Last month, I wrote about the virtues of keeping your large-format banners legible by making your message short and sweet. After all, our Three Second Rule states that if you can't visually pique the interest of your audience within three seconds, you lost the sale. Still, even with a power-packed short message on your graphic, it won't do a bit of good if your text is too small to read.

Tip 2: Size your text correctly. Keep fonts large enough to be legible.

Most large-format graphics are glimpsed at from a distance, behind the wheel of a car, or even in the peripheral vision of sidewalk pedestrians. In some cases, the Three Second Rule is stretching it. More often than not, given people’s frantic lives, if text can’t be read easily, your audience won’t even bother trying. So, why would anyone make their graphics more difficult to read? Believe it or not, some people inadvertently do, especially by making their fonts too small. This simple calculation will help you size your fonts correctly:

• Height of text (in inches) = 0.035 x Distance (in feet)
• Point size of text = 72 x Height of text (in inches)

So, if you know your text is going to be seen from 20 feet away, such as across a walkway to a storefront window, then you’d do well to make your smallest text at least 0.7 inch tall, or a point size of 50.4. We've already done some of the thinkwork and rustled up a bunch of standard distances, listed below:

Distance	Text height	Point size
15’	0.525”	37.8pt
15’	0.525"	37.8 pt.
20’	0.7”	50.4 pt.
30’	1.05”	75.6 pt.
50’	1.75”	126 pt.
100’	3.5”	252 pt.
500’	17.5”	1,260 pt.
1,000’	35”	2,520 pt.

Read the full article...

Tags: large format, design, typography, ben lawless, fonts, text, 7 steps

In most sectors of the printing industry, Adobe's PDF file format is king. It deserves accolades, because for most applications, a PDF will reproduce art and text amazingly well while delivering a decent print-ready file in a relatively small file size. These features have made PDF a staple of the small format print industry. Although the PDF is great, BIG Images’ preferred file format for large format printing is the Tiff.

The benefits of the Tiff file format in the large format print industry are threefold:

1. Financial Savings
   • Tiff files saved with LZW compression use anywhere from 50% to 99% less disk space than competing file formats
   • The time required to open & save a Tiff is less than that of a PDF or other competing file formats
   • The time & resources needed to transfer the file to BIG Images is reduced
2. Time Savings
   • Faster processing time for both the customer and BIG Images equates to a faster turn around time
   • Smaller size is faster to open, close, and transfer via FTP or email
   • More predictable results mean fewer errors to chase, resulting in faster production time
3. Better service and product from BIG Images
   • Elimination of common errors means faster production & fewer pre-press expenses. BIG Images can produce a better, more consistent product, faster.

Read the full article...

Tags: tiff, pdf, technology, about us, jon beebe, workflow

There seems to be a litany of sales/sports analogies out there. You know what I mean. They’re the stories of the greatest salesmen in history and how they compare to the Schumachers, Mannings and Woods of the world. So, in the shadows of the latest Super Bowl, I’m going to add one, or a litany + 1, if you will.
 
Everyone knows that sales is about money, where each sale equals so many dollars. What is professional sports about? If you said winning, well you’re partially right. From my point of view, it’s about the team consistently delivering results sponsors are willing to pay for.
 
So answer me this: Did Peyton Manning win the Super Bowl or did the team? Who is the ‘team’? Does this term only apply to those who grace the field? If you were benched the entire game, are you part of the team? How about the support staff, therapists, masseuse, logistics and administration? Don't they also count as the ‘team’?

The reality of the matter is that the Colts could never have delivered the results without the entire team. The team is comprised of everyone needed to deliver results.

Sales is the same. A sales person might be the one to play on the field, but the entire team delivers results. I hear of many companies who shove their sales people out the door without any support or, even worse, the company doesn't deliver what the sales person sold. Customers are like team sponsors; they want results in one form or another and results is what they pay for.

Last month’s questions were aimed at you. This month let’s focus on the team.

• Are you a team player?
• Be honest: is your company really a team? Is everyone committed to the goal of getting results?
• What can your team do better?

Remember, no one wants to sponsor a losing team. Conversely, when your team consistently delivers great results, people will talk and customers will seek you out. It's the nature of the business.

"A sale is not something you pursue, it’s what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer." ~ Source Unknown

Tags: sales, tips, ken pettit

“Is it solvent?”

As many of our customers are aware, BIG Images produces prints on huge inkjet printers. In fact, the posters, trade show graphics, banners, and other materials offered by Wide format and Large-format printing companies depend on the same Ink Jet technology found in the office.


The Ink Jet printer is a relatively new phenomenon, replacing dot matrix only 15 to 20 years ago [1] (although the first thermal Ink Jet printer was actually invented in 1977). Two varieties of Ink Jet exist: Thermal and Piezoelectric [2], but ultimately, the principle behind the two are the same; a drop of ink is propelled from the ink head and onto the media at precisely the right time to produce a recognizable image at increasingly impressive speeds.

While the mind tries to wrap around the possibility of such perfect timing, let's focus on what is important when purchasing a BIG image. Interestingly, it's not the manner in which the ink happens to arrive on the media, but the particular solution in which the ink is contained. Anyone who's ever tried to combine oil and water knows that the two just don't mix, because water is a polar molecule while oil is non-polar [3]. Aqueous inks are dissolved in water, a polar substance while solvent inks are dissolved in, well, solvent, a non-polar substance [4]. Paper is polar, plastic is non-polar and this is where it becomes important to the consumer.

Trying to apply a polar-based ink to a non-polar surface or vice versa achieves the same unhappy results Read the full article...

Tags: printing, technology, color

BIG Images is proud to announce the release of its new FTP upload tool. This new tool, located at www.big-images.com/ftp, allows for customers to upload their files right through BIG Images web site. You do not need to own FTP software, you do not even need to understand what FTP is! Just drag your files onto the target area and they are uploaded without any more effort on your part.

There are a few technological caveats and adendums. Your computer must meet the following requirements to use BIG Images’ web upload tool:

• Operating System: Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows 95 or newer
• Software: Java Runtime Environment 1.4
• Browser:FireFox, Safari, Internet Explorer 7, or comparable browser with JavaScript enabled

Also, as the FTP tool loads, there is one security precaution and you will be prompted to trust the page or not. You must click trust for BIG Images’ FTP tool to have access to the files on your computer, otherwise it will not be allowed to access the files that you drop onto it.

Tags: technology, solutions, about us

Create personalized birthday banners online

BIG Images has been hard at work on Banner Works — its innovative online designer. In particular we have been adding many free templates for birthdays and parties. You will find a plethora of free birthday banner templates to start designing from. Start creating your own customized birthday banner today!

How to make a birthday banner at Banner Works

You can create a birthday banner using our free birthday banner templates as a starting point. Browse through our banner templates to get ideas. After finding one you like click “Edit” to customize the banner template to your hearts content. When you’re done simply save it for later, or print it with BIG Images. Its that easy to create personalized birthday banners!

Many of our customers have already created personalized birthday banners in Banner Works. Here are some of their creations:

Create birthday banners for those special birthday years, such as 70th birthday party, turning 40th birthday party, 60th surprise birthday, or 50th birthday celebration. And one of our customer’s favorites: old fart banners.

Advantages of BIG Images’ Banner Works

There are many advantages to using BIG Images’ Banner Works. We designed it with the computer novice in mind, so it is easy to use. Your edits are in real-time so you get immediate feedback. You can save your design to continue editing later, and print it when you want. And perhaps the most fun advantage is our fully customizable birthday templates — every aspect can be personalized for your party.

Banner Works is free to use, so check it out by browsing our birthday banner templates and try creating your own! You don’t even have to sign up to start designing!

Tags: design, birthday, ideas, bannerworks