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Of course, this technique has it's limitations. For example there is no way to accommodate illustrations that contain blends or gradients.
Solid colours only, is the rule of thumb for the vinyl cutter. Not so for the digital department. The digital department specializes in pixel based
files. This means that instead of cutting out and applying solid vinyl, files are printed out on a great big printer. This printer can print
photographs, gradients, multiple colours, etc., in addition to any file that can be cut out on the vinyl plotter. The only restriction being the
width of the roll of paper being fed through printer. In our case that usually means no wider than 35"
Sign:
The sign department uses rolls of coloured vinyl to create it's signs. They do this by feeding a blank roll
of coloured vinyl into the plotter for every element of the sign that needs to be that specific colour. For example black text would be cut from a sheet
of black vinyl. In the Saskatchewan crest, the wheat sheaves and a rectangular box would be cut from yellow vinyl, the Gryphon from red, and the shield
shape from green. The sign artist does this by creating "Vector" files for the plotter to cut. The plotter has a sharp blade that can travel from side
to side while the vinyl travels up and down. This way the sign dept. can cut out letters and any kind of shape with the only size restriction being
the width of the vinyl. The only requirement for this procedure is that the plotter has to have a "plot", or a course to travel. It has to see a curve.
A curve for example in the shape of the letter "D" The only type of file that can generate these plots or curves are called "Vector" files.
Vector:
As you can see, the shape of this letter is made up of a bunch of points or "nodes" with either straight or curved
lines or "plots" between those points. This is how the plotter knows where to make the cuts. This type of file is called a vector file. The 2 most
popular programs used to create these types of files are Corel Draw (.cdr) or Adobe Illustrator (.ai) If these file are to be used for print, or
for export or import purposes they can be saved as an .eps. These vector files can never be saved as .tiff, or .jpg, or .bmp, or .pict. in their
native or original platform. If they need to be in any of those formats they need to be converted to a pixel based platform such as Corel Photo Paint
or Adobe Photoshop. Now pixel based files can also be saved in an .eps (encapsulated post script) format, so it is important not to make the
assumption that just because your file is in an .eps format it is a vector file.
Colour:
Our printer uses a combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK) ink, and cannot reproduce pantone colours exactly. The printer does closely
approximate pantone colours, and we can match the pantone colours more exact by a series of tests and adjustments. But this process is time consuming
and we must charge for it. It is also important to note that no two printers, or no two monitors will interpret colour the same way. So what you see
on your screen and what is printed out on your printer is not guaranteed to look the same on our screen or printer. This is why we print proofs on the
actual material we will be using for your job. Once we have nailed down a specific colour, we can save it's "profile" in our system, and print the same
colour again next time.
d.p.i.:
Any image that has been scanned or digitized means that the image has been broken up into very little segments called pixels. An image may be sized
according to how many pixels are in it. Someone may tell you for example, that the image is 1540 by 1004. That tells you how many pixels make up the
width and length of your image. In the printing industry we are more concerned with how many pixels are in one square inch. For some strange reason
it is more common to say "dots" per inch (d.p.i.) instead of pixels per inch (p.p.i) People in the printing industry are very concerned about quality
and clarity, and they want their printers to have as much information to process as possible. 300 d.p.i. is commonly used as the minimum standard.
Your computer screen is only capable of displaying 72 pixels per inch, and that is why web graphics are only designed to hold 72 pixels in one square
inch. These files are woefully inadequate for printing purposes. These files are 'low resolution". Once again for large format printing
300 d.p.i. can be misleading. Sure you could have an image that is 300 d.p.i, but if the physical size is only 3" by 4" and you want it blown up
to a 3' by 4' image, that means the whole graphic is being enlarged by 1200 % At twelve hundred times their original size, little pixels aren't so
little anymore. Of course if you were to add more pixels in that inch, you decrease their size when they are printed out big. But don't be
mislead! If your image does not have decent d.p.i., you can't just add more pixels. That doesn't work. If your image wasn't rendered "Hi Res"
in the first place, it can not be made "Hi Res" at a later date. The opposite is not true. A hi res file can easily be made low res.
Vector:
Just as the sign plotter can cut along the curves of a vector graphic, the printer can also print a very clear and sharp line the same way. With vector
images, d.pi. is not a concern. The (post script) printer just "knows" where to print the line. Subsequently a 2" vector graphic can print 20' without any loss of
resolution or clarity.
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