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John Cena

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Tag: printing

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Choosing Inks for Color Printing – Spot Color vs. Process Color
Universal Printing
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COLOR PRINTING: For those who aren’t trained in printing or graphic design, it can all get very confusing.  Most people who are taking the “Do It Yourself” approach to setting up files just look at colors on the computer screen, with maybe a handful that have access to a Pantone guide, but not really understanding it.  If you’re not familiar with how ink works and how colors are made, you could end up with some very UNEXPECTED results. This is the first of a series of blog posts that will hopefully help make sense of color, and how color is made in the world of commercial printing.

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How to Save PDF files for better printing!
Universal Printing
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20 years ago a very wise man named John Warnock came up with a GENUIS idea for a system that would allow files from any computer or application to be viewed or printed on any other computer regardless of whether the other machine had the original software application, fonts, graphics, or anything else. This system which he named Camelot, went on to become the Portable Document File Format released by Adobe in 1993. Since then PDFs have become not only the standard, but in many cases a REQUIREMENT for graphic design and commercial printing professional worldwide.

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Printing with Soy Ink is NOT Green Printing
Universal Printing
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We talk a lot about “green printing” and what it means to be environmentally responsible. This is a topic that has always been important to us. Universal Printing has been a leader and innovator in aggressive environmentally responsible printing practices for over 30 years.

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Direct mail… Back-in-the-day or Future Play?
Universal Printing
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With all the talk of social media, cell phone apps, email marketing, spam and the list goes on and on of “relevant” ways to keep in touch with and obtain new clients, I’ve asked myself if good old fashion direct mail is a back-in-the-day solution or a future play?

I don’t know about you, but I assume that Google and Yahoo know a thing or two about marketing, and I have been receiving direct mail from them recently promoting new ways to advertise my business and promote my products on their sites! Seems like a pretty strong case for direct mail to me. Can you appreciate the irony? Google and Yahoo using snail mail to promote their high tech web services.

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Direct Mail isn’t going anywhere…
Robert Moura
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For years we’ve been hearing about the “paperless office” and the death of the printing industry.  While it’s true that the industry has been changing, printing is still a very trusted method of communication. What’s even more surprising is that even among the coveted 18-34 year old market segment, print is the preferred method of receiving information.

Let me say that again… (more…)

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The Dog Didn’t Eat Our Homework…
Universal Printing
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Last Spring we went through our GRACoL qualification process. I was told to expect a couple of days, a few thousand press sheets, several sets of plates, and a potential risk to the sanity of my press-operator. In reality, it was much easier than any of us could have anticipated. Our G7 Expert Color Consultant from Fuji gave us credit for already following many of the “best practices” that GRACoL recommends for a successful qualification.

The benefits: Making colors print sharper and more consistently across multiple printing devices allowing you to benefit from the best-priced print technology without compromising quality. Not as easy as it sounds, since we offer lots of different color devices and each use their own inks or toners, papers, and their own software RIPs. GRACoL 7 bridges the gap . For those techie-geeky types that want to know the in-depth explanations of GRACoL, GRACoL 7, and G7, feel free to click here.

Fortunately, we do our homework (and kept it away from the dog!) We start with quality papers from environmentally responsible sources and use eco-friendly inks and toner. Then we follow that up with regular calibration and an industry leading QA system to monitor our color. The final ingredient is skilled and knowledgeable staff, who continue to monitor color through the entire run.

Seems simple, but apparently it’s not! I guess that’s why our G7 Expert Color Consultant seemed surprised when our first test sheets, from our first test plates, were almost within specs without having changed a thing. A process that could have taken two days, took just over two hours on press.

So we proudly became one of the first printing companies in the Carolinas to qualify as G7 Master Printers. And now, one year later, we’ve gone through our first RE-qualification process and are STILL only one of seven G7 Master Printers in the Carolinas. GRACoL has made some changes in their qualification criteria and expectations are a little higher. We weren’t scared, though… hit it on our first pull. Piece of cake!

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So… it’s time we entered Blogiverse…
Universal Printing
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It’s true… Universal Printing has decided to enter the Blogging phenomenon.

There are many reasons for a business to establish an internet presence, but why a blog?

Some might ask:

“Isn’t that overkill?
“Is it really necessary?”
“Why even do it?”

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, there are several reasons we wanted to start a blog. There’s certainly an advantage to having a blog when it comes to search engines, and search engine optimization LOVES blogs. In fact, Google and other search engines rewards sites that are linked to Blogs that are updated often. No harm in wanting more web-traffic and exposure, right?

Also, in this age of “Social Media,” a company almost HAS to broaden their internet presence and have a corporate identity that spans well into the web. The web is the way we communicate now. It’s where we get our information. It’s where we research, and where we shop. When you factor in the impact that YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have had on all of us, it just makes sense to reach out where the people are!

Which really brings us to the main reason: why we Blog… why we bother… why we’ve bought into the hype: For our customers! If you are reading this, YOU are why we blog. We want to reach our current customers, our potential customers, our future customers. We want to share ideas, hear your feedback, share our expertise, and provide good information. When it’s all said and done, it’s really just that simple.

So tell us what you think. Give us your ideas on how Universal Printing can become a better partner. How can we help you do your business better? We look forward to your comments.

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