Sensor-ship

Relying on equipment can sometimes cause a headache, sometimes it can be the greatest aid in the world, sometimes it can hiccup into a cough and sometimes it can ruin a day. ..

Today I am very frustrated with our equipment.

I recently had a Xerox 550, Carmen, drop onto my floor (which is a whole other blog post for sure!) and we find that it runs well for about 2 weeks and then the silliest issue will causes us to be down.

Carmen must be scared of Friday the 13th because she jammed paper and I cleared it, played for a minute with my foster puppy and then she jammed again. I cleared her jam for a third time when Carmen  decided to left me this message: Close the Door/Cover.

I swear the door was closed, I opened the door and close it.. wait... message goes away... wait.. nope error back up: Close the Door/Cover.

I opened it and close it a little harder.. wait... message goes away... wait.. nope error back up: Close the Door/Cover.

I opened it and close it as evenly as possibly.. wait...error: Close the Door/Cover.

I opened the door and close softly.. wait...error: Close the Door/Cover.  ARGH!

How can the door NOT be closed??!!

About 10 minutes later I call Xerox for a service call because it clicked in my head that no matter how I close the door, the sensor is off somehow . I do feel sheepish as this is considered an 'easy fix', so I explained that the sensor must be off because I have worked for a while to try and fix this myself, reset, open/close soft, open/close hard, unplug cords, plug cords back in.. nope that darn error message stayed.  The guy on the other end of the phone looked up the error code and said,

"This is easy, you just have to close the door."

Oh THAT's what the message: Close the Door/Cover means... Um, please send over a technician, this issue is bigger than either of us.

Now I wait in my office watching time click by hoping that my tech makes it to my office on time as I do have a few projects that REALLY need to be completed.

oh sensorship!

Who needs You!

Just Click PRINT

Design. Approval. Separations. Paper. Ink. Negatives. Plates. Die lines. Equipment. Dry time. Heat. Cool. Foil. Thermo ink. Die cut. Emboss. Number. Perforation. Score. Lamination. Coating. Cutting. Punching. Gluing. Koiling. Stapling.

No less than 6 of these tasks  are needed for most jobs that are generally put through a print company. Most of us do not sit at our home computer waiting for your approval to hit PRINT on our desktop printer and then have the job magically completed within 10 minutes.

There are processes that are followed in order to have a finished product that you are happy to hand out.

Yes some digital projects are easy and yes click to print - however we still need paper, check to make sure it is straight, check colors and adjust if need be and check through the run to check registration or consistency, and we may even need to cut the project down.

However if you give approval for a printed job that consists of: Two sided printing, lamination, foil and a round corner, please do not hope to have the job within two working days. This project will take a lot more than two working days to complete because there are a lot of processes to fully complete:

1.Ordering  the paper, often times we like to order the paper beforehand while we are proofing still so that when we get approval it is on our shop floor, cut down to the run size.

2. We like to make sure the first side that is printed is fully dry before we attempt to print the back side. Ghosting and marking can sometimes occur which could ruin the job and we'd have to start over.

3. We want to make sure the second side is fully printed and dry before lamination because the lamination heat can sometimes cause issues with wet ink.

4. We wait to make sure the laminate is cured fully before we attempt to add heat for foil transfer. At this point in the project we don't want to rush and have an issue that would require us to start at the beginning.

5. Round corners are actually die cut so that we can make sure the curve is the same on every card rather than it being different throughout the box because of the way it was done.

5. Finally we cut the cards down and box them up for you.

RAD Printing knows that you may not fully understand the print industry, because if you did you probably wouldn't be ordering a project through us as you'd be working alongside us. However please do not assume that we are just waiting at our desktop computers waiting to hit the button: PRINT.

Any questions please ask us!

To Sacrifice One's Blood

The traditional definition of the word bleed is to sacrifice one's blood in battle or to feel anguish, pain, or sympathy. It is no wonder that people are always taken aback when I ask

"Does your file bleed?"

 In printing we deal with bleed on a daily basis when designing or dealing with paper - Paper Cuts can be nasty! But what we really mean when we ask you if your file bleeds is:

Does your image touch the edge of the paper?

If your image does, then Yes your file bleeds. BLEED requires us to have the IMAGE AREA bigger than the FINAL PAPER Size so that we can print on a larger sheet, cut down and not have white paper occasionally, printing is not an exact science and this allows a nice finished product.

 As you can see below BLEED tends to take away from the Photograph for the allowance - HOWEVER we could also use a Color Frame instead for bleed. NO BLEED allows us to print on the exact size of paper that you need without needing to cut down. There would be a paper color frame. Be aware that the photo will not be exact to the page size unless we crop or stretch it to be even.

Bleed happens in many forms, whether is it a line, shape or picture, there is an added cost to have bleed since there is a bigger sheet of paper most likely being used, make sure it is effective!
I would love to know: Does your business card Bleed?

Why Print?

Why Print?

I fell in love with print when I was a child reading books throughout the summer, I did not know I would remain that close to the printed word as a career. Partway through my grade 12 year at Lord Beaverbrook I was ahead of my fellow classmates on projects and was provided an opportunity to use a machine called: 360ABDick. As I printed the one color forms for the office my brain started asking: what else can be printed?

Answer: forms, business cards, signage, banners, letterhead, cards, books, handouts, binders, posters, calendars, post cards, newsletters, catalogues, phone books, flyers, menus, labels, stickers, coloring books, music sheets, newspapers, magazines, maps, charts, brochures, programs, cheques, greeting cards, diaries, yearbooks, organizers, journals, tickets, coupons, annual reports, DVD/CD Books and cases, bookmarks, comic books, manuals, directories, directions, stamps, certificates, napkins, ribbon, and More…

How can one NOT be excited about the possibilities of all those items? I caught a glimpse into How full color prints are produced and I KNEW I was in the right industry. Different sized dots or four colors, sometimes different if it is special, made any full color work; we refer to those colors as CMYK.

So with a list of over 40 items that pertain to the print industry.. How could I not be happy about being a part of this creative industry!!

Do you have any PRINT Related Questions, ask me and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
Have a RAINBOW Day!

Introductions

Hello! This is a new format for RAD Printing’s blogs and we wanted to say hello,welcome and HUZZAH!!
We are a Calgary based print company who enjoys educating our clients about the different print products and procedures that we can provide through our shop.

Encompassing offset, digital, letterpress and bindery – we’d like to think you can come to us with just about any project that we can produce for you. However if we cannot get it done for you, chances are one of our trusted partners will be able to!

RAD Printing supports the community as much as we can with discounts on printing, computer time, design or even donating the owners time to you and your events. Many of our clients are non-profits that we support through fundraisers, acknowledgement and education.

We have been a member of eWomen Networking since our beginning eight years ago and we have learnt important business tips from amazing speakers as well as met many of our valued clients through this group. RAD Printing offers a percentage off the print order to eWomen members.

Robin has recently decided she has wanted to become a foster home for puppies through Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS). They have a membership available that allows you to be kept current on their amazing efforts to help the surrounding areas calm the number of dogs and cats down. This membership includes a few perks from companies who are passionate about the AARCS message and recently RAD Printing became a part of the Member Deals. Become their member, show us your card and receive a discount – it’s that easy!

Look through our RAD RAVES to find out what our clients have been saying about us and we’d love to hear from you.

Do you have any PRINT Related Questions?
Have a RAINBOW Day!

What’s in a Logo?

When you are getting a logo created how much input do you share with the designer?

Details?

Just the jist to allow their creativity to flow?

Full blown direction how you want it to look?

No matter how much you share the Most Important part to share are all the applications you are going to use your logo on. You should stop to think about all of the possibilities at this stage so your designer can be prepared.

Are you designing your website first but want to print later? Make sure your designer saves a print quality version of your logo.

Are you going to want a promotional item with your logo or company name on there? Ask for a complicated design to have the ability to be ‘dumbed down’ for a one color print.

Are you going to want to advertise on a billboard? That requires a vector file format due to the enormous final size.

The basic rule is to make sure you are getting a vector file of your logo so that there are no resolution issues, color issues or sizing issues. Generally Adobe Illustrator is used to create a vector file as an ai or eps, however without the program you won’t be able to open it on your computer.

The best logos are created to perfection for each individual as well as carry versatility. It should look amazing as a full color logo plus amazing as a one color logo, this allows for way more possibilities for you and your logo.

Ask that you see the black and white option during the proofing to make certain it will work.

Happy Designing!