The value of the 5th color

When you see a color brochure, pocket folder or newsletter, you may not realize all that is involved with printing these pieces in such vivid and accurate detail. Perhaps your company has a very specific blue or green that you use in your logo, online and throughout your print. In the printing industry, we use a color matching system called Pantone Matching System, or PMS. This allows us to specify spot colors by a number or name, ensuring that they are matched pretty precisely with our ink.

When this gets tricky is when we’re printing a four-color piece, which uses “process colors” or colors that utilize a ratio of each element in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to produce all the colors used in the design. In cases where matching a certain PMS color is critical and we are printing out of four-color process, we would suggest adding a fifth color from PMS. Then your piece prints in C, M, Y, K and that specified PMS color.

To give you an example, we print a five-color newsletter for one of our clients whose company’s blue is PMS 300. It’s important within their branding standards that PMS 300 blue be properly represented in all printed pieces, so we not only print this newsletter in four color process, but we also add in PMS 300 as a fifth color to ensure that the areas printing their blue match precisely.

Have more questions about when to add a fifth color? Contact your sales rep or CSR today to ask for more information. As always, we’re here to guide you through the process!

Don’t be laid out by your files | File Preparation

Are you stuck in your page layout program? Does it feel like a foreign adventure for you to layout your book or your business card? Do you fear that you have made a mess you can’t recover from? Call us - we can help! We are familiar with almost all design-related software and can assist in most circumstances to get your file ready for print, or take what you’ve started and turn it into the masterpiece you were striving for.

We recently had a client working in PageMaker who had never used that program before. She was worried that she messed up her page layout to the point of no return. Upon meeting with her, we were able to put her at ease and offer some coaching. Sometimes an experienced eye is all it takes when a computer program is making you feel like you are on another planet. Use us as a resource to help you in preparing/building your next file for print!

Beyond assisting with troublesome files, we also offer a full array of design services to take your project from a simple idea to a creatively designed piece. Ask your sales rep or CSR for more information today!

Large and In Charge!

The effects of over-sized marketing can be seen far and wide, helping to bring your brand into view even from a distance. We have a variety of large format print options to choose from.

These options provide:

• high-quality, versatile wide-color gamut capability including white and silver
• printing on clear film, vinyl, canvas, photographic paper and most popular substrates
• a guarantee for up to three years outdoors without lamination.
• ultra-smooth gradations and transitions through the use of light inks in conjunction with CMYK
• creative options and market appeal without compromising your budget.

Communicate your message in style, using vivid colors, solid whites and a range of special metallic effects!

The array of uses for attention-grabbing is wide:

• full-color posters
• indoor and outdoor banners
• window clings and graphics
• floor and ground graphics
• pop-up and trade show displays
• outdoor signage
• feathers and sails
• product prototypes
• wayfinding signage
• vehicle wraps and graphics
• wall and building murals

Give your sales rep or CSR a call today for big ideas you can use to enhance your current marketing campaigns!