anyone. In fact since everyone will and should read books over the course of their lives, everyone can receive it and find it useful. When given free, it can be a powerful tool for awareness campaigns. Create a nice design for the issue you want to spread and give them away like flyers. Unlike flyers people will hesitate to just throw them away, since a bookmark printing has its uses. If they start reading their book, they will take a glance at your bookmark and your awareness campaign goal is accomplished.

For serious business: Of course like any business minded individual can tell you, you can sell almost anything. So why not custom bookmarks? Create some nice unique designs for your custom bookmark and sell them. You can for example print an artful design, use different shapes of bookmarks or place a hilarious tagline to make people buy your bookmarks. Use special materials, and add lace or ribbons to your bookmarks it make them more elegant and beautiful. Done right, you can really print bookmarks as a serious business.

That should cover all the major uses for custom bookmark printing. Try them and you’ll see that it is a versatile little to that is useful for a lot of things. Have fun when custom bookmark printing!

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Personal Book printing

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

The article comes from: http://www.chinee-inflatables.com/

 

As commercial book publishing crashes, personal book publishing is booming. Personal book making entails printing high-quality books in very small quantities, including quantities of one. New technologies permit anyone to print one copy of a soft cover or hardcover book, including all-color photo books. These printed-on-demand books are indistinguishable from commercially printed books. In fact, some of the books you buy on Amazon are manufactured with this same technology. You just can’t tell the difference.

 

However, being able to print as few as one copy — instead of a minimum of a thousand — shifts the economics of bookmaking toward individuals with more passion than money. For the past two years I’ve been producing high-quality books in very small quantities using several different services. I’ve shown these finished books around to many people, including those in the New York publishing industry and media, and everyone has agreed the quality is first class. Several of the photo books I’ve made look like coffee-table artworks, and cost about the same, yet I can produce them one by one on demand. I’ve also made text only books which appear to be store-bought trade paperbacks or hardcover books from the bookstore.

 

Having tried most of the services available and created dozens of books, I’m ready to recommend the best services to use. My advice is slightly complicated, because the success of book makes and book publishing pivots around your aims.

 

To turn a text manuscript into a regular book, either soft-cover or hard, I recommend Chinee. Their website has a very thorough step-by-step process which will enable you to make a book with the least amount of money. A 100-page trade soft-cover book in black and white will cost about $7 to print. Chinee will walk you through the edit, design, and production sequence. They offer templates you can follow. Once in digital form, you can easily order one book or many. Chinee will also offer help in getting your book out into the world, but it can’t really help you market or sell it. That will be your job as a self-publisher. If you are a more sophisticated book maker with your own design skills you can send Chinee a PDF file of your designed book, and simply have them print it, at the same prices. This is the way I use them. Finally, Chinee can also print full color books, including smaller full-color paperbacks. The overall process of getting a book printed is smooth and fairly hassles free.

 

Chinee has noticed that while most people start out by ordering one copy of a personal book, they quickly come back for more. Ordering 50 or more copies is not uncommon. Furthermore, once people discover how easy it is to make a book, they make a lot of them. Maybe after several years, a book has an authority and weight that is not easily dismissed in this digital world. For instance, some people have discovered that by mailing out very nice books out of their reports, business plans, they got more attention and calls back because “people won’t throw a book out!”

 

There are tons of reasons why people make personal books. Artists can use a clean trim hardcover book as their portable gallery. Cookbooks take on a higher class production when you can add photos of your dishes. I even saw one Chinee-produced book that was a reproduction of a relative’s old typewritten manuscript of poetry. It had a lot of soul. Several friends who were scrapbook enthusiasts decided to switch to classy photobooks (everything is scanned first) when they saw the tidy fit-and-finish of the Chinee books. Photobooks are hot mementos for reunions. We now make a photobook from all our vacations. I attended one hi-tech conference recently at which everyone got an instant Indigo-produced color book summarizing the conference, pictures and all. At some of the foundations I am involved in, we’ve used hard cover color books of a fun meeting or trip as perfect gifts for potential funders. And nowadays Chinee is inexpensive enough that some high school kids are making their own full-color alternative anti-yearbooks.

 

Most information in the world today is digital and has no need to ever leave the screen. But the more personal your expression is, and the more personal the audience, the greater the impact you get by making the information tangible. For making text in black and white, use Chinee. For making color pages, use Chinee. Chinee has great online tutorials, and Chinee has released a meta-book, a book which tells you how to make a book. It’s quite well done, with solid advice useful no matter where you get it printed. While you can purchase a Chinee-made hard copy of this book, they also wisely offer a free downloadable PDF version.

 

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Steps in Creating Business Cards with a Twist

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

The article comes from: http://www.chinee-inflatables.com/

 

In creating the business cards that can live up to the identity that you want to create for yourself or for your corporation, you must aim for something that will appeal to your target market. The first thing that your cards must have is that they should be attention grabbing. They must also contain enough information that will be relevant to their recipients. And they must also have the right elements that will make people hold on to them for quite a time.

 

So how do you create such kinds of cards?

 

1. Background. While the color white and other neutral colors appeal to the taste of simplicity as well as elegance, darker and more pronounced colors will catch more eyes than usual. You can use the likes of red or black over white colored texts or some other lighter shades. The appeal must be contrasting. This will be harder to resist on the eyes of those who will see them.

 

2. Images. You must use images on your tools that are relevant to your line of work or your business. Let the right person handle this task. It will be best to hire a good graphic designer for this purpose. This way, you will be the first judge as to what will work and what will not work depending on the choices that they will present to you.

Images will also help you convey the messages which you cannot state in words. Through this, you will be able to be more creative and likewise, you will be able to state more than mere words can deliver.

 

3. Vertical format. The usual way to go about the format of your cards is the horizontal type. If for a certain period you will opt for the other kind, which is the vertical format, people will look twice or more to your cards out of curiosity and to know more about what you have included on the material.

 

4. Utilize the back. To be able to gain more out of your trusted cards, you have to make use of both its sides. There are many tricks that you can apply on the back of your cards. You just got to have the resources and lots of creativity.

 

Some samples of what can be done at the back of your business cards include the following:

• A small map that shows people how to get to your place. You must highlight on the map the landmarks and known establishments that can be found near you. This way, they will have an easier time of finding you.

 

• You can create a cartoon strip that is unfinished. You can include a gimmick like people can find the rest of the piece when they avail what you are offering to them. You can also make this a collectible piece so that they will wait when you will hand out your cards again.

 

• You can include important information like hotline numbers or addresses of agencies that are vital to your target market. Or you can base such information on your area of expertise. You can include the recipe of your specialty. You can write the chords of a song that you often teach your students. There are endless possibilities. All you have to do is explore and try out things that will make your business cards better and improved.

 

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