ImageBlog – Page 19 – Communication | Print | Web | Design

October 4, 2011

What is DotNetNuke or DNN?

DNN is the leading Open Source Web Content Management Platform for Microsoft ASP.NET programming framework

DotNetNuke – now DNN – is free software that is installed on an internet hosting account which is used to develop and maintain web applications and websites. A properly configured DNN website provides companies a way to manage their website with ease and confidence while maintaining the company brand and style. ImageSmith Communications has been developing DNN websites for clients for over 6 years, and members of the Web Development Team are experts on installing, configuring, skinning, and upgrading DNN applications.

DNN is a full-featured, web Content Management System (CMS) which allows your company to easily create or update content, while maintaining a fully customized and branded website. DNN has a very active community and is supported by a vast community of talented developers and is one of the easiest, most cost effective solutions for managing your company’s website.

Why is DNN Right For Your Company?

There are four main reasons DNN is very attractive to businesses that are seeking a way to manage the company website:

Usability – The framework is easy to learn and become second nature after a short amount of use for folks at any technical skill level.
Extensibility – the DNN framework is changeable, you can alter the way it behaves, you can extend it…
Scalability – No website is to small or too large for DNN, it will always suit your needs!
Affordability/Price – DNN is open source software… that’s right it’s free!

Usability — Administering DNN is User Friendly

DotNetNuke is user friendly and can be mastered by oneone that has basic computer skills

DNN is very easy to use. Non-technical content contributors can be trained to add and maintain web pages in minutes and make changes to the site with absolutely no IT support. Training is required for content editors and administrative users of the site and instruction on the proper procedures are taught.

Adding pages, changing page layouts, and adding new features to a page are all easily accomplished with this minimal training. Your content contributors will not require IT support for most web site changes so your ongoing operational costs are significantly less. If you hire a new employee you can schedule a DNN training session at ImageSmith in South Asheville.

Extensibility

Snowcovered provides online services to enable people to post, sell, and support their DotNetNuke software creations

A thriving market exists for DNN modules with more than 8,000 available online at www.snowcovered.com, at highly affordable prices. Free modules are also available on the DNN Forge and a variety of core apps are included in the standard DNN installation package.

Because the code is open to anyone, your organization can also develop its own apps to customize the appearance and functionality of your site. Thousands of free and low cost apps provide you with nearly limitless possibilities to create the perfect site for your needs.

Extreme Scalability — You are Never too Small and You Will Never Outgrow DNN

DotNetNuke has extremely scalability — DotNetNuke is an excellent solution for small business as well as large corporations

Your web site can be large or small and can grow as much as needed over time without requiring a migration to a new content management system. The DNN platform can support an unlimited number of pages per web site and an unlimited number of web sites per DNN instance.

Essentially, there are no limits on how big a DNN website can be.

Affordability

Save money by using DotNetNuke — DotNetNuke is open source software and is free to everyone, making it an ideal solution for your company’s website

Since DNN is open source software, your company will spend zero dollars on internet software to run your website (that’s right it’s free). What is more attractive than an enterprise technology solution at such an affordable price!

If you have an existing website that needs an overhaul, or if you are a new business, call us at 828-684-4512 or email us via our contact form and let’s talk about how we can provide your company with a professionally designed website.

August 10, 2011

How to Make a Print-Ready PDF/X1a File: Save Time and Money

PDF stands for Portable Document Format… a friend of mine says it really stand for “Pretty Darn Fast.” And they do travel with much lower file size than your root documents and images. However there are many different “flavors” of pdfs that can be created with different end-uses in mind. Think of a pdf as a suitcase – you will have to decide what and how much to “stuff” into that suitcase so that everything needed at its destination will be there… and nothing that is not needed (therefore saving on file size).

Creating a print-ready PDF/X-1a file from your desktop application will save you time, money, and is your best bet to ensure error-free printing from your digital files. Unless you want your printer to be able to alter or edit your documents, just follow these easy steps to “pdf” your files.

Choose File – Export. At the bottom of the dialog box, for Format choose Adobe PDF (Print). See Fig. A below.
In the Export Adobe PDF window, you will initially start on the General tab (they are listed at the left). On this tab, at the top under Adobe PDF Preset, choose [Adobe PDF/X1-a: 2001]. This will adjust ALMOST all of the settings you need to create your print-ready file. See Fig. B below.
Click on the Marks and Bleeds tab. Under the Marks section, check the box for crop marks, leaving the others unchecked. Notice that the Offset is set to 0.0833 in. by default. Under the Bleed and Slug area, enter 0.5 in. bleed for all four sides and leave other boxes unchecked. Whether or not your document has a bleed, we prefer all PDF/X-1a files to be submitted with crop marks and the 1/2 inch bleed area around the outside edges. See Fig. C below.

And that’s it!

File Export to PDF from InDesign — Figure A: File – Export

Step 2: the Export Adobe PDF window — Figure B: the Export Adobe PDF window

Marks and Bleed Area — Figure C: Crop Marks and 1/2 inch Bleed Area

These steps are specifically for Adobe’s Creative Suite and InDesign. You can create your pdf files directly out of PhotoShop and Illustrator as well. If you are using another desktop application, such as QuarkXpress or even Microsoft Word or Excel, all these controls will be there in different locations… you will still need to find where to select the PDF/X-1a preset and the accomodations for crop marks and bleed area.

We have many tools and tricks to adjust and control the output of properly made print-ready pdf files for offset printing. By using the pdf workflow, we bypass the problems of the past that included unwanted font substitutions, missing images, and accidental changes that could occur when reopening or editing root documents.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

August 4, 2011March 24, 2020

Supercharge Direct Mail with Variable Data Printing

Man receiving mail

Direct Mail works. Direct Mail with variable data works even better. And to the surprise of many it works more effectively than most email marketing efforts. The reason why says a lot about both the nature of email/web ads and the benefits of smart direct mail print marketing.

Many people’s first impression of “blast” email marketing was that it would save print production costs and revolutionize campaign strategy. What prevented that sea-change however is basic human nature. Most people ignore – even sometimes resent – unsolicited email messages, and easily overlook banner ads or website advertising, especially if it is not accurately customized to their personal interests. Direct mail has long been a staple in reaching a target audience and producing results. Personalizing the message on direct mail through variable data printing (VDP) can increase ROI even more – anywhere from double the normal return to 10-to-15 times! And the best part is that it works even better when you get creative with the possibilities – use VDP in a way that is unique to your clientele and needs. Think of VDP as much more than just someone’s first name on the front of the card. For example: if you own a pizza place, you could collect personalized data from customers in house with a survey card – then mail each customer a coupon for the specific pizza they said they enjoyed most, vastly increasing the likelihood of their return over just a generic coupon that goes out to all customers. In this way you begin to profile your customers buying habits, and can target your marketing efforts in a much more effective, powerful way. For a good overview of VDP, check out Adobe’s VDP Resource Center. Then call us and we’ll brainstorm some exciting VDP solutions for your marketing.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

July 27, 2011

5 Reasons to Love the Vector Version of Your Logo

Yes… you need a vector version of your logo! You may not be able to place or use it in a Word document, but for any high quality printing or output (or for spot or “2-color” printing) you should insist your designer supply you with the vector logo. Preferably, it will be the way your logo was originally created, and you will not have to pay or struggle to convert it from a pixel-based image after it has already become an integral part of your brand. Here are the reasons why:

Vector artwork can be scaled to any size needed and maintain its perfect clarity. They have crisp edges at any size as they are based on mathematical formulas rather than a bed of pixels.
They maintain a clear, transparent background when placed over other artwork or elements in your design. PNG files also have this ability but are pixel based so… (see reason #1)
They can function either in RGB or CMYK color modes as well as carry spot color definitions. You can select exact PMS color matches so that your brand is always reproduced consistently. While there are methods to include spot color information in a pixel-based file (DCS files from PhotoShop with spot color channels) they are, again, not resizeable and do not include easy trap information for printing.
You can easily switch a vector logo to a pixel-based file (.TIF, .JPG, .PNG, etc.) for manipulation, web use or other instances… but it is difficult and sometimes impossible to travel from pixel to vector in a satisfactory manner.
This last reason can be debatable and I am sure there are exceptions to the rule, but: as most logos need to be clean, vivid and memorable, vector shapes readily lend themselves to these qualities. The logos you know and remember are almost always designed as vector shapes rather than fuzzy, artistic brushstrokes or photographic effects.

WARNING: pixel-based files can be saved as EPS files, but be aware that just because it has an EPS suffix it has not been magically converted to a vector file. Also, pixel images can be placed into vector draw programs like Illustrator and saved as .AI or .EPS files. Again, not vector!

both of these images are .EPS files, but the one on the left is pixellated. The one on the right is a true vector logo.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, high impact graphics and marketing solutions.

July 26, 2011

New to Twitter? Yes, its for marketing but ENJOY it!

I was skeptical about Twitter at first, having the impression which many do that it’s merely a repository for endless minutiae. How many times have you heard someone (and by someone, I mean one who hasn’t been won over by Twitter yet) say “I don’t understand why anyone would want to read or post online what they had for lunch.” I agree… there is a huge wasteland in the Twitter feed of teenage babble, angry grandstanding, timewasting and somehow an overall pathetic cry for relevance: “Look at me, please… I matter!!” Just like the noise of a crowd, it can seem overwhelming until you hone in on the areas of interest to yourself and your business.

Now as a marketing tool, businesses are increasingly coming to realize the gold mine they have FOR FREE in Twitter. Many businesses already operate solely to TEACH you how to increase your profits through Twitter. That, however, is not the subject of this blogpost. In the course of using Twitter to enhance your bottom line, remember that your Twitter account is a public representation of your self, your company, your brand… have fun and expand your knowledge and contacts. If you are enjoying the interaction, your followers will as well. Your online presence will be more fully rounded and attractive to your audience, and you will also discover a great deal that you would never have been privy to otherwise.

I have found Twitter to be the greatest tool for keeping me informed about up to the minute events. News flashes through the Twitter feed almost simultaneously with actual events… therefore it eclipses television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and even blogposts and websites. Of course the caveat to that is that just like a reporter with numerous incoming sources, some are valid and some are not! You are put in the position of either verifying the information you are seeing or choosing which to trust. One of the first times it dawned on me about the immediacy of the Twitter experience was during the Iran uprising in 2009. Live posts were coming through about events in Teheran long before any news outlet online or otherwise was able to cover them. I found myself wrapped up in the excitement of that upheaval in real time — from people actually experiencing it first hand. I was better informed than I could be from reading even the most current blogposts or network newsites.

On the flip side of this experience you will also discover, for instance, that Twitter is the world’s fastest obituary site… often spreading false news of someone’s demise long before they have left the building, so to speak! So beware.

But perhaps the best and most useful insight that Twitter provides is into your own local community or your own particular interest niche. Following people and businesses in your own town, or even neighborhood, will keep you better informed than any news outlet or nosy neighbor ever could. Being better informed makes you better equipped to effectively market your business.

But don’t forget to share your contribution to this never-ending news stream: real time information that is relevant to your industry along with interesting daily occurrences, thoughts, observations – whether in a tweet or through linked content in photos, video or other posts. It won’t take you long to figure out the hashtags and Retweets, or discover the many related applications and sites that expand the Twitter experience. Using social media, and specifically Twitter, as a marketing tool may be the goal of course, but in the process I believe you will find it’s benefits extend far beyond a frustratingly hard to define profit bottom line.

Follow us! @maryimagesmith (Print, Design, Technology, Sustainability – Asheville & Western North Carolina)

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, high impact graphics and marketing solutions.

July 13, 2011

8 Good Reasons to Use FSC Certified Paper

FSC – Forest Stewardship Council. This is a global, non-governmental organization that was established in 1993 to oversee responsible forest management to protect both the world’s forests and its forest-dependent communities.

You see their logo on many products, from paper to building supplies, and there are many good reasons to both look for it on the forest products you purchase and insist on the logo on products you or your company use.

It protects the ENVIRONMENT. Forest products coming from FSC certified forests must be grown, managed and harvested in a way that is good for the habitat and the future growth of the forest.
It helps indigenous PEOPLE. All local, regional and global laws must be followed in harvesting and transporting FSC products, respecting the health and environment of indigenous people.
You are helping EMPLOY local workers. FSC forests must employ a local workforce at a decent salary to run their operations.
You are helping EDUCATE. FSC forest owners must support their local communities in many ways, especially in the development of schools.
Its for the FUTURE. Forests will be here for generations to come for others to enjoy and use.
FSC is the only paper certification ENDORSED by most major environmental groups. These groups include World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and The Woodland Trust.
It helps YOU, your business and your bottom line as consumers appreciate a commmitment to green practices and being able to participate in supporting sustainability through their purchases. It is a competitive advantage for you.
You can show your own commitment to SUSTAINABILITY. The FSC logo is widely respected and increasingly recognized as the standard in responsible forest management. That reflects on your brand.

ImageSmith is proud to offer FSC papers with Chain of Custody certification. You can use, at no extra cost, these on-product labels on your printed material — a globally trusted mark for businesses and consumers looking for sustainable solutions. Become a part of the chain. Forests, managed correctly, are a truly renewable resource.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, high impact graphics and marketing solutions.

July 12, 2011

When printed halftone screen angles conflict, THAT’S A “MOIRÉ”!

You have encountered moiré (pronounced ‘more-ray’) patterns many times and perhaps not known the term for what you were witnessing. When a television is photographed or videotaped, those annoying interference patterns and running lines are a moiré effect. If you have ever seen a person on television wearing a striped or patterned piece of clothing and it appears to undulate or move in a strange optical illusion – that is a moiré as well (specifically called “strobing”). The moiré appears whenever two grids are overlaid at a conflicting angle, or if they have differing mesh sizes.

Moiré samples — Left: Overlapping concentric lines create a moiré effect. Center: a scan of an offset printed photo reveals a repeating pattern effect or moiré, rather than a smooth color. Right: The 'rosette' dot pattern created by overlying halftone screen angles.

In the world of offset print and graphics, moiré patterns arise in two main ways. First, and most commonly, when a preprinted image is scanned, interference occurs between the ruling of the dot pattern of the original print and the scanner’s sample pattern. Filters can be used during the scan process to “descreen” the result and minimize the moiré, however it is always best in printing to avoid scans of pre-printed pieces for your artwork. Even descreening results in a less sharp image, and a ‘softer’ or fuzzier appearance.

Second, and less common thanks to Raster Image Processors (RIPs) and their digital control over imaging, are the moiré patterns than can occur when the four screen angles used in offset printing conflict. Each color in 4-color process printing is screened into a pattern of dots, and then angled differently to form a full color image. A standard set of screen angles to avoid a moiré is 105° cyan, 75° magenta, 90° yellow and 45° black, although the visibility of moiré is not always predictable, with some images exhibiting a moiré where others do not.

A great way to see how a moiré pattern works is to check out the demos at mathematik.com and mathworld.com. For a great explanation about screen angles and halftone patterns, be sure and read the Quality in Print blog.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, high impact graphics and marketing solutions.

July 8, 2011

Innovative Marketing with Pre-Loaded Flash Drives

A great idea to get your own custom marketing information or presentations into the hands of your customers: pre-load flash drives (also called jump drives, USB drives, memory sticks) with your information, imprint your logo onto the drive, and mail them out to your customer base.

Preloaded Jump Drives — Customized USB jump drives carry up to 16GB of information

The drives can carry your digital catalog, detailed product information, marketing videos, instructions on ordering, virtual tours, music, or even other freebies that you might use to entice a new digital-savvy consumer. Whereas in the past you may have invested in the printing of catalogs, and the high cost of mailing these bulky items out to potential customers — now you can brand an attractive jump drive with your logo or message and put it right into the hands of your target consumer through a presorted mailing. These high speed drives maintain a minimum of 10 year data retention and memory capacity goes up to 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB.

ImageSmith can handle every step of this project for you. We enjoy discovering new innovative ways to integrate technology into the business of making your marketing plans successful.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

July 1, 2011

Rich Blacks – 6 Ways to Define Black in Print

Just as colors vary from the natural world to your monitor to print (see Color Printing 101: the RBG & CMYK Gamuts), black is never JUST black. Rich Black, Cool Black, Warm Black, “Plain” Black, “Designer’s Black”…. each has their own reason for being. It is important to know them all, because on your computer monitor they all appear exactly alike!

Below are the standard compositions for some varieties of black used in the printing world.

Using these wisely will enrich your design and allow you a spectrum of black to use for different effects. While designers use rich black for visual effect, printers occasionally rely on rich black to solve trapping issues when text is printed over a colored background. It can hide slight misregistration of plates that would otherwise result in a small gap in color.

In the RGB world of your monitor’s display, black (um… ‘pure’ black?) is composed of R0, G0, B0 (no light is emitted from any of the three channels). Regardless of how you define black for printing purposes, it will be rendered this way on your monitor and thus appear the same – a fact that has caused many bad results over the years. Photoshop has contributed to this with the fact that the “Fill with Black” command defines black as C100, M100, Y100, K100. The image you are working with may have a black area that will match perfectly onscreen, but once printed you will see the difference in your black and the rich black Photoshop used in the fill areas.

Left: on your monitor, a .jpg logo may appear fine, but Right: once printed you see Plain vs. Rich Black

Many times we have seen, for example, a .jpg or .tif logo with a black background placed onto a larger black background in a page layout program – onscreen the result if fine, but once printed you immediately notice the marked difference between the logo area and the black box onto which it was placed.

The use of rich black or its variants can enrich printed graphics, but remember that too much ink coverage on certain papers can create other unintended problems, especially when used over large areas of coverage:

damage to lower quality papers
problems with ink drying times
ink offsetting onto the sheet above or below
increased costs of production.

Always consult your print provider for guidelines or concerns.

Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, high impact marketing solutions.

June 22, 2011November 13, 2019

Color Printing 101: the RGB & CMYK gamuts

The science behind color itself is at the heart of printing – and key to meeting the expectations you have for a beautifully printed project. The first step in understanding the boundaries of printable color is to know that the human eye can detect much more color than is possible for your computer monitor to display. In turn, your monitor can show more colors than it is possible to reproduce in offset printing.

The best illustration of this is a color gamut comparison chart where you can actually see the ‘real estate’ involved in each spectrum. (It’s always seemed odd to me that we use this illustration either on a printed page or a monitor… both of which are limiting the actual colors they are trying to represent!) In the figure below, the entire color shape represents all the visible spectrum of light.

Color spectrum - RGB & CMYK gamuts — Color Gamut Comparison

The RBG color area represents the specific wavelengths of light your monitor emits, and is clearly a much smaller area. Even smaller is the CMYK gamut showing colors that can be reproduced with printing inks. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow pigments (K or Black is added to create depth, definition and ensure a true black color) work as filters that subtract certain wavelengths of light and reflect others. They combine to create a spectrum of printable color.

Switching a file from RGB to CMYK in PhotoShop on your screen can visually show you the color shift that occurs when you switch to a more restrictive gamut. Try it on a random image and see if you notice a significant loss of color. Some printers prefer you leave your images in RBG mode with ICC profiles attached, while others prefer you go ahead and switch to CMYK mode, as that will inevitably happen before the printing process.

Most cameras and scanners capture color in RGB mode (or to get even more technical, the “sRGB” mode, or a standard definition of what colors can be shown on a computer monitor, as opposed to all the RGB colors that can be seen visually with reflective light). Some cameras have the aRGB (AdobeRGB) definition or a selection called “Raw” – it can capture more colors digitally than you will be able to see, but may be helpful when you edit and adjust your photographs in an editing program such as PhotoShop.

Printing methods are able to reproduce only a certain gamut of colors as well. When files contain colors that fall outside of that gamut, the RIP process must decide what to do with those colors – i.e., how to alter them in specific ways to make them become a color which is printable – and this is decided by the Rendering Intent options of the RIP software or printer driver. Rendering intents are mathematical formulas that alter out-of-gamut colors in predefined ways.

When an exact color match is needed on your print project, consider using a spot color ink in your design. Metallic inks also can give a great effect that isn’t possible with combinations of just the 4-color process inks. Paper or media choice will also affect and enhance the quality of printed colors.