[palmimports]

Heres some information to keep in the back of your head when ordering labels- stickers- inlays- ( same thing)

1- a GOOD laser printer and GOOD paper will yield an excellent label provided artwork is good. If artwork isnt good this process will compensate better then any other process.
( cons are: paper lables will NOT hold up- period)

2- a GOOD Vector art file at 72dpi will print as good as a 300dpi raster file.
try and work with fonts and text thats vector and not bitmap(raster)
3- Vinyl labels with lamination should last indefinately
4- Gloss lamination yeilds the best clarity albeit its the softest and can easily be gauged by fingernails
5- polycarbonate lamination is tough, rigid and makes application a breeze.
cons are: artwork should be REAL crisp as the polycarbonate lamination will definately cause a reduction in resolution
6- permanent adhesive vinyl becomes permanent in time--- after a few months theyre on the chip solid
7- most vinyl is 2-2.5 mil, most lamination is 2-3 mil. Poly is almost 5 mil
Add this all up and you need a decent depth of recession to your chip otherwise forget stacking them.
8- Paulsons and most BCC chips cannot accept poly lamination. THe shallow depth precludes use of too thick a material. Same goes for most AM chips
9-Sometimes images will appear on chips as if theyre not perfectly cut. Most times.. the chip is not perfectly round. Especially if its a China chip.
10- Some Nexgen chips-- same series different color- will have a slightly different chip diameter. Not much different- but enough to notice.
ESPECIALLY true with the Pro Clays
11- Design artwork at actual size-- if you shrink a design done at 8 inches round down- image quality suffers. Work in the same approximate size your file is being printed at.
12- Adobe RBG 1998 is a good generic profile to use. If using photoshop or Illustrator- assign this profile to the file.
13- not all chips can be precisely color matched. VInyl and inkjet printers- while using CMYK as ink- are actually an RBG printer. The color gamut ( ability to reproduce a wide range of colors) is not as vast as the number of colors available on chips.
14- if your making a one inch round image to be printed- make your document size or canvas size one inch. Keep everything the same and dont put your artwork in a larger box. Printers hate this
15- small text isa pain to print clearly- even on 30,000.00 printers. Bigger fonts print better.
16- avoid yellow text on black backrounds.
17-avoid when possible fully saturated colors and artwork-- when alot of ink goes on vinyl- if its not VERY VERY dry when laminated shrinkage occurs.
18- even though shrinkage occurs- its almost impossible to measure HOW MUCH actual shrinkage will occur. A logo on a white backround will be more accurate then a pure black backround with the same logo .
19- the new ecosol inks, while smudgeproof- smudge.
20-if buying vinyl images and you have a real small font and cannot change this- request CAST vinyl-- it has a much better and finer porous surface then normal vinyl and will reproduce the text crisper.
Also- when text readability is paramount- use gloss lamination


Hope this helps

[machinelf]

Thanks for the PERLS of wisdom, Joe.

Questions/Comments:

Originally Posted by palmimports

2- a GOOD Vector art file at 72dpi will print as good as a 300dpi raster file.

This is slightly misleading--vector artwork isn't made of pixels (that's what makes up raster artwork), so it's never ANY "dpi." I only mention this so folks won't be looking around for what "dpi" their Inkscape or Illustrator files are.

Originally Posted by palmimports

VInyl and inkjet printers- while using CMYK as ink- are actually an RBG printer.

Can you explain this a bit more, Joe? If an Epson (say) printer is using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks, how/why do you consider it an "RGB printer"?

Originally Posted by palmimports

14- if your making a one inch round image to be printed- make your document size or canvas size one inch. Keep everything the same and dont put your artwork in a larger box. Printers hate this

Can you add some info about bleed to this spec?

Thanks!

[palmimports]

Originally Posted by machinelf

Thanks for the PERLS of wisdom, Joe.

Questions/Comments:



This is slightly misleading--vector artwork isn't made of pixels (that's what makes up raster artwork), so it's never ANY "dpi." I only mention this so folks won't be looking around for what "dpi" their Inkscape or Illustrator files are.



Can you explain this a bit more, Joe? If an Epson (say) printer is using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks, how/why do you consider it an "RGB printer"?


Can you add some info about bleed to this spec?



Thanks!

your right- slightly misleading but alot of people use a combination of raster AND vector-- but thanks for the clarification

Simply put- most printers are RBG devices which use cmyk ink and not true CYMK devices such as a printing process using color separation

WHen we cut an image we like a bleed area-- this ensures when the image file is cut were not leaving a white area -- so bleed or full bleed ensures this-- the bleed area will not be part of the cut sticker