Debossing: In debossing an image such as a logo, a title, or other design is heat-pressed into the surface of the item with a die, creating depressions rather than raised impressions as in embossing.
Die: A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds and stencils, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create.
Embossing: The creation of a raised design or image on an item is known as embossing. Heat and pressures reshapes the surface of the item such as leather or plastic to create the image.
Screen Printing: Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a surface. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh transferring the design.
Pad Printing: Pad printing is a printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. This is accomplished using an indirect offset printing process that involves an image being transferred from the printing plate via a silicone pad onto the surface to be printed. Pad printing is used for printing on otherwise impossible products in many industries including medical, automotive, promotional, apparel, electronics, appliances, sports equipment and toys.
Embroidery: Industrial/commercial embroidery machines have a hooping or framing system that holds the framed area of fabric taught and securely underneath the sewing needle and move it around automatically to create a design with tread from a digital embroidery file
Digitizing: Machine embroidery digitizing is an art form. Using digitizing software, a skilled embroidery digitizer transforms an image or text to stitches, creating the image in a file format an embroidery machine can read.
Laser Engraving: Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave or mark an object. The technique can be very technical and complex, and often a computer system is used to drive the movements of the laser head. Despite this complexity, very precise and clean engravings can be achieved at a high rate. The technique does not involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out.
Deep Etch: This ‘cutting edge’ technology is very similar to laser engraving, but instead of a laser aimed at the product, the actual item is etched with a diamond tip. This creates an extremely crisp finish, leaving a noticeable edge to the engraving.
Perfect Print: Perfect Print allows a full colour computer generated logo to be printed onto heat transfer material and pressed onto a variety of fabrics. This process is produced at a lower cost than multi colour screen prints and is perfect for halftones and gradients. A full white underlay must always be present. Maximum size of 40 square inches, optional die cut available
Perma Print: Add brilliant, edge-to-edge, full colour logos to poker sets, BBQ sets, wine sets, coffee vaults, etc. A four colour process image is fused to a clear coating and then pressed at a high temperature onto the decorative plate. The end result is brilliant and can never be removed or scratched off. Artwork needs to be provided as a high resolution file (300 dpi or over) in either bitmap or vector format.
Transfer Print: A transfer is created in a very similar method to screen printing, however, the ink is applied to a sheet of transfer paper instead of directly onto the material. The transfer is then pressed onto the product using a combination of heat and pressure. This method allows for unlimited colour separations that always require an underlay. Many products utilize this process as it assists in decorating products with foam insulation or hard to screen print locations.
Four-Colour Process: To reproduce full-color photographic images, typical printing presses use 4 colors of ink. The four inks are placed on the item in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colors used by the printing press: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. In-order to use white in a 4 color process image, the item itself must be white.
Spot colour: A spot colour is a specially mixed ink using in printing. Spot color inks come in a rainbow of colors, including some specialty inks such as metallic and fluorescent. Unlike CMYK or process color, spot colors are pre-mixed and only use one ink for each color in the publication. There are different brands of spot color inks. In Canada and the United States, the dominant spot color printing system is PANTONE. The Pantone Matching System or PMS consists of over 1,000 colors of ink.
Raster Artwork: A Raster or fixed resolution image is a type of graphic composed of pixels (picture element) in a grid. Each pixel or “bit” contains color information for the image. Bitmap graphic formats have a fixed resolution which means that resizing a bitmap graphic can result in distortion and jagged edges. Some common bitmap formats are GIF, JPG or JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PICT, PCX, and BMP. Photo-editors or image-editing graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-Paint are designed for creating and editing bitmap graphics.
Vector Artwork: Vector graphics are a resolution-independent, scalable format composed of individual objects made up of mathematical calculations. Vector images can be resized easily without loss of quality making them an ideal format for initial design of logos and illustrations that to be used at multiple sizes. Illustration or drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Corel DRAW are popular graphics software for creating and editing vector graphics. Common Vector file formats include AI, EPS, or CDR.
Artwork specifications: Vector artwork is preferred for most hard items, ai. or eps. File with all font files included or converted. 4 color process and embroidery can tolerate high resolution raster artwork such as: Jpeg. or Tiff. Resolution 300ppi or greater. If you do not have artwork in the preferred format, Cornerstone can still accommodate you!
Branded Products – Glossary
Debossing: In debossing an image such as a logo, a title, or other design is heat-pressed into the surface of the item with a die, creating depressions rather than raised impressions as in embossing.
Die: A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds and stencils, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create.
Embossing: The creation of a raised design or image on an item is known as embossing. Heat and pressures reshapes the surface of the item such as leather or plastic to create the image.
Screen Printing: Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a surface. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh transferring the design.
Pad Printing: Pad printing is a printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. This is accomplished using an indirect offset printing process that involves an image being transferred from the printing plate via a silicone pad onto the surface to be printed. Pad printing is used for printing on otherwise impossible products in many industries including medical, automotive, promotional, apparel, electronics, appliances, sports equipment and toys.
Embroidery: Industrial/commercial embroidery machines have a hooping or framing system that holds the framed area of fabric taught and securely underneath the sewing needle and move it around automatically to create a design with tread from a digital embroidery file
Digitizing: Machine embroidery digitizing is an art form. Using digitizing software, a skilled embroidery digitizer transforms an image or text to stitches, creating the image in a file format an embroidery machine can read.
Laser Engraving: Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave or mark an object. The technique can be very technical and complex, and often a computer system is used to drive the movements of the laser head. Despite this complexity, very precise and clean engravings can be achieved at a high rate. The technique does not involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out.
Deep Etch: This ‘cutting edge’ technology is very similar to laser engraving, but instead of a laser aimed at the product, the actual item is etched with a diamond tip. This creates an extremely crisp finish, leaving a noticeable edge to the engraving.
Perfect Print: Perfect Print allows a full colour computer generated logo to be printed onto heat transfer material and pressed onto a variety of fabrics. This process is produced at a lower cost than multi colour screen prints and is perfect for halftones and gradients. A full white underlay must always be present. Maximum size of 40 square inches, optional die cut available
Perma Print: Add brilliant, edge-to-edge, full colour logos to poker sets, BBQ sets, wine sets, coffee vaults, etc. A four colour process image is fused to a clear coating and then pressed at a high temperature onto the decorative plate. The end result is brilliant and can never be removed or scratched off. Artwork needs to be provided as a high resolution file (300 dpi or over) in either bitmap or vector format.
Transfer Print: A transfer is created in a very similar method to screen printing, however, the ink is applied to a sheet of transfer paper instead of directly onto the material. The transfer is then pressed onto the product using a combination of heat and pressure. This method allows for unlimited colour separations that always require an underlay. Many products utilize this process as it assists in decorating products with foam insulation or hard to screen print locations.
Four-Colour Process: To reproduce full-color photographic images, typical printing presses use 4 colors of ink. The four inks are placed on the item in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colors used by the printing press: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. In-order to use white in a 4 color process image, the item itself must be white.
Spot colour: A spot colour is a specially mixed ink using in printing. Spot color inks come in a rainbow of colors, including some specialty inks such as metallic and fluorescent. Unlike CMYK or process color, spot colors are pre-mixed and only use one ink for each color in the publication. There are different brands of spot color inks. In Canada and the United States, the dominant spot color printing system is PANTONE. The Pantone Matching System or PMS consists of over 1,000 colors of ink.
Raster Artwork: A Raster or fixed resolution image is a type of graphic composed of pixels (picture element) in a grid. Each pixel or “bit” contains color information for the image. Bitmap graphic formats have a fixed resolution which means that resizing a bitmap graphic can result in distortion and jagged edges. Some common bitmap formats are GIF, JPG or JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PICT, PCX, and BMP. Photo-editors or image-editing graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-Paint are designed for creating and editing bitmap graphics.
Vector Artwork: Vector graphics are a resolution-independent, scalable format composed of individual objects made up of mathematical calculations. Vector images can be resized easily without loss of quality making them an ideal format for initial design of logos and illustrations that to be used at multiple sizes. Illustration or drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Corel DRAW are popular graphics software for creating and editing vector graphics. Common Vector file formats include AI, EPS, or CDR.
Artwork specifications: Vector artwork is preferred for most hard items, ai. or eps. File with all font files included or converted. 4 color process and embroidery can tolerate high resolution raster artwork such as: Jpeg. or Tiff. Resolution 300ppi or greater. If you do not have artwork in the preferred format, Cornerstone can still accommodate you!