We get asked about our digital printing process often. Questions from what type of artwork can we use to what type of printer do we use are posed at least once a week and while we can explain in a phone call it’s often easier to show you examples and how the whole process is done.
There are many types of full color products that we offer: name badges, decals, promo blocks, dog tags, luggage tags, desk/wall plates, cards, dash plaques, and metal plates. In producing these there are two different types of full color printing that we use.
The first is laser jet printing. We output our full color membership cards, plastic dog tags, full color luggage tags, full color desk/wall plates and almost all of our full color badges (Phoenix, Dallas, Mesa, Nashville, Budget) using this method. The artwork and names are output at the same time and then carefully laminated and pressed to the badge stock.
Output from main printer
We do use another printer that uses a laser jet printing style. This other printer handles larger rolls of printing paper and also has a clean and consistent print style. This printer is used for any full color products that are done on label or decal material as it can also profile the piece to the desired shape. All of our full color decals, the decals for full color Promo Blocks, domed dog tags, domed luggage tags, our Crystal View plates and our Orlando badges are output through this printer.
Output from decal printer
The second method of full color printing that we use is sublimation. If you aren’t exactly sure what sublimation is the best way to describe it is to think of an iron-on transfer. Sublimation is done the same way using heat to transfer the ink directly to the surface of the material. We use this process on our Savannah badges, full color dash plaques, full color plates and our full color imaged dog tags as it allows us to print crisp full color images onto metal. We have a third printer that is used specifically to output artwork that is ready to use on our sublimation presses.
Output from Sublimation Printer
Those are the two full color printing processes that we use for the majority of our items.
Many people often ask what program we use to setup the art before sending it to the printers and what formats we prefer to get full color art in. We work mainly in Corel Draw in an RGB format. We can also work with art sent in Adobe Illustrator.Using full color digital processes also allows us the flexibility to use clients high resolution jpegs, gifs, pngs and even individual photos.
And that’s a quick rundown on the full color printing process here at the Imagery Group! If you have any questions that we didn’t cover in this, drop us a comment or catch us on Twitter or Facebook and we’ll be happy to get back to you with answers.
Tags: badge, bag tag, blocks, digital, full color, luggage tag, membership card, name badge, name tag, print, printing, sublimation