Event-Trac Asphalt & Concrete Street Graphics

What are they?

Event-Trac asphalt and concrete decals are exactly what they sound like, they're removable decals that stick directly to clean, dry concrete and asphalt. They are a great tool to get customer's attention and turn the ground into prime advertising space! Event-Trac's unique texture makes it slip-resistant, eliminating the need for an expensive over laminate. They are designed for short term use but they last anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months or more depending on how much traffic and weather they're exposed to. To learn more about Event-Trac, click here!

Uses

Event-Trac is a great addition for a variety of events. It's a great way to promote, brand and provide sponsorship listings. Here are a few examples:

• Parades – Promoting the branding of the parade, listing sponsors, parade attendees and more
• Events & Festivals – Directional signage and labeling, sponsors, branding and more
• Races – Finish lines, starting lines, check points, sponsors, branding and more
• Parking Lots – POP promotions at retail centers, creative parking spots, branding, QR Codes and more
• Sidewalks – Sales and promotions, directional signage, foot prints leading to sales, creative scavenger hunts, QR codes and more
• Golf Outings – Sponsorship, competitions at holes, cart paths and more
• Stairs / Escalators
• Guerilla / Creative Marketing

Watch a video to see Event-Trac in action!

Digital Printing vs Offset Printing

When someone says they need to get something printed, it sounds simple. There are two different types of printing methods typically used to put ink on paper. They are offset printing and digital printing, both have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the scope of the job or project. We'll go into detail about when you should use offset printing and when you should use digital printing based on the scope of your project.

Offset Printing

Offset printing is a process that involves transferring an image from a plate, to a rubber blanket, then to the paper. Offset printing is used for magazines, newspapers, brochures, stationary, booklets, etc. It is the ideal print solution when you need a large volume and high quality print. Offset presses have four print heads that each contain a different color of ink. On a four-color press, one print head contains Cyan ink, another contains Magenta ink, another contains yellow ink and the another contains black ink. Hence, CMYK color profile for print. Once print files are received, they are "ripped", which produces four-color negative plates, one plate for each color. In reality we are digitally separating your file into these plates to setup for the offset printing process. Once we affix your plates to the print heads each with it's own color, we then align the plates and begin printing your job.

Digital Printing

Digital printing uses a digital based image to print it directly onto paper. Digitally printing doesn't require changing plates, this allows a faster turn-around time and a lower cost, but there can be a slight loss of fine image detail. Digital printing is the ideal solution for lower quantity runs because you don't have to pay for plate set-up fees. Digital printing is also used for variable data, which allows you to personalize each print to the person who will receive them.

Offset Printing

• Low Cost Large Runs
• Spot Color Matching
• High Image Quality
• Works on many different materials
• More expensive and time consuming

Digital Printing

• Low Cost Short Runs
• Variable Data
• Less Steps
• Allows for customization

If you have questions whether your job requires offset printing or digital printing, give us a call (800.456.8238) or submit a QuickQuote on our website  – we'll be happy to help!

Steps to the Screen Printing Process

Step 1: Prep the Art

The art is first brought to the designer, whether you have your own design or we are creating one for you. The designer will then place the art onto a template with a mock up of your design on your garment. They will identify imprint colors, locations (how many and where) and the overall imprint size of your screen printed design. You will be sent this proof, once approved the designer will separate the artwork based on how many different colors are used in the design. If there is only one color, there will only be 1 separation, but if there are 4 colors, there will be 4 different separations. The separations are then printed onto separate pieces of clear film, these are used to create the screens.

Step 2: Dark Room

After the films have been printed, they are taken into the production process. Our screen printer carefully looks over the prints to ensure everything looks right. Next, the screen printer carefully measures, aligns and tapes the print onto the screen to match the approved print. Once the prints are placed onto the screen, the dark room process begins. Using a UV light unit, the prints are burned on to emulsion-covered screens. The UV light burns each design color onto a screen.

Aligning prints onto the screen to match proof

Burning the Screen using UV light machine

Step 3: Finalizing the Screen

Next is the final step to creating the screen for production. The screens are rinsed using a pressure hose to push out the excess emulsion, the design is revealed in white on the screen. Ink will be pushed through white areas of the screen to create the design.

Rinsing screen with a pressure hose.

Step 4: Imprinting the Garment

Taping off the Screen

After the screens have been prepped and burned, you will need to tape the edges of the screen. This helps protect the garment from excess ink. Now, it is time for the actual printing process to begin. Depending on the job, our screen printer will either print by hand or use an automatic press. First, An ink color is poured onto the top of the screen. Then the garment is placed onto a flat platform straight and evenly. The screen is then lowered onto the garment and a squeegee is pulled across the screen, which applies the ink. 

When using multiple colors, 

Applying ink to the garment

the garment will go under a ‘flash’ unit to cure the ink in-between color applications. After all the colors for the design are applied, the garment is placed on a moving conveyer belt, which brings it under a dryer to completely dry and cure the ink. This process repeats for every garment.

Drying Garment

Watch a Video of the Screen Printing Process now!

And that’s how screen printed garments are produced. Contact us today for more information or start a custom screen printed apparel order!

Learn More: 800.678.4041  |  ghapparel.com

Offset Printing: File Prep Basics

As many of you already know so much more goes into the printing process than a simple
FILE > PRINT. When setting up files for offset printing there are many things that need to be taken into consideration.  Two of the most important things include bleed area and safe zone. 

The purpose of the bleed area

After printing, every job goes through some sort of finishing process; trimming, binding, folding etc. With each step in the finishing process there is a certain margin of error.

Imagine taking this sheet (left) with 4 flyers on it and trying to cut perfectly along the edge of the flyer without any white showing when you are done. Oh, and don't let any of that green from the top of the flyer show on the bottom of the other flyers.  Even the smallest fraction of movement could result in a sliver of white showing along the outside edges of the finished product, or cause some of that green to show up along the bottom of the flyers.

Adding bleeds allows us to reduce the margin of error during the finishing process.

Setting up bleeds

Some printers have different standards for bleed, but at GH we require 1/16" (.0625") bleed area on each edge, for example an 8.5 x 11" flyer would actually have a document size of 8.625 x 11.125" to account for the 1/16” bleed on each edge.

Many design programs (like InDesign or Illustrator) have a specific section for indicating the amount of bleed area you need.

For example, the snapshot to the left is of InDesign's New Document Window. At the bottom there is a specific field to enter the amount of bleed on each edge of the document. 

 *Something to watch out for: When you are exporting to a PDF from your design program make sure your PDF settings include document bleeds.

 

Other programs (like photoshop or publisher) you actually have to set your document size to include the bleeds. 

Remember, simply stretching your background color or image past the document size does not automatically add bleeds to your document. You must either specify the bleed area in the settings or build them into the overall document size. 

Safe zone area

As mentioned before, there is always some margin of error that comes with each step in the printing process. Safe Zones are another tool used in the print industry to help reduce that margin of error. 

 

At GH we recommend that all non-bleed elements, such as text or photographs be at least .125” from the trim. Keeping text and non-bleed graphics within this area will ensure that these elements are not trimmed off.  

Side note: On booklets the safe zone is increased to .25"

Templates

Want to be sure that your artwork will fit our guidelines? Contact your sales rep, they have templates for many of our standard sizes and if your project doesn't fit one of the standard templates we would be happy to create a template for you!

If you have any file set-up questions please feel free to comment below or check our full list of artworkguidelines. Otherwise stay tuned for more tips directly from your favorite GH design team!