About: FAQ, Files & Forms

FAQ

What T-shirts do you usually use?

Our default shirt is the Gildan 200. It’s dependable, mostly made in this hemisphere, and has had the least quality and stock issues for it’s price point over the past decade. We can of course get any other shirt on the market, up to an including ladies cuts, fashion tees and made in USA. Other options can be seen by clicking here.

G200

G200 Gildan 6.1 oz. Ultra Cotton® T-Shirt

  • 100% preshrunk cotton
  • seamless collar and double-needle stitching throughout
  • taped shoulder-to-shoulder

 Color Chart Sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL

What kind of ink do you use?

We proudly use One Stroke Inks made right here in Louisville, KY. After 20 years of printing with them, we know how they hold up. Although there other are inks for 1/3 of the cost, it’s worth the extra expense to have a long term quality result. Ink quality is one of the most fundamental issues in screen printing, and you may have heard a few sayings about “you get what you pay for.” For more information on the inks visit their site at http://www.onestrokeinks.com.

How can I see standard ink colors in Illustrator or Photoshop?

Just use these handy color swatches provided by our ink company! Using these will give you the best possible way of using actual ink colors for previews. We just need the name of the color on the layers which are that color, or given to us in an email. Mixing pantone colors run north of $100 each! But all these are standard and we stock them at no cost.

The color palettes below are meant for use with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator only.

Download Instructions 1. Choose from Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator color palettes. 2. Right-click the link. 3. Select “Save Target As”. 4. Choose a destination on your computer and select “Save”. NOTE: The Illustrator color palette may appear to be an acrobat file. This will not effect the colors and it will still open as color swatches.

Photoshop Color Palette

Photoshop Installation Instructions 1. Open any current version of Adobe Photoshop. 2. Find the “Swatches” window and click the arrow for options. 3. Select “Replace Swatches”. 4. Select the .aco file that you downloaded. 5. Your colors will appear in the “Swatches” window now. 6. For best viewing, click the arrow again and choose “Small List” 7. You should now see the list of colors with names.

 Illustrator Color Palette

Illustrator Installation Instructions 1. Open any current version of Adobe Illustrator. 2. Find the “Swatches” window and click the arrow for options. 3. Select “Open Swatch Library” and click “Other”. 4. Select the .ase file that you downloaded. 5. Your colors will appear in the “One Stroke Inks” window now. 6. For best viewing, click the arrow again and choose “List View” 7. You should now see the list of colors with names.

What is Vector Art?

We accept vector graphics in various formats: PC or MAC, floppy, CD, or USB and through email at memeprint@gmail.com. Paper previews are requested along with your disk, but paper cannot easily be scanned and converted to vector format without incurring an art fee. This is a guide for you or your graphic designer to produce graphics in the proper file type. First off, graphics files come in two fundamental kinds of formats: VECTOR and BITMAP.

  • Vector saves the graphics as a set of points and tangents, producing perfectly smooth edges of distinct shapes.
  • Bitmap saves graphics as a grid, like a TV screen, with each dot having a particular color.

The difference is: if you zoom in on a bitmap graphic, you will eventually see a grid of squares. If you zoom in on a vector graphic, you will still see a perfectly smooth line, since the lines are all expressed as a mathmatical formula.

For additional information check out File Specifications.

Why do we need Vector Graphics for cut vinyl?

Quite simply, it’s the language our plotter software speaks. In order to create your banner or decal, our equipment traces the outlines of your graphic with a synthetic diamond-tipped blade onto a solid roll of vinyl. We then remove the negative space from around the cuts, leaving us with a vinyl positive. We use this cutout for your final product. What works perfectly well for printing. ie. bitmap graphics will not work for vinyl because we are cutting, rather than printing. Note: we do NOT need vector graphics for digitally printed vinyl, but they will print much cleaner than low-resolution raster files.

What if I want a specific font?

Fonts are the style of type displayed on your computer. What you are reading right now is displayed in a font that your computer has stored and chosen to display as a default for your web browser. The good news is if you can find the file for the font you’d like on a text-only banner, it is very easy to recreate a graphic, even if all you have is a bitmap file. This means we can do it cheaper. You can email us a .TTF file (PC format) and we can do the rest for a small surcharge (as opposed to $30/hour.) If you are working in a vector program to send us a graphic, be sure to convert your type to outlines, or paths (vector), this way we don’t need to have the font file. In Illustrator the command is TYPE -> CREATE OUTLINES. It’s a good idea to save the outlines as a new filename so you can go back to the original file and fix spelling errors. In Photoshop, we don’t need fonts for flattened images, but if there are multiple colors we prefer layered files. In that case the best thing to do is send the font files to us as well as the layered file.