File formats, brand colours & printing – what you need to know!

Once you’ve chosen which promotional products are right for you, it’s time to think about the branding. This is usually quite straightforward; however, there are some technical considerations which must be taken into account…

Print file formats

If we had a pound for every time a customer says, “can’t you just get the logo from our website, or off my e-mail signature?” we would be very wealthy indeed!

However, for printed items your logo needs to be in the correct file format to ensure the finished product is of the highest quality possible. To be certain you have the required files for all printing processes and indeed other applications, i.e. web and e-mail marketing, we’d suggest that you ask your designer for the following when your artwork is created:

EPS/AI – Either of these file formats allow the logo/artwork to be enlarged to any size without loss of quality. Both are essential to have if you require items printed with your branding and are generally the most frequently used in the promotional product industry.

JPEG/PNG – Most people will be aware of these two file formats and will probably use them regularly. They are both ideal for e-mail marketing and online use, whether that be on a website, blog or on social media. Generally, these file types need to be at least 300dpi (DPI = dots per inch), otherwise, the quality will be too low and the image will appear fuzzy or blurry.

EPS/AI files are typically the formats we require to print promotional products and are always the preferred file format.

Brand colours

In order to portray a successful brand image, colour consistency across all communication channels is essential. Your brand colours are your corporate identity and distinguish you from others. Therefore, in addition to the above file formats, ensure you ask your designer/agency to provide you with your brand colour references for Pantone, CMYK and RGB…

Pantones

Far too often we see organisations using colours on their website which aren’t quite the same shades as used on their other marketing literature or branded merchandise. The printed colours on the merchandise will often be a different colour variation to both the website and printed literature, resulting in poor brand consistency. Generally, this is due to the Marketing or Design team not understanding the correct use of colour across different mediums and also not having clearly defined, brand colour compositions for each process.

Promotional items are most commonly printed using spot colours, by a screen printing process. In order to print individual spot colours on to products, you need to know your brand’s Pantone colours.

The Pantone Colour Matching System is a standardised, colour reproduction system. By standardising the colours, different manufacturers in any location can all refer to the Pantone system to ensure colours match, without direct contact with one another. For example, if your organisation’s corporate colours are blue and red, both will have a Pantone reference which can be found in the Pantone system and will determine the exact shade of blue and red in your branding. By providing a print company or ourselves with these Pantone references, we can ensure the printed colours on your promotional product are these specific Pantone colours, therefore, providing an exact colour match and brand consistency.

Finally, pantone references either have a C or U letter following the number. This stands for coated or uncoated and is generally only relevant when printing on to paper. As paper can be coated (shiny, soft feel) or uncoated (often used for printer paper and letterheads) the colour will appear slightly different when printed, hence why the letter is required by the manufacturer. Print on coated paper is rich and vibrant because the ink sits on top of the paper; however, an uncoated paper allows the ink to be soaked up, so the printed colour often appears duller.

CMYK

The second printing process regularly used for promotional products is full colour printing – also known as 4 colour and/or CMYK.

This process is cheaper than screen printing Pantone colours, therefore, is more cost effective for larger quantity print runs and is required for artwork containing more than 4 Pantone colours.

It uses 4 standardised base colours to create the printed image – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK). Unlike screen printing Pantone colours, full colour printing can’t guarantee exact colour matching; therefore, it is essential to provide the manufacturer with your CMYK breakdowns to ensure the correct colour shade in your branding is printed. If your artwork contains a number of different colours, it isn’t possible to print an exact match for every colour, so the manufacturer will produce a best match. However, providing your artwork is set-up correctly by your Designer, using the correct CMYK breakdowns within the file; there shouldn’t be any colour variation issues.

RGB

This is not another print process and isn’t relevant to printing promotional merchandise, however, we thought it would be helpful to just give you a brief understanding of what this colour breakdown is used for…

RGB is a colour scheme associated with digital displays and for online use. It combines the primary colours, red, green and blue, in various degrees to create a range of different colours. If you are producing something that will only be seen digitally, use RGB. A digital monitor is made up of pixels which are comprised of three light units – one for red, one for green, and one for blue. The RGB values are applied to these pixels, setting the luminosity for each of the light units in each pixel.

A common example, for which you may require RGB breakdowns, is when producing a digital document with coloured text. To keep brand consistency throughout your digital communications, you must ensure the text is in your correct, brand colours. To do this, you need to request the RGB breakdowns for these colours from your Designer. You can then input the 3 values into the software you’re using – this option appears when you highlight the text and choose to change the text colour.

Below is an example of a Pantone colour with the relevant CMYK and RGB breakdowns for that particular colour:

If you’ve re-branded recently, would like to increase brand awareness or need to create a stronger brand image and improve your corporate reputation, why not consider utilising promotional products?… Find out your brand colour references and we’ll suggest relevant product ideas specifically for your campaign! Just give us a call on 01200 450 005 or contact us at sales@love.tobrand.co.uk