Using Color in Your Design
Understanding Color Choices
Here’s a video that will guide you through understanding how to use color in your design. It is done in a simple fashion so it’s easy to understand.
Find out what colors look good together! After viewing, show us some examples of your own work! Explain why you chose the colors. We’d love to see it. Enjoy! http://colormind.io/bootstrap/
As you can see, matching or harmonizing the right colors is not hard, it just takes a little thought and practice. Would you like to learn more about color matching, color printing, and design? If so, you would love to attend one of our live training seminars hosted throughout the USA.
Find out more in one of our live training classes held throughout the USA!
Read MoreFont Pairing for Great Signage
What is Font Pairing?
If you have a sign that contains more than one font to communicate a message, it can be troubling to find the right combination of fonts that look good together. This is called Font Pairing.
In the following video, we will show you how to find the right font pairing, how to download the find and install them and how to use them in FlexiSIGN, a design and RIP software included with most MUTOH wide format printers.
Read MoreUncomfortable to Get Comfortable
Why Uncomfortable?
In business, you must become uncomfortable to get comfortable. To truly grow your company, you must do things that feel uneasy. Maybe you need to take that step of investing in new equipment. Maybe you need to hire that design artist. Maybe you need to upgrade all your computers and software.
These can all be significant financial investments but they can in the coming months afterwards result in even more growth in profits. The problem is that when you think about what you are about to do, you get uncomfortable and that can make you hesitate. Hesitation can kill a business.
A Great Example of Being Uncomfortable
Francesco Molinari just won the Open in Golf. What did he do before the last round that set him on that path of success? He got uncomfortable! Read about what he did to get his mental game set for a stressful last but winning round.
The practice green on the final day of a major championship rarely evokes the pressure-cooker feeling that golfers face once their round begins. It’s a place to warm up and get a feel for the speed of the greens, free from worry about the cost of a miss.
But in the moments before his final round at Carnoustie on Sunday, Francesco Molinari gave himself a very particular test.
He challenged himself to make precisely eight 5-foot putts from various spots on the green in as few attempts as he could. That he required only nine tries was less important than the idea behind the exercise.
“Do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be ready?” said Molinari’s performance coach, Dave Alred. “They’re not necessarily the same.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uncomfortable-practice-habits-of-a-champion-1532689201
After you read about how he prepared for his greatest victory in golf, think about how you can apply those mental exercises in your shop.
Get Uncomfortable to Be Comfortable and grow your business.
How MUTOH Can Help You Feel Comfortable
If you are looking to improve your profits, why not consider MUTOH AMERICAS ValueJet wide format printers. We make them for every industry with our offering of Dye-Sublimation, Eco-Solvent and UV-LED solutions. You won’t be uncomfortable for long!
Visit the mother ship to find out more about the entire line of wide format printers from MUTOH.
Read MoreCreating a Cool Grunge Effect in FlexiSIGN
What is Grunge?
Grunge is a term used to indicate a slight form of wear and tear on an object. The effect if used in design should give the item a warns, old, torn sort of look. If clothes could rust, they would automatically be grunge, but instead fashion designers use other methods to make something grunge, like purposely putting holes in jeans. FlexiSIGN makes it easy to use this concept in your design.
Creating the Grunge Look in FlexiSIGN
In signage, the grunge look is popular and can easily be made in FlexiSIGN. In fact, the method that is described in this video lesson can be used for a number of great custom textures.
Wide Format Printing Open House!
Mac Papers Announces June 27 Grand Opening of New Wide Format Demo Center in Nashville Area
Grand opening showcases educational seminars and wide format printing and finishing equipment demonstrations from leading manufacturers Roland DGA, Mutoh, and more
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (June 25, 2018) – Mac Papers, one of the largest merchant distributors in the Southeast U.S., announced today the June 27 grand opening of its newest wide format demo center. Located at the Mac Papers Nashville branch, the center showcases the latest wide format printing and finishing technologies from best-in-class equipment manufacturers including Roland DGA, Mutoh America Inc., Canon Solutions America, Geo Knight & Co, and Printware.
“We’re extremely pleased to offer our customers a fourth location in the Southeast where they can get hands-on wide format equipment and media experience and training,” said Marty Davis, director of wide format and graphics for Mac Papers. “The grand opening of our Nashville demo center will feature demonstrations of the latest equipment as well as complimentary seminars, including two excellent sessions from wide format sign and graphics expert Mark Rugen of Mutoh.”
Davis will lead a lunch seminar on dye sublimation techniques and trends, and members of the Mac Papers wide format technical team will be present to demonstrate equipment and recommend media from top manufacturers including Neenah Coldenhove, General Formulations and Avery Dennison.
“Mac Papers is committed to helping commercial printers and sign and display businesses excel in the growing wide format segment,” added Davis. “As part of that ongoing commitment, Mac Papers plans to operate a demo center within a four-hour drive of all the areas we serve throughout the southeastern U.S.”
To RSVP for the June 27 event, go to macpapers.com/nashvilledemo. The new demo center is located at 5501 Crossing Circle, Antioch, Tennessee. Mac Papers also operates wide format demo centers in Atlanta, Jacksonville and Orlando. The centers are open for appointments Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To schedule a visit and demonstration, call 844.MAC.WIDE (844.622.9433), or email wideformat@macpapers.com.
About Mac Papers
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Mac Papers is one of the largest wholesale distributors in the southeastern U.S. The company is a distribution partner for paper and print, packaging, facility supplies and office products. Mac Papers works with best-in-class suppliers to help businesses and consumers deliver quality results, boost efficiency and improve their bottom line. The company operates branch locations and retail stores in nine states across the Southeast. Mac Papers is a third generation, family-owned and operated business founded in 1965. Our sister company Mac Papers Envelope Converters converts and prints an extensive range of standard and custom envelopes – 16 million per day – utilizing the latest in equipment and technology. For more information, please visit macpapers.com or follow us on Twitter @macpapers and LinkedIn.
Media contact: John Herbkersman; John.Herbkersman@macpapers.com; 904.348.3237
Read MoreA PC Tech’s PC Tech – Why Consider A Fast Computer from SignBurst
Hi, my name is Earl
One of the funniest things about the show “My Name is Earl” is that he never took a photo where his eyes weren’t shut.
This seemed fitting in talking about another of my industry friends. Let me introduce you to a guy who opened my eyes to optimized PCs for the design and sign industry.
Casey Yonemura, the Graphic Design Computer Specialist at Signburst (http://signburst.com/).
Casey was working the SAI booth https://www.thinksai.com/) at ISA 2018.
The first time I met Casey was at a trade show, many years ago.
Mutoh was just focusing on car wraps and I had actually begun designing wraps for myself and Mutoh.
Mutoh is an industry leader in the car wrap field now and Mutoh sponsors Justin Pate’s Avery Wrap Classes around the country. (https://www.mutoh.com/company/events/)
Justin’s an old friend of mine and I like to think I helped get these training classes off the ground in the early days. (http://www.justinpate.net/)
What a Great Computer Can Do
So I was at a show and stopped by The Bad Wrap booth (https://thebadwrap.com/) where Casey was running a Photoshop demo using The Bad Wrap templates and full-size wrap designs.
It looked like a typical canned video commercial with images dragging in and being edited and popping up in the template. assumed this was all edited to look fast, because I had a pretty good PC at home and I knew my images took much, MUCH longer just to load, more to edit. was just about to keep walking when I overheard the conversation between Casey and the guy he was giving a demo to about loading another image, and I watched Casey load a full-size image into the template with a click of the mouse.
This was REAL TIME.
I had never seen anything quite like this.
And this was BEFORE SSDs and the like.
Yes, I built dozens of PCs over the years and thought I had pretty good insight on PCs, but nothing like Casey has. Stayed and watched the rest of his demo and quizzed him on how he was able to get this kind of performance out of a PC.
It boiled down to the ‘right’ quality components and his insights from contacts at Adobe and RIP companies that allowed him to optimize these PCs not only for design but for RIP performance as well.
What a Great Computer Can Do in Your Shop
I was impressed enough to do a testimonial for Casey:
Randy Anderson, Product Marketing Manager – Mutoh America Inc. – “I have to admit, when I first saw one of Signburst’s computers running Photoshop for vehicle wrap design at a trade show, I thought there was some trickery going on. I had never seen such large files open and process so quickly. I watched for about 20 minutes in awe as this system was working virtually in real time with huge files and many layers. We invited SignBurst to our demo room, and their computer RIP’ed files in seconds that took our in-house system minutes, truly impressive. The time savings and increased productivity for these systems can greatly benefit any production environment.”
His PCs are blazing fast, and can increase your productivity and Casey is a PC Tech’s PC Tech. Pair his computers with our already fast MUTOH printers and you just entered the good side of the Twilight Zone!
Read MoreTextile Printing & More. An Interview with Rachel Nunziata with 4Walls.
Textile Printing & More
In this great short interview listen to Rachel Nunziata talk about her business and concentrate on how you can take advantage of this grow textile print business. Starting and growing a textile printing business is not difficult but can be if you don’t have the right training & education. After the interview, find out more about how MUTOH can fill this education gap.
Digital Printing Hits a Wall. And the Floor. And Your Sofa.
Published on May 14, 2018 by WhatTheyThink?
Rachel Nunziata, Product Development Manager for 4Walls, talks about the design process for digital décor. 4Walls designs and prints wallcoverings and a wide variety of other materials, handling the process all the way from design through production.
We highly recommend you subscribe and read http://whattheythink.com/ for some great interviews!
Here is the link to Rachels sites:
4walls.com and findyourlevel.com
I wanted to add some comment to this video. MUTOH is focusing on this market of walls and textiles. This a rapidly growing market. MUTOH has some of the best printers for the textile market. You should check out our collection, however, I really wanted to stress that it’s not just about a printer its also about learning, education, training. To be successful, just talk to a few folks who are in this business of textile printing and they will tell you it was a learning curve and it was the knowledge that resulted in their success. Well, that is what makes MUTOH so different from the other who sell into this market. We have the experts and we have the seminars and more to help educate you each step of the way. Let us explain how! Just call us.
What is Soft Proofing & Why Does It Matter in Wide Format Printing?
What is Soft Proofing & Why Does It Matter in Wide Format Printing?
Everyone wants to match what they see on the monitor with the output from a wide format printer. Sadly, few accomplish this. Part of a well-managed color system is the ability to soft proof, or change the monitor colors display so they reflect printer output. Let’s learn a little more about this and maybe teach you how to do it properly.
Step 1: Calibrate and Profile Your Monitor
The very first start is to make sure your monitor is telling you the truth about color. Sure it’s putting out great rich colors but are they really correct? You won’t know unless you calibrate and profile your monitor. While I highly recommend using a good colorimeter to actually do this, you can at least find a monitor profile that close to your model or even one that is in fact your model. Here’s a good place to start: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm .
TFT CENTRAL
This website gives reviews of some really good monitors. So if you’re in the market, good place to find one. But it also is a great resource for finding a monitor profile if you don’t want to make your own. There are literally hundreds of models of monitors and profiles listed in alphabetical order.
Simply browse and if you cannot find your specific model, you might find one really close.
Monitor Profiles for Flexi Users
If your a Flexi SIGN & PRINT user, you can choose the generic LCD profile included in your software. Just go to the Edit menu and choose color settings. Now when the pop-up dialogue box shows, choose the generic lcd monitor profile. Hey it’s not perfect but better than nothing.
Step 2: Accurate Media Profiles
The second critical step in good soft proofing is a good or a better word accurate media profile. Again the best way to obtain this is using equipment such as spectrophotometer. Most will not do this because of the cost of the equipment, $1000-$2000 in many cases.
X-RITE i1 might be the most popular of these devices. A good custom profile or at least a profile that is modified for your particular printer will result in more accurate colors and more neutral grays.
If you don’t intend to make your own profiles, at least try to find accurate ones. I suggest getting them from the media vendor. They want to sell more media so they want colors to look good on that media and therefore could have more accurate profiles.
Media Profiles for Flexi Users
Flexi users will want to use the included media profiles. They are made carefully for this product, however, it’s still a good idea to check with the media manufacturer to see if they have a more accurate one for your media. Also don’t be afraid to use a similar media profile if needed to get better results. So for instance, if you have 3M media but use a ORCAL profile and get better results, keep moving on.
Flexi includes the software to modify or create new profiles, so at some point, I recommend purchasing a spectrophotometer so you can customize your media profiles and even make a good monitor profile.
Step 3: Learn to Soft Proof
Finally, learn to soft proof. Many design software such as Adobe Photoshop and Flexi have the ability to turn on and off soft proofing. You need to learn how to do this. More importantly, you need to experiment and see what the limitations of that soft proof are. In other words, you may need to play with the brightness and contrast on your monitor until you get a pretty good match with your print. Sooner or later you’ll figure out how to get some good results when soft proofing.
Soft Proofing in Flexi
In Flexi, just go to the edit menu and set up your monitor profile, your printer and media, then choose the second tab and choose your input profile, typically sRGB or the monitor profile. Now go to the view menu and choose soft proof or use the icon at the top of Flexi that looks like a monitor. If everything goes right when you print you’ll get similar colors to your soft proof.
Want a better more detailed discussion of soft proofing? Well, then it’s time to attend one of our Flexi or Color Management seminars. Find out where we will be here:http://www.thinkmutoh.com/event
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