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Pimp Out Your Postcard

When is a postcard more than a postcard?  99% of the postcards sent are just ink on paper – nothing fancy, just a plain and simple postcard (not that there is anything incorrect with that).  But a postcard can be a lot more that just a rectangular piece of cardstock with 4 color ink.  Let’s examine some of the ways to modify (or as my 15 year ancient nephew would say, “Pimp Out”) a postcard to give it that extra something.

Scratch-Off – A Scratch-Off is exactly how it sounds, you place a Scratch-off circle or square on the postcard.  The Scratch-Off can cover a static piece of information or variable data.  You see this a lot on Postcards sent out by the automotive industry.  A Scratch-Off is a excellent thought because it gets the consumer involved and it gives the card value.  Have a call to action connected with the Scratch-Off.

Scratch-N-Sniff – If you want to make an interest in your mailer, add a Scratch-N-Sniff component to your card.  If you own a business like a bakery, well then it is obvious what the smell will be.  But Scratch-N-Sniff isn’t limited to just business like a florist or a candy retailer.  A hotel that was near the ocean could have that smell or if the hotel offered a free breakfast, place a coffee smell on the card.  You just have to use your imagination.  And nearly everyone who receives the card will give it a try (sometimes more than once if it is a fantastic smell).  Plus they will remember your company for using such an innovative attention-grabber.

Diecut – There are two ways to use a diecut to modify your card, neither is cheap but one doesn’t affect your postage in a negative way and the other will probably triple your postage rate.  The expensive way is to diecut your postcard into an odd sized shape.  The most well-known instance of this was when Krispy Kreme doughnuts made a card in the shape of an open box of doughnuts.  The response rate for this mailing was phenomenal, but the cost was also phenomenal.  The cost to print your card is more expensive, the cost for mailing services is more expensive and your postage is a LOT more expensive..  A less expensive alternative is to use a diecut double postcard, where half of the card is diecut but it folds into a half that is rectangular so that the finished card still maintains a rectangular size.  You can do a lot of clean things with this, and while the printing will cost you more than a regular postcard, your postage rate won’t be any more expensive.  WARNING – you must have your design approved by the USPS, so before you print, have a mail design specialist give you written permission for this card.

Perforation – Sure, perforation isn’t as “sexy” as the other ways to enhance your card, but it may be one of the most effective.  Perforate coupons on your card to give the card value.  Have the coupons with different dates on them and make sure you make them redeemable.  That will keep the card in the hands of the consumer longer than just having a card with coupons that don’t need to be redeemed.

Combo – Try mixing it up with more than one of these additions…the sky’s the limit.

Please visit us at www.GagePress.com with your questions and comments. 

Why You Should Buy The Pantone Huey

There are several different types of monitor color calibration systems in the world. But, the Pantone huey deserves a special place among them thanks to its brilliant features and high performance. Another fantastic thing with this device is that it is very cost effective and it can save up to 20 percent of the cost that you have to otherwise spend. There are several benefits of this device which includes the color control, portability, and the ease of use.

But, the Pantone huey pro has all these features along with the enhanced level of functionality ideal for the professional photographers. The Huey Pro has several other features that are especially designed for the professionals. This includes the control over the contrast and brightness of the calibration. Also, there are separate menus for the selection of gamma and white point settings.

These are very vital to ensure accurate color which is one of the most essential parts of photography. In fact, professionals consider the monitor calibration as vital as putting the memory card inside the camera. But, the fantastic thing with the pantone huey is that it is very simple to set up the programs once you load the software. The loading too, takes not more than a minute.

When you open the program you will be guided in every step leading eventually to the entire process of calibration. The first step in this direction is the measurement of the ambient lighting. In this regard, it is vital to ensure that the huey sensor is plugged on in the USB port of the computer. As you click the next, it will activate the measurement of the room light. With the help of LEDs, you can easily track the progress.

When you buy the package, you will be given installation CD that will have drivers for both the Mac OS and Windows XP. Also, it will have desktop cradle, huey colorimeter, Klear screen monitor cleaning wipes as well as the quick start guide. Now, if you are going to install the software, you can do it easily by following the quick start guide. First of all, you have to clean the screen with the help of the Klear screen wipes.

The entire process of installation takes about 19 seconds and you have to reboot the system after the installation is complete. After restarting, you have to connect the huey to the computer with the USB cable extension. The huey should be placed in such a way that it is facing you. Now, it will read the ambient room light. Once that is done, it will question you to attach the huey to the screen.

See a rare behind-the-scenes look at Pantone and the development of the new PANTONE PLUS SERIES, the next generation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM. Visit www.pantone.com for more information.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Digital Print on Canvas

Canvas prints are innovative means of decorating home and corporate interiors. Digital print on canvas is a smart option for art lovers who wish to decorate the walls of their homes with aesthetically appealing canvas prints.

Your favorite photos, paintings and artwork can be easily made into canvas prints at a reliable digital printing company. In case you don’t have images or artwork to be printed, you can make a choice from the variety of designs these companies provide. The images of your choice are directly transferred to the canvas that absorbs the printing ink, retaining the original quality of the image. To highlight the images, it is mounted on to a glassless frame or a wooden board. You can opt for the size of the prints as well.

Digital art prints are wonderful gift options for your friends and near ones. A photo, poster, slide or a fine artwork easily transferred on to canvas can be personalized to give away as a cherished gift. You can opt for the design, medium and the colors to be used in your prints.

Most of the digital printing companies utilize advanced equipment to bring about brilliant printing results. The scanners and printers involved in canvas printing help to transform photos, artworks or images into top quality prints. Since the printouts are prone to fading, water resistant inks are used for printing images.  As a result, the digital prints on canvas last longer.

As canvas printing is the most convenient, affordable and simplest way of printing available, it is highly well loved among the home decorators, artists and photographers these days. Digital prints on canvas will certainly contribute to enhance your interior décor, making your home or workplace a much loved space.

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Different functionalities and capabilities of a Portable Document Format(PDF)

A Portable Document Format is a non-editable computer application as a self-contained cross-platform file format. This means that this file format is independent of any other hardware, software or operating system for running or accessing on any kind of system. A user can access and view this document on any system irrespective of its configuration. A PDF file can also be converted from one format to another with ease and convenience. You can select from a variety of computer programs by which one can convert a PDF file format.

There are many organizations such as commercial enterprises, non-profit institutes, educational institutes, legal firms, government departments and many more that use Portable Document Format for the purpose of managing voluminous data. A PDF document is deployed for storing, retrieving and safeguarding information. You can encrypt the content of the documents for the purpose of protecting the data. You can disable the feature of copying, editing, viewing or printing the file. This equips a user to keep the information intact and secure from any kind of hurt or from an attempt of unauthorized tampering. You can even integrate multimedia content into a Portable Document Format files. These documents contain compression algorithms that can compress the size of the graphics, audio-video content or animation. With the help of state-of-art computer programs, a person can even copy or use the graphics or text from a Portable Document Format file. Convert the scanned PDF files into editable text with these PDF Converter tools and start using the most invaluable data for a constructive purpose. One can also use these same computer programs for the purpose of enabling the feature of copying the data in a Portable Document Format file. You can copy the content with ease and then use it elsewhere, let’s say, for making projects, reports, dissertations, presentations and other such documents. All these are the capabilities and functionalities of a PDF file format.

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Desktop Publishing Growing Field In Outsourcing

Desktop publishing or DTP is the term applied to the process of making and publishing professional-looking documents using microcomputers. It is the process of using the computer and certain types of software to combine text graphics in order to produce documents such as newsletters, brochures, books, maps, etc.- basically any kind of document that produces in visual communication. The Software which is used for in Desktop Publishing is simple to use, so it is used by wide range of people who doesn’t have experience in this field.

Use of special programs running on personal computers to design and print professional-quality documents. These programs help the user with layout design; the insertion of photographs, sketches, or graphics; many various typefaces; and the use of multiple input files so that any individual with a personal computer can produce customized documents to suit specific advertising or marketing needs.
It involves in scanning and capturing the photographs, images or arts as digital data which can be further edited with the use of computer software.

With the help of desktop publishing we can make an entire newspaper, book page, catalog complete with artwork and graphics on the screen exactly and the same will appear in print. DTP is occupying the position of typesetters and page layout workers. Desktop Publishing has a fantastic advantage it consumes lower cost.

Following are advantages of Desktop Publishing (DTP) Services :

• You can import images into a DTP document from a scanner, graphics from a drawing package, frames from a video camera and text from a word processor to edit.
• Desktop publishing software allows the user to rearrange text and graphics on screen, before finally committing a design to paper.
• Using Desktop Publishing we can control the complete final product.
• desktop publishing saves money
• We can make changes easily.

Use of a personal computer to perform publishing tasks. DTP allows an individual to combine text, numerical data, and graphic elements in a document that can be output on a printer or a phototypesetter. Text and graphic elements are commonly made or manipulated with several separate software programs and then combined with a page-makeup program. Powerful DTP programs offer full-featured graphics capabilities.

LUDA’S DTP AND 50′S G-UNIT IN A ALL OUT WAR

Chief Architect Releases Version X3 of Design Software
Chief Architect, Inc. announced the release of version X3 of the company’s interior design software. Chief Architect Interiors handles all aspects of interior, kitchen and bath design for residential projects.
Read more on Kitchen and Bath Business

Intergraph(R) CADWorx(R) Webinar on July 22 to Discuss CADWorx Plant Professional
HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwire – July 16, 2010) – Intergraph has scheduled a webinar on July 22, at 12:00 noon CDT, that will include an overview of CADWorx Plant Professional, the world’s most widely used AutoCAD®-based piping design software. The program has revolutionized the plant design industry with its ease of use, flexibility, interconnectivity, and scalability. The webinar will cover the …
Read more on Marketwire

Intergraph(R) CADWorx(R) Webinar on July 22 to Discuss CADWorx Plant Professional
HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwire – 07/16/10) – Intergraph has scheduled a webinar on July 22, at 12:00 noon CDT, that will include an overview of CADWorx Plant Professional, the world’s most widely used AutoCAD-based piping design software. The program has revolutionized the plant design industry with its ease of use, flexibility, interconnectivity, and scalability. The webinar will cover the CADWorx …
Read more on Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance

Photoshop Quick Mask Mode: Power Selection with a Difference

Quick Mask Mode is a widely used image background removal technique in Adobe Photoshop software ever used in corporate graphic design platform. This image editing tool can answers to most complex graphic designing endeavor. The selection tool of Quick Mask Mode available in Adobe Photoshop can do all possible complex image editing job. It can mask a desired part of a digital image. It is mostly used for minute and accurate selections. It is a better choice compared to the Magic Lasso Tool.

Adobe Photoshop is in fact the sole software that plays a vital role in the corporate graphic design platform. Photoshop is a wonder image editing tool and answers to most complex graphic designing endeavor. Adobe Photoshop has gained much popularity and precedence in graphic design service worldwide for its user friendliness showing endless possibilities in manipulating any form of digital image.
Quick Mask Mode is one of the widely used selection tools available in Adobe Photoshop chosen to do complex image editing job. Quick Mask tool is used to mask a desired part of a digital image. It is mostly used for minute and accurate selections. According to expert graphic designers, Quick Mask Tool is considered as a better choice compared to the Magic Lasso Tool.
How Quick Mask tool operates? Open your photo in Adobe Photoshop and click on the Quick Mask button in the toolbar for working with it. Don’t forget to ensure that your paint color is set to black. When you start to paint on your photo, you will see red strokes. This is your quick mask. Clicking Quick Mask button, you will notice the red area is encircled by marching ants like feature. When you need to edit your selection, just click Quick Mask button the second time and start to erase or edit the desired part of the image.
You will get a variety of options in Quick Mask Mode which completely fits into the requirements of any graphic designer. You can use Paint brush with hard edge as well as brushes of all size available here to edit your photo. You will get the freedom to use filter or effect on your selected area. You can drag the selection with go tool on different file. This selection you get is the one without background and can be placed on any desired background. Thus Photoshop Quick Mask Mode facilitates a graphic designer do a lot through its advanced features. The result is simply incredible!

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Printing.com experiences “softer” June
LONDON (SHARECAST) – Printing.com will tell shareholders at today’s AGM in Manchester that business continues to “undulate” and has been “slightly softer” than in April and May.
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Local printing company wants to help non-profits
TUCSON – One local printing company wants to give back to an area non-profits. Allegra Print and Imaging is holding a contest for their “Foot Print Fund”. All non-profits just need to apply.
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Printing Management Software consolidates and standardizes.
SafeCom Smart Printing helps financial and IT managers consolidate, standardize, and centrally control printing operations to simplify working patterns. Thus companies can reduce number of print servers as well as include remote offices. Ready-to-print documents are stored locally on user’s computer until authentication, which can take place at any network MFP or printer. Support is also …
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Printing house in Cairo catches fire
A printing house in downtown Cairo caught fire early Wednesday, Egyptian media reported. Firefighters are still struggling to quench the fire to prevent it from spreading towards adjacent buildings, the official MENA said, without mentioning whether there were casualties.
Read more on People’s Daily

Screen Printing in Book Binding and effects of design – screen printing – silk screen printing industry, especially

Screen Print In addition to the traditional printed circuit boards, signs, printing and dyeing and other industrial applications, but also widely used in packaging the publishing industry, the book packaging, multi-resin using offset printing and letterpress printing, screen printing process really in very early in the book binding applications Book Binding abroad often use screen printing spot-color and four-color process production, spot color screen printing ink with its strong, simple and bright, clear theme of the bureau, four-color screen printing with its network rugged, bright colors, rich three-dimensional characteristics, In the past, awareness of domestic Screen Printing have misconceptions that the process backward, inefficient, universal coverage was not enough other reasons, there is small net book binding and printing products to market, but with the screen printing process of development and progress, semi-automatic, fully automatic the popularity of alternative network printer inefficient manual, the same books on foreign products with screen printing binding process and to draw on, coupled with the pursuit of Bookbinding is a new, weird, unique, and also from the multi-volume printing to 5000 1000 List the following main factors to screen printing in book decoration is unique, with the offset and letterpress printing to compete, from the well loved UV Screen Printing glazing binding books is evident. In addition to the local screen printing UV, there are all kinds of pearlescent, fluorescent, frothing, grinding, etc. Special Ink Screen Printing binding books.

If the book focus on the internal content (text, images), and binding is a book jacket, is to attract readers to buy the first element, the binding works fine from design to production on the city because of its uniqueness, impressed readers, computer art and graphic design for an increasingly wide range of applications, people engaged in graphic design a lot, but if the only focus on graphic design and concept, even the best works to see more, also makes dull Instead a simple composition, but somewhat innovative printing process works, give you that refreshing feeling, but the screen printing process can apply a wide variety of new materials, are suitable for people to pursue personal and aesthetic innovation, and screen printing process also uses a computer pre-press publishing system designed just printing process has its characteristics, it is designed to give full consideration to this point, only the perfect combination of design and technology to produce high quality products.

1, screen printing book binding process

1. Import image files Material to be produced with the original, comp into computer production, import equipment available: Image Resource CD, digital cameras and video cameras, scanners.

2. Edit and save If you need to design in the computer typesetting work through various images, graphics software, make and save the work, the commonly used applications: Photoshop, Painter, PHOTO-PMNT (raster image processing software), Illustrator;, Freehand, CorelDraw, Founder Hua Yuan (vector drawing software), PageMaker, Founder soar, Mongolia and Thailand 5.0, Wen Yuan Ge 6.0 (graphic layout layout software) and all kinds of 3D design tools (3D; MAX, MAYA).

3. Mobile data General design printing company did not laser photo-typesetting system, they need a mobile storage to solve the problem of the disks, floppy disk capacity as small in the practical work has been rarely used, only text, graphics and other small documents, common mobile a USB memory storage medium (U Disk), CD? R, CD? RW, M0 CD, external hard drives and the use of network online transmission of data, such as via ICQ, OICQ online transmission or E? mail, FTP, etc., can also be logged out of the server chip manufacturers.

4. Film Output Design in the works by a excellent show after the first examination with the reference “standard print chromatography” check color value, (Note: print chromatography in four colors and spot color two) and then check for color printer output error, the file by the According to different types of studio output into a single color, two-color, four colors, or other multi-color spot color film, attention should be just as Zhengyang chart or graph is overcast, the membrane facing the film.

5. Proofing A excellent film, after the printing plate sample by comparison with the original, right and incorrect color and whether it meets the requirements of subsequent printing processing.

6. Print Proofing by proof-reading is right, meet customer requirements finalized after the formal printing, printing color printing accuracy should be strictly monitored to meet quality requirements.

7. Post-processing View of part of the binding and screen printing process required in the printing process after the coating, according to the technical requirements of overlay, or combination of Stamping , Type version of embossing technology production, the final cross-section indentation treatment.

8. Binding Binding process is the last part of book production, binding a number of ways, according to the different needs of paperback books and hardcover books can be divided into two major categories, soft cover paperback book in paper-based, it is more well loved, inexpensive binding (including: wire-bound , flat book-binding, saddle stitching, threading saddle stitching, threading plastic equipment, plastic equipment, mechanical equipment, loose leaf equipment, etc.), hardcover books, process complexity, high cost, but durable, simple to save, multi-purpose tool, collection of books, high-grade picture album, etc.. Sub-hard surface and soft surface hardcover hardcover two categories. Of course, what kind of material used and the binding mode is also pre-press design can not be ignored.

2009 special printing industry, China’s top ten selection screen voting hot in … …

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Limited edition Goonies four color (CMYK) process screen printing on white and black T-shirts for The Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, VA. Design and Printing by: www.kingscreen.com T-Shirts available at http

Runtime Error In Quark Xpress – Fixing Tip !

If you don’t know what to do to fix a runtime error in Quark Xpress then i will let you in on the simplest way to do so so you can stop worrying and get back to work! This annoying problem is all too common; it happens that most often the problem starts in one precise segment of your system. Help is on the way! and really in a matter of a few small minutes you will have rid your pc of these frustrating errors.

Click here to fix a runtime error in Quark Xpress now!

The windows system of your computer is technologically advanced, but regrettably, a common link between such sophisticated systems is that they are vulnerable. One of the areas most prone to malfunction in your windows system is the registry, this component is likely to be likely the cause of your pc’s malfunctioning. A simple process to maintain the registry in excellent working order purges your computer of ongoing errors and stops others before they start.

You should do a scan of the windows system’s registry so that you can properly fix a runtime error in Quark Xpress as well as other recurring system problems. It can be a very hard process to try by yourself, so it’s generally not advisable to go that way. An effortless and reliable way to go to resolve a problematic registry is to download and use an simple-to-use repair program. This software is called a “registry fixer,” and has a very useful application – and that is scanning, detecting, and cleaning faulty windows registry systems.

It is highly advised for anyone who has to fix a runtime error in Quark Xpress to quickly scan their and repair their registry by employing one of these powerful registry software. Most of these error cleaning applications provide no-cost computer scans – so you want to try one out, risk-free. While you’re exploring the tool options, first be sure to find out if you can continue to scan and fix on an automatic regular basis so that you can work without the hassle of error messages. Excellent registry cleaners are a snap to install and run – with just a quick download, you’ll be able to do away with your error problems. That’s not all – these fixers will not only cure your pc of these errors – but also a number of other pc issues that might be lurking in your computer somewhere. You’re now aware of what is causing these troubles and what to do about it, take the plunge and install one of these programs – you won’t need more than that.

Courtesy of Plaidstallions.com, an episodes of the Buck Henry made sitcom “Quark” which stars RIchard Benjamin, Conrad Janus, Tim Thomerson and a guest appearance by Ross Martin.