Artwork Guidelines

Promotional Product Logos or Design ARTWORK can be emailed to info@trendpromotions.com.au (info null@null trendpromotions NULL.com NULL.au) or supplied on CD or DVD. (file no bigger than 5MB)

Trend’s preferred ARTWORK formats :

• Encapsulated PostScript (.EPS) files
• Adobe Illustrator (.AI) files
• Four colour process (.JPEG or .TIFF) files
• (Please forward your artwork via email)

All artwork and text must be accompanied by the required PMS colour for printing. Look for your colour on the Trend Promotions home page. (see below for more information re PMS colours).

We require original electronic artwork or we will be unable to use it to decorate your chosen product.
If you are unable to provide artwork in our required format, we offer a design service to redraw your artwork at a charge of $60.00 per hour.

What is a PMS colour?

PMS is a colour that is specified in the Pantone Matching System. This system provides a standard for describing printed colours using specific inks, and therefore results in the best colour replication for your artwork – all colours have a number according to the PMS. See if yours is there on the Trend Promotions home page – look to the right hand side under PMS Colour Chart.

What is CMYK?

CMYK is a print process that uses four colours – cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K) to produce all other colour ranges. It’s used for most full-colour commercial printing such as magazines.

What is RGB?

RGB is a colour model in which three primary colours of light (red, green and blue) are combined in varying intensities to produce all other colours. Monitors, scanners and the human eye use RGB to produce or detect colour.

What is Spot Colour?

This is a single colour that is reproduced by using a single ink. Spot colour swatch books and links are provided by companies such as Pantone.

What is a Bitmap (BMP)?

A Bitmap is a pixel by pixel image. Bitmaps are an image composed of a rectangular grid of squares called pixels (picture elements). Each pixel contains information that describes whether it is black, white or has a colour value. When working with bitmap images, you edit pixels rather than objects or shapes. A bitmap image is resolution independent – that is, it contains a fixed number of pixels to represent it’s image data. As a result, a bitmap image can lose detail and appear jagged if viewed at a high magnification on-screen or printed at too low a resolution. BMP is the standard Windows image format.

What are Vector Graphics?

Drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw can create vector graphics. These are made of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. Vectors describe graphics according to their geometric characteristics. A vector graphic is resolution-independent – that is, it can be scaled to any size and printed on any output device at any resolution without losing it’s detail or clarity.

What is EPS?

Encapsulated Post Script. This is a file format that supports both PC and MAC images. EPS files are platform independent. EPS format is used to transfer Postscript language artwork between different programs.

What is the difference between a GIF and JPEG?

A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a bitmap file format commonly used to display indexed-colour graphics and images in HTML documents over the Web and other online services. GIF is a LZW (Lemle-Zif-Welch) – compressed format designed to minimise file size and electronic transfer time.

A JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is commonly used to display photographs and scanned images via email. JPG retains all colour information in a bitmap image but compresses file size by selectively discarding data. The JPG format supports CMYK, RGB and grayscale colour modes. A higher level of compression results in lower image quality and a lower level of compression results in better image quality. JPG files are okay for embroidery or promotional products such as hats or promotional caps, but they have to be reillustrated for printing and engraving of promotional products.

Both forms are excellent for electronic use, but are not suitable for printing.

What is a TIFF image?

A TIFF is a bitmap file format that was specifically developed for page layout applications and is supported by all image editing applications. The TIFF format supports RGB, CMYK, grayscale and bitmap (black and white) files.

Why can’t I use your JPEG/GIF product images to print my catalogue?

The JPEG/GIF images used on the Trend Promotion website are set at a resolution of 72dpi, ideal to view electronically. Hard-copy printing such as catalogues requires a minimum resolution of 300dpi to ensure quality is maintained through the print process.

What is a PDF document?

A PDF (Portable Document Format) is used by Adobe Acrobat. PDF files are becoming the industry standard for offset and digital printing of promotional merchandise and promotional products. Adobe’s electronic publishing software for Windows, Mac OS, UNIX and DOS. You can view and print PDF files using the Acrobat Reader software. PDF files can represent both vector and bitmap graphics.
They have only limited use for printing promotional products. A .pdf file is fine for embroidery but we have to reillustrate a .pdf logo if printing or engraving is required.

What if I don’t have an electronic copy of my artwork?

The best way to get hard copy artwork is to use a scanner – a device used to create a bitmapped image of art. Scanners are also good for art that cannot be created on the computer, such as photographic prints, transparencies or slides.

Can I supply artwork in a Word document?

No. Word documents are not compatible with our art department’s operating system. Therefore, they are unable to manipulate these types of files

What is DPI?

DPI stands for dots per inch and is a measure of the resolution of a display or output device.

What is resolution?

Resolution is a measure of the size of pixels or dots that compose a bitmap.