| Most of these questions and more can be answered on the custom artwork services page. |
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| Q. |
What are acceptable electronic file formats? |
| A. |
Adobe Illustrator is preferred, but we can accept Adobe InDesign, Adobe Acrobat, Freehand MX and more... |
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| Q. |
When are fonts needed? |
| A. |
Any time a file that is submitted to International Plastics, uses fonts and those fonts are not converted to outlines or artwork, both the printer and screen Macintosh fonts should be sent as well. PC fonts are not acceptable. |
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| Q. |
What are screens or tints? |
| A. |
They are a percentage of ink printed. Please see Screens / Tints on our custom artwork services page. |
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| Q. |
How much are art charges? |
| A. |
$75 per hour. Please be sure to ask your sales rep how you can get up to two free hours of art time. |
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| Q. |
What are International Plastic's Printing capabilities |
| A. |
Just about anything you can come up with is managable. If you have seen something printed on a bag or label, chances are we can do it. Do keep in mind that the more complicated a job, the more time or financial investment may be required. Because each job is pretty unique be sure to check with your sales rep to make sure that what you are wanting to achieve is actually physically possible. |
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| Q. |
How does a printing press print on the plastic bag? |
| A. |
Plates made of a polymer based material are mounted onto a cylinder. Each plate represents one image that prints one color. A large bag may only require 1 plate because of size limitations of the press or cyclinder. A small bag may require multiple plates of the same image. Here is a exagerated illustration of how printing works. This illustration in no way is accurate in dimensions or structure of an actual printing press. It is only accurate on how one image is shown picking up ink on a multiple color print run. Notice how multiple plates are used on one cylinder. Notice also how each plate only lays down one color at a time. |
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| Q. |
Are plate estimates available? |
| A. |
Of course! Just supply us with a file, the number of ink colors to be printed, the size of the art, and we will be happy to get you a very quick turnaround on a plate estimate. |
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| Q. |
What is trapping? |
| A. |
It is the area that 2 or more colors of inks meet. They must overlap in order for the bag or label color to not show through. Due to the nature of Flexo printing a trap may require as much as 1/16". |
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| Q. |
What is the printable area? |
| A. |
It is the area on the bag or label that we can assure you that your art will show up. Due to how many varity of bags we offer we can not say for certain in this area what the printable area would be for any one bag. You can refer to the "printable image" area on our custom artwork services page for an example, but be sure to check with your sales rep before proceeding with a design so that you can be sure what you are wanting to print is what we or any printer is capable of producing. |
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| Q. |
What are eyespots / eyemarks? |
| A. |
This is a "small" rectangle that gets printed on a bag so that the bag can be produced properly. Not all bags need this marking. Be sure to ask your sales rep whether or not the type of bag you desire needs to have this if the look of your bag is crucial. |
