How to Prep Your Own Artwork for CAD-PRINTZ Printing
May/110
RGB Vs. CMYK Color Mode:
We make it easy for our customers by providing all the artwork you could ever imagine with Easy Prints® layouts and clipart, which the selection continues to grow each year. However, sometimes your customers provide their own artwork or maybe you have come up with some very nice artwork yourself. In these cases, one of the most common questions that re-occur has to do with the color mode of the artwork files. The color mode of your artwork file is basically the colors that your artwork is rendered in its end use. To determine which color mode you want, you must know your end use for the artwork. There are various color modes, while RGB and CMYK are the most common.
RGB (standing for Red, Green, Blue) is a color mode used by computer monitors, televisions, and any sort of electronic screen. All of the colors you see on the screen are actually made up of various combinations of tiny red, green and blue “boxes” known as pixels. This is also the color mode used by all internet graphics. If you are making any artwork for the web or any other project that will be viewed on a monitor, you would want to use RGB as the color mode.
However, RGB is not a color mode meant for printing. CMYK (standing for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black)) is the other main color mode which is meant for printing. By combining different percentages of the ink colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, a wide variety of other colors are created. This is the method used by your ink jet printer at home all the way to commercial printing presses. CMYK is also known as “full color”, “4-color” or “process color” printing. We use CMYK as the color mode to print all of our CAD-PRINTZ™. This includes all of the digital transfers, wall graphics, banners, stickers and window clings. If you try to print artwork that is RGB using CMYK, the colors will not be consistent and will most likely be very different from how they appear on your computer screen. Therefore, if you are sending us artwork for any CAD-PRINTZ™ product, we need the color mode in CMYK.
Changing the color mode of your artwork file depends on the computer application you are using. Please check your users guide for your particular application that you are using for details.
RGB and CMYK Color Model
How to Use Easy View™ to Create Examples for Your Customers
May/110
Easy View™ is a great online design tool we created specifically for our dealers to create designs for tshirts and more. Using Easy View™, you can search through our thousands of layouts and you control the ink colors, text, fonts, and clipart for each and every layout you choose! Even better, you can save the customized layouts you create to your own computer. Print or e-mail these personalized layouts to show your customers to help close the sale. Having examples is always a great selling feature to help your customers visualize their designs rather than leaving it up to them to try to picture it in their minds. Not only does it help speed up the sales process with your customers, it is quick and easy to learn and use!
HOW TO DO IT:
For example, your customer, the city of Mentor, is having their annual Memorial Day Parade. Using Easy View™, we will show you how you can sell them the designs for t-shirts and more for the parade, doing it all online!
First, log into our web site using your Dealer ID and Password. After logging in, you have full access to Easy View™. By clicking on the “Idea Book Layouts” tab at the top, you can search our thousands of layouts.
At this point, you have chosen several layouts that fit the parade, and now you are ready to customize the layouts.
When we click on the thumbnail version of layout QHL-52, it automatically goes to Easy View™. We have determined that the layout is sufficient for our needs and are only going to change the Line 3 text from COMPTON to MENTOR. We are choosing to keep the same typestyle and clipart.
For our ink colors, we will show them a 2 color ink design using white as the primary ink color and royal as the secondary. These will be going on red shirts. Then, we simply click the Easy View button and our customized layout emerges in the preview window.
An Easy View™ preview of Mentor Memorial Day Parade design using layout QHL-52
Now we will save this image so we can e-mail it to our customer. For PC users, we will right-click on our customized layout and select Save Picture As (MAC users will Control + click). Save the image with a name and location on your computer of your choice.
Right-click in the Easy View™ preview window to save your customized layout on your computer
Next, open your e-mail and click to open a new message. You may type your message before or after you attach the design for the parade. When you are ready to attach, most e-mail applications show a paperclip icon for attaching documents while also displaying some sort of text title. When you have found the attachment button, click to bring up the attachment dialog box. Browse your files until you find the saved parade design image.
Using the attachment button, click on your saved parade image to attach the file in the e-mail
You may attach as many images to your message as your e-mail provider will allow space for, some more and some less.
Tip: To create records of what you sent to the customer, click the “Printable” page for each design and print a copy for your records. You can also add these designs to your cart and “Save for later” when your customer decides on the design they want for their tshirts or other apparel.
It is that easy! You are now ready to send preview images to your customers with customized designs for their needs and events! Happy Easy View™-ing!
Print Your Own 4 color T-shirt in 4 Seconds in Columbus
Apr/110
The largest Midwest T-shirt printing show is this weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The show starts Thursday, April 7th and runs through Saturday, April 9th at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Show hours are 10 am-5 pm Thursday and Friday, and 10 am-3 pm on Saturday.
At the show you will be able to print a 4 color design on a FREE t-shirt in just 4 seconds. In addition, we will have hourly Number Races where two show attendees number 10 shirts 1-10 with Easy Prints numbers in just a few minutes, and the winner wins a $100 Transfer Express Gift Card.
There are also many show specials on heat presses, numbers and marketing kits so stop by booth 500!
Come by Booth #500 to see 4 Color Shirts Printed in Just 4 Seconds!
New Neon Colors added to Custom Transfer Possibilities
Oct/100
Neon Green Plastisol Transfer
If your customer is looking for bright colors, our new neon colors are just what you need. In addition to Neon Pink and Neon Blue, our Neon Green and Neon Yellow can be applied to any color apparel. We also have Neon Orange and Neon Lime that can be applied to dark colors as well but may have slight bleed in heavy ink coverage areas. Free samples are available to make sure the colors meet your needs.
Use one of our Easy Prints® layouts, or send us your artwork—just go bright!
How to Decorate Soccer Uniforms
Jul/100
QSO-58 on soccer uniform
Score this soccer season with increased soccer uniform sales.
Soccer teams will now be ordering for the fall season. We have hundreds of soccer designs your teams can choose from as well as the products to apply to these uniforms. Soccer uniforms are typically 100% polyester. All Transfer Express products will apply to this fabric. If they are labeled “dazzle polyester”, that is just a finish and will not effect the transfer application. One thing to watch for is “sublimated” 100% polyester. These still can be decorated with our Polytrans screen printed transfers, but you will need to order at least a 2 color print, with the dark color as the outline/background color to block the sublimated dye. For example, if you are using white ink on a red sublimated shirt, we recommend ordering white with a black outline.
Our digitally printed Cad-Printz™ are also great for soccer uniforms especially heart size crests that can be applied to almost any uniform. Cad-Printz ™ are full color so your teams can really stand out at a low cost this season.
Use Current Events for T Shirt Profits
Jun/100
Custom art
In the news recently, there have been many stories that have stayed on the front headlines for weeks which should mean dollar signs to t shirt business owners. In Cleveland and many other cities the front page headlines of sports pages for the past few months have speculated on the decision Lebron James faces about leaving the Cleveland basketball scene. If a story such as this has been in the headlines consistently over a period of time, there’s opportunity for t shirts to sell. Try to think outside of the box when designing a t shirt that relates to a current event. Simple lines of text such as “LBJ STAY” sell quickly!
The recent disaster in the Gulf has been the BP oil spill which will be on the minds of Americans for months and years to come. T shirt shops are already starting to profit off of funny t shirts that protest and raise awareness about the issue. Because of the cultural relevance witty sayings gain attention and appeal to today’s shoppers.
Using custom transfers allow you to be creative and offer designs that can be applied to different types of t shirts and sweatshirts of any size and color without sitting on inventory. Since these designs may not have been ordered by a group, you can store the transfer sheets until someone buys. Keep a few sizes in different colors and styles on hand for when customers come to you and make their decision. In just 4 seconds of application time, the screen printed transfer and be heat applied to the shirt!
Puff Screen Printed Transfers
Apr/100
Add a dimension to your printing with our new Puff transfers. Puff transfers are available in white or black puff, but these colors can be combined with our regular screen printed inks to really make your design stand out. The Puff screen printed transfers work best on bold designs since the enlarging of the ink closes up detailed designs. Puff also works best on fashion items rather than athletic wear that is wash and worn weekly. Use Puff with our Easy Prints® tshirt design ideas or send us your artwork.
Easy Prints® Layout CP-23 Kelly with White Puff
Puff enlarged view
Best Custom Transfer Ink Color for the Job
Apr/100
Plastisol Ink Colors
No, Shakespeare wasn’t really talking about custom transfer ink colors with the quote “A rose by any other name, would smell just as sweet’ but it does apply. Too often, it is easy to get caught up in the name of a color when what really matter is the color itself.
For example, if you want a bright pink color to be put on a black shirt, you may be drawn to the neon pink when our bubblegum pink would actually be a much brighter pink for the job.
Other colors that work better on dark colored shirts are yellow instead of neon yellow, orange instead of neon orange, mid blue instead of neon blue and celery instead of neon green. The colors with the neon name are very bright on white shirts or when a white outline is added to put on dark shirts, but alone are not the best choice.
Another color names that can be confusing is cardinal or scarlet—is a stop sign red needed (our red) or a light maroon (our burgundy) and khaki—is beige, natural or cream what you really need.
So how do you know? All of our colors that have a corresponding pantone match are listed with this number. So if you have a Pantone chart the chart can be used. An even more useful tool is our ink color selector. This is a “paint strip” like chart showing all of the actual colors so the name really won’t matter at all.
What is Clip Art?
Feb/100
Clip art for customizing Easy Prints® layout
Clip art is ready made art that can be used to create your custom transfers. At Transfer Express, we offer thousands of clip art to help create your custom print ready to apply to your apparel.
The clip art is categorized online and in the Idea Book™. We offer general shapes, mascots, animals, occupations, and sports to name a few of the categories. To find what you are looking for use our clip art search. To find the best results in our search, enter the simplest part of the description you would call the clip art you are looking for. Example: Search for “glasses” instead of sun “glasses” or “bee” instead of “bumble bee”.
Our clip art can be added to an Easy Prints® layout, with text or used alone. It can ordered in just one color or as many colors as you like. If using just one color, what you see in black will be the color you select. If you want to add colors, just let us know what colors are needed and where they should be placed. To order clip art alone – use the layout QAL-CLIP when ordering online.
With thousands of clip art choices, any layout can be made custom for your specific need. The choices are endless….
Don’t forget about selling those St. Patrick’s Day shirts. We have shamrock clip art too!
Ink Formula Focus: Hot Split Screen Printed Transfers
Dec/090
QAL-262 - Burgundy & White
The Hot Split ink formula has been around since the start of Transfer Express and has grown to a very popular formula used by many of our dealers. It’s our softest feel and lightest transfer when applied to apparel so you can see why it is used by so many.
To get down to the characteristics of the ink formula itself, a Hot Split transfer is screen printed using plastisol ink. Just like it’s counterpart Goof Proof® it is literally screen printed onto a release paper that allows it to peel “like butter” when applied with a heat press. It “splits” from the paper when peeled “hot”. Hence the name! It’s a simple product, (ink on paper) but it packs a punch in its qualities.
So try out a sample of Hot Split if you haven’t already and see why we call it our softest feel transfer.
