What kinds of products do you print and embroider?
We can print just about anything you will ever want or need. T-Shirts, Jerseys, Greek Shirts, Pledge Jerseys, Corporate Apparel, Workplace Uniforms, Athletic Uniforms, Towels, Bags, Totes, Blankets. If you can think of it, we can probably print on it! Browse through our
Products to see some of the possibilities.
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How much do promotional products cost?
This depends on the type of product, the color, the number of colors in your design, and the total quantity of products you will be ordering. Some products are as cheap as a few pennies each and can range upwards greatly from there. Our staff will be happy to help you find products that fits your purpose and budget.
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What is the minimum number of products I can order?
This varies with the product. Some are offered as low as twelve and occasionally there are products that can be done in even smaller quantities.
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What kind of products do you use?
We carefully screen all of our products and use only the best available. We have tested and used all of the products we sell for our own company. While there may be occasions when your demand requires an unusual product, we will not feature any products that we have not previously quality tested.
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Who creates the Art Design?
You can bring in your own art, choose a design out of our portfolio (above) or you can leave it up to our professional artists to create a design for your use. If you choose to have one of our artists develop a design for you will be asked to describe in as much detail as possible what they would like on the you would like and our art department turns their ideas into great looking will take it from there; of course you will review and approve art before we embellish your products. Check out the
Art Requirements for more information.
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When do I pay?
We require payment at the time of order.
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What are "outlines" and why is it important for me to create them?
Background: Fonts are normally very important to maintaining the quality of a design. There are also thousands of fonts available already with many more being created every day.
Answer: One computer can not read a font from a file correctly if the computer does not have that font installed. While Aztec has many thousands of fonts in our library it is still a real possibility that we may not have the font that is specified in your design. By creating outlines in adobe illustrator (most commonly used art program) your font is no longer a font, it is an image, and while it now cannot be modified without recreating it you ensure that the person you are submitting your design to sees exactly what it is you want them to see.
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How detailed can my embroidery be?
That depends on the material that you are embroidering on. A general rule is the finer the material the finer the embroidery that can be sewn on it. For instance a pique polo (looks like a waffle up close; typical of most many golf shirts) is fairly rough and very fine lines will look choppy and poor because of the texture of the material, while on a fine jersey knit (standard t-shirt) or silk the exact same design will look very nice. It is important to know what kind of materials you will be using before a job is started so that a design can be "digitized" to look optimal.
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What is digitizing?
Digitizing is the process of turning a graphic design into thread. It can be very time consuming depending on the design and often takes many revisions and test "sew-outs" to get it just right.
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What is a sew-out?
A sew out is a sample sew of a particular design. Sew outs are done the first time a design is digitized to ensure that the digitized design looks good when it actually sews.
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What is the difference in vector and raster art?
Vector images (illustrator, freehand, corel draw) are graphics files that are made up of a set of mathematical points stored by their position on a grid. Because vector files are mathematical the images can be changed in size infinitely and maintain their integrity.
Raster images (photoshop, jpeg, bmp, png, etc) are made up of pixels and . As raster images are blown up in size the pixels get larger and their edges become more pronounced. While raster images can be stored at very high dpi (dots per inch) in order to allow them to be blown up, they may not be increased in size infinitely and are thus much less useful in design applications. Practically, most raster images can not be blown up much bigger than you see them on screen before they begin to degrade. For purposes of promotional products raster images often have to be recreated to ensure great quality.
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What is dpi?
DPI is dots per inch (square inch). It is used to measure the quality of raster images at a certain size. Standard web images are saved as 72dpi. Midgrade images are saved at 150dpi. High resolution images are stored at 300dpi or higher. Keep in mind that because dots or pixels increase in size as an image is expanded the number of dots that will fit in a square inch is reduced as an image is expanded. Often times raster images must be recreated (tracing a raster file in illustrator or another vector file to get a replication of the file in vector format) in order to be print well. In order to trace an image an artist must be able to see the image. As a raster image is increased in size the square edges of the dots become more pronounced and the image becomes choppy. This is why in order to maintain high quality it is important that an image of the highest resolution possible, preferrably 300dpi (at the dimensions it is desired) is provided to recreate from.
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What is recreating an image?
Recreating an image is the process of tracing a raster image file, placing vector points in order to create a vector replica of the design. An artist will do this for a couple different reasons. Quality of print is the most common reason. In order for the film positive printer to print clean lines, which will then be burned into a screen and eventually end up on your promotional product, it must be able to see a smooth clean line. Vector files have substantially cleaner lines than raster files most of the time. The other reason is that it may be necesary to modify the file. While it is possible to "photoshop" a raster file it offers substantially less flexibility in most situations.
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What is a film and how are they used?
A film in reference to screen printing is a monochromatic (single color) positive image that is either burned or printed onto a piece of clear acetate or some other film material. Registration marks and order details are normally imaged onto the film as well. The films are then registered and attached to screens one at a time. Next the screen is exposed and the film is removed from the screen; it will then be either discarded or filed away for use on another job in the future.
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How long will the print last?
If the ink is cured correctly it should last longer than the garment that it is printed on.
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What is the difference in silk screening and screen printing?
There is no difference. The name silk screening was derived because traditionally silk has been used for the mesh in a screen as it was the only material fine and consistent enough in pattern to achieve a nice print. Only relatively recently (in relation to the life of screen printing) has synthetic mesh become more cost effective and reliable to use in screens.
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What is emulsion?
General Info: Emulsions are a combination of two unblendable substances, one of which is referred to as the “continuous phase” and the other the “dispersed phase.” Emulsions are unstable by nature and typically appear cloudy. Emulsion functions just like a jar of oil and water. When left alone the two phases will stay separated. However when energized, through shaking, stirring, homogenization, or other processes the two phases intermix but do not blend. The cloudy appearance is due to phase interference which is the refraction of light between the two intermixed phases. Some emulsions are more stable than others. Some very unstable emulsions will separate quickly unless constantly energized. The phenomenons of separation are flocculation (clumping), creaming (concentration of particles to either top or bottom) and coalescence (formation of a layer of liquid). While emulsions an colloids are very similar terms, emulsion refers to liquids.
As used in screen printing: Photoemulsion is used in screen printing. This emulsion is photosensitive, meaning it hardens with exposure to UV light, preferable at a wavelength between 350-420nm. This result is best obtained with a 5000 Watt metal halide lamp positioned approximately 40” from the screen and the unexposed emulsion. Emulsion hardens in between 60 and 160 seconds depending on mesh count and light conditions. To become fully cured in less controlled environments emulsion may take more or less time to harden. Underexposed stencils will feel slime and degrade during washout while overexposed stencils will lose detail. Emulsion is spread onto the screen (“coated”). Normally it is applied with two coats on each side. From there the emulsion is left to dry onto the screen; while it is now dry it is not hardened as it is applied to the screen in a dark room to prevent exposure to UV light. Next a monochromatic (single color) opaque image is attached to the screen.
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What does monochromatic mean?
Monochromatic is a term that you will hear used often in screen printing. It means of one color, ie a single color image.
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What is a mesh count?
A mesh is essentially a fabric woven into a consistent pattern of squares. Mesh count is a measure of how many squares of the pattern will fit into a square inch. The higher the mesh count, the finer the mesh. Mesh counts range from 24 to upwards of 400 for textile printing depending on the type of printing, inks, and presses you are running.
The higher mesh counts, 280 and up, are used for four color, simulated and other types of process jobs. It is necesary to use very high mesh counts because you need to limit the amount of ink that passes through onto the garment and the more squares per inch the more fabric per inch to separate the squares and the smaller the holes, thus less ink passes through.
Mesh counts below 100 are used for applying specialty inks like glitter and clear inks. Such a coarse fabric must be used because otherwise the flakes of glitter will not pass through them.
Mesh counts between 110 and 230 are used most for standard prints and count is chosen based on the level of detail in the image.
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What is a PMS color?
A PMS color is a Pantone Match. The pantone color system was developed as a matching system for graphic designers that is comprised of hundreds of colors from accross the spectrum. Pantones are labeled with a single numeric or alphanumeric code and are the common link between paper, web, paint and other types of design. While PMS are a great reference to use they DO NOT always match up perfectly especially when moving from one base material to the next. Furthermore some PMS colors simply will not display on a computer screen (ex. flourescent colors). For these reasons it is important that PMS colors are not relied upon solely for pure color matching. When using PMS colors it is important to match to UNCOATED PMS colors. If you have any questions about PMS colors that are not addressed in this FAQ please contact our design department and they will be happy to assist you.
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