Thursday 10 November 2011

FREE Personalised Print Samples

Personalised and branded materials are an integral part of business communication and with so many disc print choices available today it's important to make sure your print finish reflects the value of your disc's content and gives your customers and users a lasting positive impression.

Professionally printed discs can also demonstrate the importance and sensitivity of the data they contain and protect your intellectual property through clear branding and informative text.


Here at CD Team we're proud of the quality print we offer, so whether you're considering buying a disc duplication and print solution for in-house use or saving resources by using our competitive services why not see the results for yourself. Just send us your artwork and we'll send you a FREE inkjet or thermal personalised print sample*. Alternatively your Account Manager can arrange for you to visit our production area so you can bring your artwork with you for a live demonstration!

Call 01491 63 63 73 and request your free sample today.

To help you get the most out of your design, logos and images our in-house graphics specialist has published two informative articles on our blog:

Colour Matching
One of the most difficult tasks involved in printing disc and packaging artwork is colour matching. Many things can affect the way that colours appear and sometimes it is not possible to reproduce your intended colours 100%. What you see on your screen is never identical to the finished printed product. Click here to find out more.

Guidelines for Providing Disc Artwork
We are often asked how we would like artwork supplied to us to ensure the best quality output for a project. Whilst we can work with many different types of files to create print-ready artwork, some file types are less useful and can actually lead to a lower quality print finish. Click here to find out more.

Author: Richard Dearing, Managing Director

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.

Guidelines for Providing Disc Artwork

We are often asked how we would like artwork supplied to us to ensure the best quality output for a project. Whilst we can work with many different types of files to create print-ready artwork, some file types are less useful and can actually lead to a lower quality print finish.

We understand that our customers do not always have access to the latest design software and need to supply images to us as flat .jpg (or similar) files - as long as the images are of a high enough resolution we can use them.

Please bear in mind that your PC screen and many cameras will only give you a resolution of 72dpi (dots per inch) whereas we print at 300dpi. This means that a 72dpi image can only be reproduced at around a quarter of its original size.

Call 01491 636373 or click here to find our more.

When you send us your files please add the original file to your email or disc. Do not embed the image in any other document such as a Microsoft Word file. This can lead to a loss of quality as some of the image data is not retained by the software.

Most jobs will be printed using CMYK Process colours. If you cannot convert your file from screen display (RGB) to print (CMYK) don’t worry, we can do that for you. However in some circumstances this can lead to minor colour changes to your supplied artwork.

Please remember to add bleed to your artwork if it reaches to the edges of the disc surface. This means that you need to extend your supplied artwork by 3mm over each edge. This is to ensure that no white lines are seen around the hub or outer edge of your disc when it is printed. We would also be grateful if you removed any hub or edge lines that you have added to size up your artwork before you send it to us.

Here are some general guidelines to follow when creating and supplying your artwork:
  • Please provide your artwork images at a minimum of 300dpi resolution.
  • Please ensure all images are linked and fonts embedded. Alternatively, please convert any fonts to outlines before sending.
  • If possible, please supply layered working files or vector graphics rather than flattened images.
  • The majority of print jobs will be printed CMYK; therefore it is important that your file is set up in CMYK unless you have requested a pantone match print. Any linked or embedded picture images (.jpgs etc) should be supplied as CMYK files rather than RGB.
  • Please allow an extra 3mm of bleed on all edges of your artwork.
  • Where possible please remove any outlines, guides or circles to represent the disc hub. Simply supplying your final disc artwork as a 120mm x 120mm square is fine.
And don’t forget – If you have any questions just pick up the phone and ask us. We are always happy to help you with any queries or problems that you may have.

Author: Doug Newman, Graphics Specialist

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.

Colour Matching

One of the most difficult tasks involved in printing disc and packaging artwork is colour matching. Many things can affect the way that colours appear and sometimes it is not possible to reproduce your intended colours 100%. What you see on your screen is never identical to the finished printed product, and below we try to explain several of the reasons for this:

Screen vs. Print
The colours that you see on your screen are never the same as those that appear on your final printed product. A screen makes up its colours from a mix of Red, Green and Blue glowing phosphors, whereas a printer uses a blend of Cyan(C), Magenta(M), Yellow(Y) and Black(K) inks. It is even possible to get different results from different printers processing the same graphic file.

Call 01491 63 63 73 or click here to find out more.

Spot Colours vs. Process Colours
Spot colours and process colours do not match. Spot colours are specific individual colours that are put into the printing press. A maximum of 5 separate spot colours is possible, but you can include special inks such as metallics.

Process colours are made up of a mixture of Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black inks and are used when printing full colour artwork (e.g. colour photographs).

If you have a mixture of spot and process colours in your artwork it must be printed with process colours, and specific spot colours used may not reproduce faithfully. Converting spot colours to process colours will always change the appearance of those colours.

The Disc Surface
Different disc surfaces react differently to the ink applied to them. For example a matt finished disc will appear different to a glossy disc. We would always recommend using a high quality disc where it is important to try to accurately reproduce colours.

As we said at the beginning it is not always possible to match your colours completely but if you follow this simple checklist you’ll be helping us to help you get the best possible results for your project.

If your artwork is to be printed in Pantones please ensure that there are no CMYK Process colours in your artwork, and specify all Pantone colours used.

Similarly if your discs are to be printed in Process colours, convert any Pantone colours that you have used to CMYK.

If a good colour match is important to you, please provide us with a printed sample so that we can match your discs to a previously printed product rather than a screen image. If you have any questions or problems at all we’d be pleased to talk them through with you. Just pick up the phone and call the Team.

Author: Doug Newman, Graphics Specialist

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.