With the advanced use of computer and the Internet, new areas of works have entered into the business life. Graphic designing can be basically related to instinctual designs that come into one’s mind while designing, but now anyone who gets proper training can be successful at designing. There are some things that should be taken into consideration before starting the graphic designing work to reap great results.

A good graphic design provides traffic to your business. The first look of your business and the graphic design for it leaves an impression on the viewers, so if it looks attractive and, at the same time, genuine too, your business will definitely flourish. The cost of the design depends upon your project and the designer, because lots of areas need an artistic approach. Graphic designers usually work on projects or specific clients and so they cost according to the project (price per project or hourly) or the client. If you employ a graphic designer for your business, it might cost you a little more than if you get the work done by some service provider company. These companies provide good quality designs at an affordable rate.

What is the most important point that you look for when you are in search of a graphic designer for your business? Experience and quality are the most obvious criteria. Ask to go through their design portfolio and request a client referral list to determine their clients’ satisfaction. In addition, the designer might give you some prepared designs as to what your design will be or similar ones for you to choose from.

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When a business decides to switch over to document scanning there are many things that should be taken into account. With the advancement of technology, old documents, images, text files and many more can be retrieved, recovered and archived now, which was once found impossible. With the inclusion of computer appliances and document management, accessibility has become very easy and has changed the whole process of office running. The actual definition of document scanning is the transfer of the document in paper form into an electronic form. The record gets transferred into the digital data and is easily accessable for the employees as well as the employer. It increases the transparency between employer and employee, along with the customers too.

Electronic storage of data saves time and money, and if maintained, it will be useful and affordable in the long run. The document scanning businesses charge on per page basis. This cost might vary if your business documents include a large number of pages, the document scanning company is willing to negotiate and/or consider long term business relationship. There are lots of advantages in document scanning and the most remarkable one is that important or old documents can be saved kept for very long period of time without any damage.

Businesses that have a small staff, or simply do not want the employees’ time taken up doing scanning (scanning is a very time-consuming process), can get the document scanning done outside. But if lots of documents need to be scanned continually, and you have no way of passing on the cost to the clients, then it is advisable to have the tools needed for scanning in your office.

First of all, you will need a computer that has a document scanning system because this will prove to be much cheaper than other computer systems. It should be capable of producing clear images and capture any detail, even if it is minute, and produce it clearly on the scanned document. These days, document scanning is widely used whether the business is small or large. This is because of its affordability and easy access. It also retrieves the old documents and saves it for longer period of time.

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The history of printing goes back to some years, but it has developed very fast in recent years. Along with the advantage of new technology and easy printing, the most important thing is how much is understood about the client and their needs. There are some basic ways to understand clients. It doesn’t matter how beautifully or accurately something is written if the customer’s desire is not fulfilled. So the first thing is to listen to the client carefully. Half of the problems are solved just by listening, as the customer feels that someone cares about their problems. The next thing to do is to answer each and every query about products or services. If there is a suggestion box, they must be read because sometimes clients might suggest improving services.

There is one more thing that should be taken into account and that is keeping a watch on the work going on in the company. The working in the company should go on smoothly and the work ethics taken care of properly.  The employees should be easily approachable to the clients so that if there is any complaint about the service or work done, the staff should be easily available. If possible, provide a customer support service well informed and well equipped. The customer support should have an email address, a phone number and the website must have complete information regarding the products and services.

Printing is an age-old weapon for businessmen to leave their details with people so that their business spreads some more. This makes people are other firms aware of your business and the various services that you have to offer.

When it comes to printing postcards there are two types of printing, one is digital printing and the other is offset printing. Digital printing is quite popular among those who have low budget because prints are made directly from the computer and can only print CMYK images and the whole thing can be said to be of low quality. The only advantage of digital printing is that you can get the cards in very less time but a limited number of copies. If you need them in urgency and have run out of your cards you can easily have them with the help of digital printing.

In offset printing inked images are transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. It brings out clear images and print outs but is affordable when the printing is to be done on large scale. Both printing methods are good enough to fulfill your purpose of propagating your business.

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What sort of things one should keep in mind before buying a Scanner?

a.) Prints: This is easy; just get the cheapest flatbed scanner, and if for good quality, just pick up the cheapest EPSON Printer. Even the cheapest flatbeds offer FOUR times the resolution that one requires.

b.) 35mm Slides and/or B/W Negatives: It is better to go in for a real film scanner if the need arises.

c.) Medium Format Transparencies and/or B/W Negatives: The best buy is $3,000 film scanner like Minolta Multi PRO or a good flatbed like the EPSON 4990.

d.) 4×5″ Film: 4 x 5 desktop film scanners are out there today in the market. It is better to buy a good flatbed like the EPSON 4990 or Microtek 1800f.

Keep the images and file sizes down, with any scanner resolution. In fact, it is better to turn down the resolution of any scanner to keep the resolution low enough to make emailing possible, and to keep the image small enough to fit on a computer screen. Honestly, if internet and email is the need of the hour then a flatbed scanner is fine.

Printing on paper is more difficult. If the print is 8 x 10″ or bigger getting the highest resolution a dedicated film scanner is possible. Flatbed scanners are poor for printing from 35mm film, although great for scanning one-hour lab prints.

Tip #1: Choose a Good Photo

As an example, the best photos are with the dog standing in full or 3/4 profile. The photo should exhibit good color and strong contrast. Contrast is important - particularly contrast with the background - if the dog blends into the background all anyone will see is a blob. This is especially important with blues and blacks. Blues and blacks almost always look best in photos taken in strong sunlight with light-colored backgrounds.

Tip #2: Use a Good Scanner

Many scanners, particularly cheap ones, will ruin just about any photo. For as little as $150 it is better to buy a top rated scanner like the Epson 1240U.

Tip #3: Ignore “scan for the web options”

It is better to avoid “scan for the web” options in the scanner so that options such as enlarging color correcting, and so forth, can be utilized.

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The purpose of the ProjectCenter Blog was to help buyers and providers of graphic design, printing, scanning and reprographics services by providing useful information. ProjectCenter has decided to take that intent to the next level.

“It is fine and dandy for us to make comments on posts, but that is a one-sided approach, so we decided to create a forum for people to come together and ask questions and/or receive tips”, said Kak of ProjectCenter.

ProjectCenter presents The ProjectCenter Forum: http://projectcenter.10.forumer.com/

We invite you to register and dazzle us with your knowledge!

 Check each image for horizontal alignment. The easiest way to do this is to set a horizontal guide by dragging one out of the top ruler. Place the guide right at one of the baselines shown in the image. If the baseline is not absolutely aligned with the guide, it is better to use the rotate image command to fix it. Preferably it is better to use numerical rotations (e.g., 0.7° counter-clockwise) with a lot of trial and error

 Adjust the levels of the black channel. The end goal is to get an image that has a completely white background, and very black letters. Consult the documentation for details regarding how to adjust levels for different versions of Photoshop.

1. Try automatic adjustment of levels first. This will, frankly, rarely suffice.
2. Adjust the left and right sliders to get a nice, clean background (without a lot of gray noise) and strong, clear letters.

Adjust the middle slider (the mid-range) to set how heavy the letters appear. The adjustment of this slider (in combination with the left and right ones) can affect whether the font ends up having a light, regular, or semi-bold weight. It can also affect how sharp corners become—heavy, black scans tend to have more rounded edges.

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 Prepare the image for scanning.

1. If at all possible, avoid using originals less than 0.25″ high.
2. When possible, use samples that include the letters on either side of the target letter as a guide to spacing.
3. For letters from rough-and-ready sources (e.g. printed books), choose several different instances of each letter. Scan each of them, and then assemble a consistent alphabet using the best. The smaller the original letters, the more scans are needed.
4. If the source image is a drawing or calligraphy, add at least two horizontal lines (typically baseline and x-height). This will make it easier to align the image after scanning, and keep scaling consistent.

 Put the original drawing as straight as possible on the scanner plate. Later check to be sure that the scan is aligned.

 For ease, scan using a Photoshop plug-in, not the standalone scanner software. Adjust the image in Photoshop later.

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Although printing quality is a reasonable concern, in most cases it is better to use a lower quality (or “draft”) mode that uses much less ink. Printer companies usually set their printers to default to the highest quality.

For printing things like map directions, grocery lists, etc., set the default to the lowest quality. Here is some instructions on how to do this:

Click Start> Printers and Faxes. “Right-click” the printer icon and select Printing Preferences. Select the Main settings tab, Paper or Print Quality tab (varies from model to model). Under Quality Settings, click Draft. Under Color click Black. 

If an important document in Word which includes a color picture has to be printed, click File> Print. Then click Properties and the Paper/Quality tab. Make the necessary changes and click OK and OK again. That changes the settings on a “one-time basis” (only for that print job).

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• Do not create website entirely in Flash, avoiding creating sites in flash. If the situation demands, then an HTML version of the site is preferred.
• Use Flash as a support for content, not the other way around. Displaying content should be the primary objective and Flash should be used only if it is really necessary.
• Do not write text as part of the Flash file. Search engines but especially users will have trouble retrieving it.
• Use Flash wisely and in reasonable amounts. Flash can be a nice design addition without having it interfere with how users come into contact with information.
• Optimize Flash files as much as possible. Keeping size of Flash files to a minimum enables users to spend less time.
• Flash is often used because it’s visually compelling. Visually disabled users are unable to enjoy or appreciate the visuals and the animation like average people do. Special care must be taken when designing with Flash and considering accessibility issues.

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Come have a listen to the lastest radio spot:

ProjectCenter Radio Spot

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Flash has been the “releaser of energy” for all the trendy web designers on the Internet because it allowed them to express more of what they wanted to say. Soon, Flash had literally taken over thousands of websites. While Flash can be successfully used in web sites with profiles in music, multimedia, online games, interactive activities etc, on most sites Flash is used for the sake of using it and raises serious issues for users.

• Most users are still - despite what many believe - on slow Internet connections such as dial up. Flash is not bandwidth friendly and many designers do not create Flash files bearing this issue in mind. Users on slow connections have to wait a fair bit of time before the web page with Flash loads.
• There are still many users who do not have the Flash player installed and they are not willing to or don’t know how to do it.

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There are very good reasons why limiting the use of Flash is important:

1. Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to search engines

Most Internet navigators begin a web session with a search engine. Information hidden in graphics formats, such as Flash, is difficult, if not impossible, to find and process. While search engines such as Google try their best to extract links and textual content buried in Flash objects, the process is far from perfect. Sites constructed completely in Flash often offer very little textual information – consequently what information a search engine does find ranks poorly. Even sites partially constructed using Flash often “hide” their internal site links using Flash based site navigation.

2. Website reporting on Flash navigation is problematic and cumbersome

Web analytics systems help marketing professionals evaluate website visitor behavior in and around a website, providing actionable information valuable in improving a website’s business performance.

Web analytics tagging is often an after thought. Flash Action Script coding adds extra implementation cost and complexity. Flash designer(s) are often unfamiliar with web analytics requirements and thus don’t consider Flash events tagging requirements during site design. Implemented tag verification is a tedious process as it requires waiting for data to appear in the reporting system – hours or days later. Flash does not provide referrer information, making it very difficult to track navigation paths.

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As mentioned in the previous article, one of the key things to note when working for any print project is the resolution of the image. The other factor to note is color mode – specifically for all print projects, your ultimate destination would be CMYK. Why not RGB? This is because printers create colors differently on a printing press as opposed to colors on a computer screen. In Photoshop, a good way to gauge how a printed work would look like on paper is to turn on Proof Colors. If anything looks wrong or not what was intended, make the appropriate adjustments. Seek to foster a good relationship with local printers, as they will be invaluable when it comes to getting advice and ensuring a job well-printed.

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When working in Photoshop, one of the things to note before a new canvas is started would be resolution. Resolution here refers to the number of dots used in an image, per inch or what is often termed as ‘dpi’. For an image to print in good quality on paper, it needs to have at least 300 dpi. Generally, this is set as the standard and would bring about a good finish for say, a magazine. For newspapers, the dpi can be brought down an acceptable level of 200 or even 150 dpi for the same image. That’s because the quality of the print also depends on the quality of the paper being used, and the better the paper, the lesser the spread of the ink across the paper during the printing process. So generally, it is good to take note of resolution when preparing work – source images from any stock library, or the settings on the camera and the canvas in Photoshop. The finished image can always be resized downwards for lower quality prints or even screen, but it will be a headache if it needs to be enlarged.

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Verso is the left-hand page of a book or magazine. Recto is the right-hand page of a book or magazine.

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Choke is a term used when a printing image is slightly reduced to prevent a dark overlapped border on a lighter background.

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‘Print-ready’ refers to a graphic design file being formatted to a printer’s needs, so that the printer can make their adjustments in order to print the file appropriately. Although all printers have a pre-press department that can fine-tune files and batch up jobs to a printer, and broker/client must make sure certain actions are taken before it goes to a pre-press department.

The first action is to include “bleed” in the artwork (previously described in post http://projectcenter.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/what-is-full-bleed/), which is about 1/4″ of extra border on the background of the artwork, so that the printer can then print and cut down to size, resulting in a page where the color goes to the edge of the printed piece.

If a PDF is not being sent, but rather an EPS file, Illustrator file (AI), InDesign file (INDD) or PhotoShop file (PSD), then it is recommended that the artwork be outlined (Select > All, then Type > Create Outlines). Outlining is a function that embeds the fonts in the artwork, so that a receiver of the file does not need the incorporated fonts in order to open the file.

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As mention in a past posting (http://projectcenter.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/web-design-flash/), Flash is an animated component that is usually used as intro to a website, but can be implemented within web pages as well.

Keep in mind that entire websites can be created from the Flash software, but there are big issues with that approach. First, it means that your site will probably need more bandwidth over the internet for a viewer to load the website. Second, once the Flash website is created, it is cumbersome to make any changes at a later time. Third, if a client needs to change designers (i.e. the designer goes out of business or does not provide good customer service), the client needs to have and give access to the Flash source file. Without the source file, Flash needs to be recreated rather than revised, which increases the cost of the project.

As a suggestion, it might be a good idea to ask a prospective designer what softwares they will use to create a client website.

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Bidding is common is most industries, mainly because some industries are based on commodity products. A great example might be the hardware technology industry, where any number of suppliers could be selling the exact same items. This, of course, encourages clients to bid out to get the best price possible.

Unfortunately, clients tend to forget that printing is a service business, and proceed to bid small jobs out to a bunch of service providers. This can and will eventually cause problems for the client for two reasons: 1) the printing business tends to be local in nature, so printers usually know each other and talk often; 2) the printing industry has historically done very well at maintaining it margins.

Printers will catch up to what a client is doing rather quickly, and will take measures, such as coming together with other printers, to prevent a client from taking advantage of the system. Here is a great example:

A prospective client requested to have printing done for their display/exhibit. The client could not or would not provide the specs for the tension banners that were needed for the it, so the printer was left having to contact the maker directly. Their response was that they had already quoted the client directly, and “3 other printers had already called” about this client requesting specs.

So the maker knew they were being priced out, which means they closed out the printers, making the printers looked foolish, which means the printers will most likely avoid the client in the future.

By the way, the end result of this real-life example was that the maker ”screwed up” the client’s exhibit, and now the client has no alternative vendor to work with. 

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Print On Demand is a term that has been thrown around for some time now. It typically relates to online internet purchasing, where a client can log into a website, load or choose artwork, sometimes allow text information to be inserted and then print and ship to the client.  This is a great source for those that do not need personal service.

There are some drawbacks, such as the aforementioned lack of service. A lot of POD outlets provide very little or no customer service, and rightfully so since they tend to have to sell their product at razor-thin margins.

Sometimes there are stipulations such has having to buy a minimum amount of stock (i.e. shells) that is printed with basic information, with variable information to be inserted online later and printed again. Also, with products such as business cards, it is very common for a client to have to enter information and place an order for each card needed, rather than being able to enter and print multiple cards at a time.

People seem to like the ‘whiz-bang’ features of Print On Demand. Most online sources have a function where a template proof appears on the screen, and when information is changed, the changes take place in real time as you are viewing the proof.

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Carefully planned predatory pricing practices have allowed national chains to establish virtual monopolies as they drive local competition out of business. And then they raise their prices.

-www.LocalFirstAZ.com

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Can a printer and/or broker rush an order?

The answer is yes, as long as a client is willing to pay more, and increase their risk of error. The important part to note here is the increase in risk. Pressuring anything or anyone to reduce turn-around time tends to allow eyes to stray from the details of a project. The problem seems to begin with the primary requestor (i.e. someone’s boss) because they don’t understand that printing begins as a service, not a tangible product like a grocery store item. Or it begins with a secondary requestor (a person fulfilling a request for the primary requestor, such as a purchaser) that was given a deadline, but let the deadline slide, and are now in a pickle to get the job done.

The moral of the story is that lack of detail begets lack of detail.

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Shells refer to preprinted stationery (typically business cards) that are stocked for future additional printing. As an example, a client might want to maintain a certain image for the materials, but have a lot of employees to manage.

A client like this would have shells printed, that would include images and text that would not change from piece to piece (i.e. company logo, license information, tag lines, etc.).  These shells would be stocked at the printer’s facility, and when a client’s employee needs stationery, the shells are then run through the printer again, only printing the employee’s the variable info (i.e. contact information).

Some companys offer an easy way for client’s employees to add their own information online (see www.makepapereasy.com and click “Stationery Reorders”). Websites like this offer the employee and/or client a real-time visual example of the piece that are creating. Once the employee approves the online proof, printed materials are shipped directly to the client.

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Independent businesses provide meaningful service with a personal touch. It matters to them that you are satisfied and will come back again.

-www.LocalFirstAZ.com

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Flash is a wonderful tool to make a website more attractive, but clients need to be aware that there is a cost associated to such a feature. Flash is an animated component that is usually used as intro to a website, but can be implemented within web pages as well. Here is an example of a website with Flash: http://www.cavancommercial.com/.

It is hard to say how much more Flash can cost, but it can add anywhere from 10% to 30%, depending on how much is being created.

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Blowback is the practice of printing electronic documents to paper (blowing them back to tangible form). The typical scenario is when hardcopy documents are scanned, but then hard copies of the scanned electronic documents are needed.

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Independent businesses are unique enterprises that contribute to the character of our community by offering a more diverse selections of goods and services.

-www.LocalFirstAZ.com

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For a Consumer Data Mailing List, there are multiple geographic selections to choose from:

Zip Code, Zip Range, Carrier Routes, Radius, City, State, County, Multi-Location Radius, Area Code, Phone Prefix, DMA Code, Census Tract, CBSA.

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Some clients get put off by being asked about the quantity of their project. It could be that they feel the broker is judging them.

The fact is that quantity determines how a broker (that is to say, a good broker) is going to handle the job in a price competitive manner. Generally speaking, any job under 1000 units will be taken to an iGen printer (a color copier on steroids). Any job between 1,000 and 10,000 units will most likely be taken to an Offset printer (the most typical printing method). Then, any job over 10,000 units will most likely go to a Web printer, that specializes in high quantity and quality.

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Blighted empty shopping areas are created in your community when chain stores re-locate to a more lucrative shopping center, or leave altogether. Literally hundreds of big stores are abandoned each year across the United States.

-www.LocalFirstAZ.com

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If you are new to Design and the print industry, you may already know how frustrating it is to find the right software to keep up with the industry standards and know what each program is designed for since definitions tend to be very vague.

Adobe has long been the industry standard and become synonymous with print. While there are many programs available that offer similar features, sticking with Adobe products will ensure consistency with most print shops. That being said, knowing the differences between the programs and what they are designed for can save a lot of wasted time in preparing artwork. Below is a list of the 3 most commonly used Adobe programs as well as a brief description of each.

Adobe Illustrator:
Adobe Illustrator is a vector based program meaning it is designed to create line art graphics and drawings. It is great for creating logos, graphs, and intricate artwork with higher precision and execution than other programs. As long as the artwork was created in Illustrator (as opposed to being imported) it can be reduced/enlarged to any size without quality loss and the file will remain small. While it has some of the features that other programs have, it does not support them as well . For instance, it has effects and filters but they are much harder to manage and tend to make the file much larger than necessary. It also has type features but doesn’t support multiple pages so it is more complicated to create layouts.

Adobe Photoshop:
Adobe Photoshop is a raster based program. It is designed to apply effects and filters to existing artwork and photography. It is a very powerful program for creating realistic textures, artwork and effects and is equally as good for creating web graphics. Like Illustrator, it combines some of the features that the other programs have, but also like Illustrator, it does not support them as well. In order to achieve the quality and resolution of a vector image, the file could end up being 20x the size of a vector file, so it essential to know what the file will be used for before creating (ie; print or web). Once it has been created at a certain size, it cannot be enlarged without the quality suffering. It also does not support multiple page documents, simply because of the file size constraints.

Adobe InDesign:
Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing program which basically compiles and links artwork, graphics and text into one file. It is designed to layout single and multiple page documents for print. It has a preflight feature which diagnoses any issues you might have before sending to a printer. It also has a collect for output feature which collect all linked artwork and photos along with the file itself and fonts used into one folder. It supports style sheets, rules, page numbering, etc. As with the others, it has several outside features but does not support them as well.

In a nutshell, each program has similar features to the other programs, but is individually designed with one core function that works in tandem with the other programs. If used to their full potential, they will compliment each other rather than compete.

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