Please click on a topic and read on!

• Dead Disks to New Disks - Recycling Comes of Age
• Establish a Reminder System
• Headline Hangups
• Inches to Picas
• Knockouts, Overprints & Traps
• Master Your Production Time
• Personalizing Correspondence Improves Response
• Photo Tips
• Universal Logo, the

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Dead Disks to New Disks - Recycling Comes of Age

Have you ever considered how much waste is generated by unsold or outdated software packages? Since its founding on Earth Day, April 22, 1993, GreenDisk has recycled nearly 20 million pounds of software. That amount, if stacked, would make a pile over 500 miles tall - enough to reach satellites in orbit.

GreenDisk collects outdated and unsold packages, breaks them down and recycles the paper and plastic components. The diskettes are then "degaussed"-a magnetic process that completely erases all information previously contained on them. Since most of the diskettes from these packages have been written to only once on a high speed duplicator and never read, they are referred to as WORN (written once, read never).

According to research done by Fuji Film I & 1, diskettes can be written to over 30 thousand times during their useful life. Because software publishers use only premium diskettes in their software packages, these disks are typically of much higher quality than those found on retail shelves... often 30% higher quality.

GreenDisks are pre-formatted and pre-labeled with a GreenDisk branded, block-out label made of recycled paper. They must pass stringent quality control testing and they carry a lifetime guarantee.

You can obtain GreenDisks from the Egghead location nearest you (call 1-800 EGGHEAD) or from the GreenDisk corporate office at (800) 305-DISK.

Establish a Reminder System

You're putting information packets together and you realize you've run out of the last item. You go to write a letter and realize there's no more letterhead. You open your wallet to find you have no business cards left. Have any of these situations happened to you? Running out of a printed item can be very frustrating since you have to order the item and wait for more to be printed. There is a better way: a reminder system. Setting up a reminder system will help you reorder early and ensure that you always have supplies on hand. There are many types of reminders you can use. Some companies use the following six step system.

1. Number boxes of stationery when you first receive them from us.

2. Post a sign on the wall in your stationery storage area that tells anyone who uses stationery to use the high-numbered boxes first.

3. Leave a "sign out" sheet by the boxes so when someone needs a whole box, the individual can sign out for it. The box would then be deleted from your inventory.

4. Insert a reminder slip about half way through the last box of the second to last case. This sheet should tell the last quantity ordered, where it came from, when it was ordered, etc.

5. If any information will be changing circle the date of change on the calendar. Also circle a date at least two to three weeks before that for the printing to be done.

6. Call to reorder before your supplies are depleted.

Headline Hangups

Now that we have shown you how to write great head, lines, we want to tell you what things you should avoid with the layout and content of your headlines:

Mistake #1. Not keeping related words together on the same line. Don't break up the family. Rather than...

Swimmer Jonathan
Smythe Named to
All-League Team

... try to keep your phrases together...

Smythe Named
All-League
In Swimming

Mistake #2. Meaning one thing, but saying something else. Scour your headlines for the embarrassing and overly inventive.

Mistake #3. Generalities vs. specifics. Be sure to impart knowledge in your headlines. Avoid opinion heads on news pieces.

Mistake #4. Careless proofreading. The big type in headlines can lull you into overconfidence. Heads must be proofed letter-by-letter.

Mistake #5. Relying too much on slang or other short forms in headlines. If you are not careful, your jargon will become so intense that it will be nothing more than nonsense. Ease of readability is the key to a good headline.

Mistake #6. Poor punctuation. Two thoughts in one headline must be separated by a comma or semicolon. Quotes in a headline take a single mark (')and not the customary double(").

Mistake #7. Decking (having a similar number of characters on each line of a headline) is poorly handled. Remember the maxim: "A smooth-talking headline, sloppily dressed, can make a bad impression." Your headline should read crisply and look clean; that is, be evenly decked.

Source: Mary Crowley, Phillips Publishing
Reprinted with permission of the Newsletter Publishers Association

Inches to Picas

Page layout programs offer several different methods of measuring your pages. The pros will tell you to always use picas when working with type, because that's the way typestyles are measured. If all the elements on your page are laid out in the same measurement scheme, everything will look better.

But those that use picas must convert between inches and picas constantly. There are 6 picas to an inch. So how many picas and points are in one and I 1 /16 inches?

Sometimes you want inches and need to know the decimal value for your fraction. Keep this chart handy. It will save a lot of time with the calculator!

Knockouts, Overprints & Traps

When you are printing in color, you may occasionally want the colors to touch. When you make colors touch, sometimes problems will occur.

For example, ugly white gaps can appear around objects that are not perfectly aligned. Or, if two colors overlap incorrectly, the resulting mixed color can often be somewhere between the colors gross95 and disgusting63 in the PMS book.

Clearly, you'll want to avoid this. How? By using traps, knockouts and overprints.

Here are a few more printing terms you'll need to know. In the printing business, overprinting refers to printing one ink on top of another. This may or may not be desirable, depending on what colors are being used. If you are printing black letters on top of a light blue screen, overprinting is the best choice, because black ink will cover the light blue without changing.

If, on the other hand, you have light blue letters surrounded by a darker color, you should apply a knockout. This technique puts a hole in the background that prevents the two inks from printing on top of each other. Without a knockout, the two inks will mix and change color. When a knockout is applied, in most cases it is also necessary to apply a trap.

Trapping makes one color overprint slightly over the edge of another. This technique allows two adjacent colors to print without any white gaps that may appear. Since trapping is very detailed, you may want us to handle the trapping of your documents. Be sure to specify what you want us to do when you bring in your file.

Personalizing Correspondence Improves Response

It used to be a standard business practice for the owner of a company to sign each piece of correspondence that left his or her establishment. Now, many businesses have too many transactions within a day for the owner to personalize each piece of correspondence.

Often the types of correspondence from a company can be grouped within a few letters. When this is the case, you can have the president of the company sign master letters and then print a large quantity. You could have the president's signature printed in a black or blue ink that looks like a pen. Computers provide another way to personalize correspondence. If you leave a certain amount of space at the top of your master letters, you can imprint the names and addresses of the receivers on subsequent copies.

Does personalization really make that much difference? According to several publishers from the Newsletter Publishers Association it definitely does. Many publishers indicate that using Courier (typewriter) type on their direct mail pieces boosts their response by as much as 50%.

Some companies also attach printed Post-It Notes® to their correspondence. They print the notes in a black or blue ink that looks like a ball-point pen. This has also been shown to increase response.

Photo Tips

1. Crop or cut photos in unusual shapes or sizes to increase interest.

2. If you have more than one office location, leave disposable cameras at each one so you can get some candid shots.

3. You can use scanned photos in your newsletter, but it is best to have us scan them.

4. Always bring extra rolls of film to a photo shoot.

5. Give yourself extra time to get the shots you want.

6. Use simple backgrounds.

7. Make sure your photos reflect your total readership. 8. Avoid taking pictures against walls or in other areas that will produce shadows. 9. Low ASA films generally pick up more detail. 10. Halftones usually give the best quality. 11. When your final print is going to be in black and white, it is best to start with a black and white photograph.

12. Choose a paper color that is complementary to photos.

13. When possible, gang pictures (must be the same percentage of light/dark and enlargement or reduction). This enables several pictures to be handled together instead of separately.

14. Use candid shots instead of posed ones. If posed shots are the only ones available, try to put them at an angle or crop them in an unusual way to make them eye catching.

15. Include captions every picture except photo collages. Make sure captions correctly identify the people in the picture.

The Universal logo

Creating a logo takes great foresight. All effective logos have two main attributes. They can be used in a variety of colors from black and white to four-color and they can be enlarged or reduced. Logos that have these two attributes become quite an asset for companies, especially when it's time to advertise.

Consider the printing processes you might want to use with your logo. Some applications such as silkscreening work better with less detailed logos.

The following "rules" of logo design will help you avoid the pitfalls that await many novice graphic designers.

Make the logo size flexible
A design which looks good at 1 foot tall might be impossible to recognize when printed at an inch in height. The designer or you should order photostats to be made at every possible size the logo will be used. If it is not functional when used at a small size, scrap it (or don't use it at small percentages).

Make the logo print universal Can the logo be rubber-stamp printed onto a box? Lithographed? Photocopied? Silk-screened? Letterpressed? We can't describe the limitations of each process, but the designer should answer all of the above questions. If you have doubts, ask us.

Make the logo color independent
Although a design might be well suited for printing in more than one color, what happens to it when you absolutely must print it in black and white? Have photostats done to prove that the logo will hold its own in a single color.

Master Your Production Time

Do you ever wish you could squeeze just five more minutes into your day. Two printing tools exist to help you do just that.

Camera-ready logo slicks are sheets printed with your logo in a variety of sizes. You can use them with ads, brochures and any other printed materials.

All you'll have to do is find the size you need, cut it out and place it where you want it. You'll have beautiful camera ready art at your fingertips!

Suppose you have extra copier paper around the office. You can use it to make instant company notesheets. Simply cut out a small logo. Paste it in the middle of the top of a sheet of paper, and make as many copies as you need.

Have you ever run out of all your business cards or letterhead? Chances are at some time you have. As you know, time becomes critical in such circumstances. To save yourself time and money, we suggest masters. Masters are large print runs of an item containing all elements of a job that stay the same (e.g. company name, address, phone number, logo). Since we are able to take your masters and imprint business card names, press release information, etc. in one color, the items will dry faster.

Masters also save you money. They save the extra ink charges you would pay each time you ordered business cards or letterhead that had more than one color. When you make masters of jobs that involve embossing, foil stamping and other specialty processes, you'll save even more.

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3031 West Burbank Boulevard, Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 840-8013 • (818) 842-5167 • Fax (818) 840-8014
E-mail: info@burbankprint.com

© Burbank PrintingCenter, 1997
Last Updated 02/9/98