Mac Papers to Host Open House with Guest MUTOH FlexiSIGN & Print Expert Mark Rugen
A Different Kind of Open House by Mac Papers
Mac Papers will host an educational based open house at their new wide format demo center on June 27 in Nashville, TN.
This is not just a product showcase, but rather an educational event. They have invited Mark Rugen, Dir. Product Marketing & Education at MUTOH AMERICA to share his expertise by leading two educational seminars.
Mark is not only a MUTOH Valuejet wide format printer expert, he is an expert in color management as well as FlexiSIGN & Print. Mark has been in the wide format sign & graphics business for over 30 years! Every MUTOH Valuejet printer comes with a free copy of FlexiSIGN, a $4000 value and Mark will give two one hour sessions on this design & production software.
His topics will include:
Top 10 features of FlexiSIGN for Wide Format Printing
- Using the Cloud Features – What Are They and Why You Need Them
- Custom Workspaces – Setting Up a Faster Interface
- Right Mouse Button – Saving Time Searching for Commands
- DesignCentral – The Heart of Flexi
- Fill/Stroke Editor – Manage Color Effects
- Smart Objects – Make Editing Easy
- Text & Graphic Styles – Create, Save & Repeat
- Vectorizing – The Best of Flexi & More
- Contour Cutting – Making It Easy with MUTOH
- Production Manager – So Much More Than a RIP
Getting the Best Color You Ever Printed
- Color Setting – The Heart of Color Management
- Soft Proofing – See Before You Print
- Working with Vector Color
- Working with Bitmaps
- Adobe & Flexi – Let’s Play Nice!
In addition to Marks presentation, there is a Mutoh ValueJet 1638WX on site for demos and the Mac Papers staff members and others will discuss dye-sublimation equipment and methods to show you how to get started and be successful in a growing industry.
This is not just a product showcase, but rather an educational event.
Of course, there will be plenty of time to ask a question of the experts present as well as get some personal attention regarding how to get the best prints on a wide format printer. So come to visit with some of the best-known industry experts and have some fun too!
For More Information About This Educational Open House and to register to attend, visit https://www.macpapers.com/nashvilledemo/
Marty Davis
Director, Wide Format and Graphics
3300 Philips Highway
Jacksonville, FL 32207
904-348-3302 (office)
813-965-1925 (cell)
Can’t Attend? Watch this sample of what you’ll be missing and be sure to visit our www.thinkmutoh.com website for online training!
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FlexiSIGN Training DVD ON SALE Until June 30
Get the FlexiSIGN Training DVD for Half Off!
MUTOH is offering Mark Rugen’ 10-hour FlexiSIGN Training DVD for 50% off in the month of June! That’s a savings of $150.
Use this link to order your personal copy: https://www.thinkmutoh.com/product/flexisigntrainingdownload
The training sessions are broken down into several sections:
- Introduction (6 videos)
- Fundamentals (23 videos)
- Intermediate (10 videos)
- Advanced (17 videos)
- Production Manager Topics (3 videos)
- Color Management Topics (6 videos)
- Third-Party Programs (4 videos)
- Bonus Topics (6 videos)
- Flexi 12 Training (9 videos)
A partial list of lessons available include:
- Text Basics
- Outlines & Shadows
- Importing
- Scanning, Bitmaps
- Bitmap Tracing
- Vinyl Cutting
- Printing
- Contour Cutting
- Lenses
- Vehicle Wraps
- And much more!
Our Flexi 11 & 12 Training offers a simplified approach to cutting-edge technology.
https://www.thinkmutoh.com/product/flexisigntrainingdownload
Mark Rugen has over 30years of experience in the graphics and signs business. He is one of the few SAi certified Flexi Trainers in the world. He has authored and produced interactive training for resellers, SAi inside sales staff, and end users. He has conducted training sessions worldwide and to date has trained well over 10,000 students.
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.
An arresting personality.
by Randy Anderson, Product Marketing Manager, MUTOH AMERICA ( FlexiSIGN)
Ok, I am not really being arrested.
Swear to you…..
Not this time, at least.
And the guy not arresting me?
Mark Rugen
Mark was working the Mutoh booth at one of the tradeshows ‘directing’passers-by into our booth and educating them about the value of our ValueJets and what Mutoh has to offer the industry.
Mark has run GiveMeHelp (http://givemehelp.com/) for almost 3 decades providing training and education for graphic and sign making companies.
During that time he has provided Training and Education for industry leaders Seal (https://www.sealgraphics.com/us/us/home) covering their laminators and media, prior to that with Neschen Americas.
He has also provided Training and Education for the FlexiSIGN folks at SAI (https://www.thinksai.com/)
In my opinion, Mark knows more about how to operate Flexi than anyone else, even those at SAI.
Many years ago at a trade show, I had a question on vector editing in Flexi, Mark turned out to be the guy who could answer my questions when others had difficulty.
And all long before he was not arresting people at the trade shows.
If you don’t believe me check out Mark’s feed on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaYJOPWQ5mOSxvljrj-0MBqNWaXgm_Ufo&app=desktop
Mark joined Mutoh America this year to provide Training and Education to improve our already great customer support center and to provide an opportunity for new users to maximize their profitability from Mutoh Equipment.
Mark was the driving factor for the creation of these blogs, and you can expect to see much more from Mark and Mutoh in the future to give you more insight into Mutoh and the applications supported by Mutoh printing technologies.
If you are a Flexi user and want to know the ins and outs of Flexi, or want to be a Flexi user check out Marks Flexi Training from Mutoh (https://www.mutoh.com/company/events/)
On the same Events page check out the Trade Shows for an opportunity to see Mark in person.
Just don’t let him see you walking past the booth and not checking out what Mutoh has to offer….he still has that arresting personality.
Read MoreWhat 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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