Probably the most important mission we have with our clients is to keep them educated and aware of the latest technology in the signage world. We have a passion for helping people achieve their goals as we really believe the first step is to learn how it is done.
Color is one of the most important parts of any sign. We are dedicated to providing you not only the most vibrant colors we can, but to match the color you need, whether a corporate logo or from a picture. Watch this video below to get an inside look at how we reproduce colors from our Roland Versacamm 540 Digital Printer.
Definitions:
Vector Graphics: Vector images (or graphics) are also called object oriented graphics. The art is constructed of points, lines, curves, shapes and are infinitely scalable with no loss of clarity. Vector graphics are made in programs such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Due to the fact that they are scalable, they are the preferred file type when producing your images. Typically file types are as follows: .ai, .cdr, .eps, .fs. These files can contain both vector and raster images (see below).
Raster Graphics: Images that are pixel based are called raster images, basically photos, pictures etc. Raster images have thousands of little dots of different colors to create an image. These images can be enlarged but will pixelate (become ragged, blurry, or distorted) is possible. Raster images are made in programs such as Adobe Photoshop and CorelPaint. Typically file types are as follows: .tiff, .jpg, .bmp, .gif.
Resolution: This is the density of dots in a raster graphics or image. Usually displayed as ppi (pixels per inch). Clarity of a raster image is dependant on the resolution, the higher the resolution the better the image, typically. Monitors display images at 72 PPI, but to achieve a quality print 300 PPI is needed for print. Once an image is changed to a lower PPI setting, increasing this number does not bring the quality back. Once reduced, image information is lost although tricks do exist in producing quality results from smaller images with varied results.
PPI: Pixels per inch
DPI: Dots per inch
PPI vs. DPI: DPI (Dots per inch) is commonly used in place of PPI (pixels per inch). Pixels are displayed on monitors, dots are what are what printers output to media such as vinyl and paper. A pixel is square and a dot is round. Pixels have defined edges and a single color, dots are single color as well but can overlap to produce many different colors. Many dots can be placed to create a single pixel.
PMS (Pantone): PMS stands for Pantone Matching System.
