Artwork Guide

The following Branding and Artwork Guide will help you supply the best artwork to brand the product(s) you have selected.

Electronic Logo Artwork:

Preferred Format is a compatible Illustrator .ai or .eps vector format. All artwork including fonts should be converted to outlines/vector curves -- this may be supplied from PC's as well as macs. If the file contains spot colours these should be identified as Pantone PMS swatches in the swatch palette.

Where halftone images or rastor files are part of artwork ensure that resolution matches the size of the desired output. Photoshop files should be CMYK and saved in a EPS format. It is important to include all imbedded/Photoshop images with Illustrator files.

DO NOT SUPPLY artwork as Acrobat PDF files, MS Word, Powerpoint or doc, bmp, jpg or gif files. PDF files are recommended for viewing purposes only.

Photographic Images: for 4 colour process printing/CMYK.

The original scanned image must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Mouse Mats vary in artwork requirements, depending upon their design. Please contact us regarding the required file formats for your chosen design.

DO NOT SUPPLY hard copy artwork as letterheads, business cards or printed brochures, as these do not have high enough resolution to reproduce for the branding of most promotional merchandise and usually have to be redrawn at additional cost.

Artwork Problems

If you are unable to provide the artwork required by 4Promote, please contact your advertising agency, graphic designer or printer - they regularly work in the preferred 4Promote file formats and should be able to help. 4Promote also operates its own artwork and design service that may be used if necessary. Artwork and/or artwork adjustments are charged at a rate of $75.00 per hour or part thereof.

Branding Process

Screen Printing
Used to print spot colour and 4 colour process on clothing & bags etc

Plastisol Printing
Plastisol transfers are used when fine detail is required on printing to material such as caps, clothing or bags.

Embroidery
Here the Logo or message is woven onto the cap, clothing or bag. Branding cost increases with 'stitch count' or size of Logo. The minimum text height for embroidery is 5mm.

Decal Printing
Used on coffee mugs and glassware. A spot colour or 4 colour process decal is pre-printed, then fired onto the coffee mug or glass. Costs are specified for one side (half wrap decal) or two sides (full wrap decal).

Offset Printing
1-4 colour process printing on mouse mats, plus traditional printing of brochures and point of sale.

Pad Printing
Utilises a custom made pad to print up to 7 spot colours on hard products such as golf balls and plastic or metal products such as calculators. With soft products such as stress toys, only one colour is possible because of the difficulty to register the printing.

Laser Engraving
Fine engraving of Logos onto metal, some plastic and wood products.

Embossing / Debossing
Heat-press ed onto the surface of Genuine / Bonded Leather Products. Not Suitable for Leather-look or Koeskin Products as they are made of plastic and will melt the product.

Foil Stamping / Printing
Same process as Embossing / Debossing (heat-pressed into the surface of Genuine / Bonded Leather Products) an application of foil, a special film-backed material, where a heated die is stamped onto the foil, making it stick to the surface leaving the design in the product.

Dye Sumblimation Print
A process of printing synthetic fabrics and other high polyester content fabrics using "Subliming" dyes that turn from a solid to a gas at a specific time, temperature and pressure. These dyes in its gas form are absorbed by the fabric, then returns to its solid form as part of the fabric. This results in a permanent print which will not wear off and delivers near photographic results with vibrant colours.
Often used on Neoprene products and 100% polyester apparel.

Please contact us if you would like advice on which products you should use these methods on.

Glossary of Terms

PMS Colours
Pantone Matching System. Universally recognised colour guide used for defining colours in printing solid Logo colours (spot colours). Your printer or art supplier can supply PMS colour matching books for easy reference.

CMYK
Cyan Magenta Yellow & Black. 4 colour process printing system used to print full colour or half tone photographic images.

4 Colour Process
Offset printing using colours made up of percentages of CMYK dots. Used in printing photographic images on items such as mouse mats and printed material such as brochures and point of sale.

Fonts
The computer equivalent of typefaces or characters.

EPS File
Encapsulated Postscript File. The preferred format for most Logo printing applications at 4Promote. Logos and fonts must be converted to outlines or vector curves prior to transmission, disk or CD. Can also be used to transfer photographic images. Illustrator, Corel Draw & Freehand are common programs that can create EPS files suitable for 4Promote branding applications.

JPEG File
Joint Photographers Expert Group. A compression format for making graphic files smaller. Supply photographic images to 4Promote as jpeg files (300dpi minimum resolution) but not logos.

Tiff File
Tagged Image File Format. Supply photographic images to 4Promote as tiff files, but not logos.

Rastor File
A halftone or photographic image imported into a computer via a scanner or digital camera converted into dots or pixels. 300dpi is the minimum resolution usable for 4Promote offset printing applications. 
Note: Website images commonly use 75dpi images, which are not a high enough resolution for 4Promote offset printing applications.

Photoshop Files
Program to save halftone images or rastor files. Photoshop files should be CMYK and saved in a .eps or .tiff format. Ensure resolution matches the size of the desired output.

PDF Format
Portable Doc Format. Ideal file format for sending viewing images to 4Promote BUT NOT SUITABLE FOR ARTWORK.

What we need from you
The preferred file type for most promotional products branding is a Vector Illustrator EPS.file.
These files allow us to accurately manipulate and resize logos without any loss of quality, detail or accuracy. This ensures the best possible reproduction of your logo on your promotional products.

Vectorised Artwork
(.eps or .ai)
These are ideal files for the correct printing and reproduction of your logo on promotional products.

Rasterised Artwork
(.jpg)
Files with the .jpg extension are okay for embroidery or promotional products such as promotional hats or caps, but they have to be reillustrated for printing and engraving of metallic promotional products. A high-res .jpg file can also be used for printing digital or offset printing jobs, though it is not a preferred file type for most logo reproduction on promotional products.

Fonts
(.ttf)
All fonts must be either converted to outlines/curves or supplied as .ttf (TrueType) files for us to load on our system.

Artwork Checklist:

Check One
Illustrator EPS File or JPEG ( Embroidery only)

Check Two
All Fonts Converted to Outlines

Check Three
Pantone PMS Colours Supplied

Haven't got the original artwork?
We do what we can to reillustrate logos when we receive basic files. But it is a time consuming task, and if your logo is difficult we have to charge $75 to re illustrate your logo (redraw).
The bonus is that we will then give you a copy of the file. It will come in useful if you ever want to do any printing, signage or design work with your logo.

Artwork Approval Positional
All orders receive a digital file with exact print dimensions, and your logo placed on the item for you to sign off prior to full production.