Corel 07 Oct

the entrepreneurial magazine for CorelDRAW users worldwide October 2007
Cover Art by Emily Cheney Details on page 7
Published for the Association of CorelDRAW Professionals (ACDRP) / www.coreldrawpro.com
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October 2007
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October 2007 TRAINING: How to Use
11 Using CorelDRAW: How to Use the Miter Fit in CorelDRAW X3 by Corel Corp. 13 Using CorelDRAW: Scanned Images by Dave Demoret 15 Inside Color: Digital Cameras Part Deux by David Milisock
APPLICATIONS: How to Apply

17 Inside Transfers: Beyond the Basic Box
by Bill Leek
OPPORTUNITIES: How to Prot

36 Getting Ahead: Making the Most of Your Website Part 1
by Deborah Sexton
ADVERTISER INDEX
Click Web to go to advertisers website. Click Ad to go to the ad in this issue. Clicking the ad itself will go to website.
Braille Oz Brother International Colorado Heirloom Conde Systems Custom Graphic Technology Epilog Laser Corp. Geo. Knight & Co. JBL Graphics John E. Lepper Inc. Johnson Plastics Laser Reproductions LaserBits Inc. LaserSketch N&R International Paramount Services Inc. ProLink Graphics Svc Sawgrass Technologies SCT Crystal T&E News-Australia Trotec Laser Inc. Universal Laser Systems Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Web Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad Ad
19 Inside Print/Sublimation: Getting Started in Sublimation 3

by John McDaniel
38 Marketing Secrets Give Yourself a Timeout!

by Donna Gray
22 Inside Screen Printing: Two-Color Printing -- Part 6

by Jeff McDaniel
44 Traveling Tidbits: A Play, Utah, Golf, Autumn, Halloween, & Your Word
by Otis Veteto
25 Inside Sandblasting: Stage Carving -- A Simple Bear

by Judy McDaniel
27 Inside Engraving: Machine Accuracy 5: Hysteresis
pg. 17 Make a chart and see what you can do with your scanner before wasting too much time experimenting on each image that comes in to your shop. Dave Demoret, p. 13
by John McDaniel
31 Inside Laser: Adding Color to Laser Engraving

by Louie Alvarez
pg. 25
DEPARTMENTS
5 7 Graphics News Wire About the Cover 10 Inside ACDRP: Where Does It Hurt? 34 Laser Tip: Ornaments
40 Product Focus: Sublimatable Boxes & Clocks 42 GNN Network

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42 Marketplace 43 Contributing Writers
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GRAPHICS NEWS WIRE

October 2007
Product News Headlines:

TheMagicTouch introduces new WoW Transfer Paper R.S. Owens hires three new key personnel SWF East adds major website enhancements EmbSupplies.com offers GrozBeckert needles Roland announces Pure Print Performance Challenge Roland partners with Splash of Color to market their rst Directto-Fabric printer SWF releases 1550 spm DREAM embroidery machine Vastex adds new umbrella printing pallet LaserBits offers Alder Pet Urns, Alder Wood Sheets and Booklet on Corel for Laser LaserSketch introduces new PhotoPlas-Tic for laser Selco launches new website Roland announces AdvancedJET AJ-1000 promotion Roland offers free trade association membership with printer purchase ASI partners with Mach1 to promote incentives Stahls ID Direct releases CADCUT Fashion-REFLECTTM Stahls' ID Direct unveils Fashion-FILM Johnson Plastics acquires TR Distributors of Maine
NEWS DETAILS
(Click Here)
Colman & Co. offer online rewards program SOS From Texas adds baby one-piece Great Dane Graphics offers Photoshop Training CD Transfer Express has unique new Playbook
(Web Link) Check out the upcoming training classes and trade shows of interest to CorelDRAW users.
Calendar
Midwest Sign donates to Extreme Makeover Stahls' ID Direct has new Hockey Kits. Dalco has new Team Combo appliques with Crystals AWT World Trade has new Screen Tape
October 2007
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About the Cover

Emily Cheney
The Mustang Photo This image is tough to change from a photo to a vector art; many hours and lots of patience was needed. I rst had to trace all the shapes of the car using a pencil tool. All shapes have to be closed so the colors and shading can be changed for nal adjustments. After the shapes have been made, each has to be adjusted by the points. To make them curved and shaped right takes time. The shading is not so easy I created additional shapes by redrawing and adjusting the points for the correct shape & adjusted the colors to the photo as close as possible; many layers are needed. The nal result was nice and our customer loves the work.
Emily Cheney is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound with a degree in graphic arts. She has been working in the eld for two years. She works for 24 Hour Artwork.com.
508 Dekalb Street Port Orchard, Washington, 98366, USA Email: digitizing@24hourartwork.com Telephone: (253) 284-3299 Fax: (801) 848-5841
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Inside ACDRP
By Michael Neer, Executive Director
Where Does It Hurt?

In many ways, you are the graphics doctor! How ACDRP helps This got me to thinking how membership in ACDRP helps resolve your hurts. Time crunch. With our online resources and search engines, we save you time in nding how to do a certain procedure or nding a new supplier or product. Our comprehensive calendar helps you plan your training and show attendance. Missing knowledge with CorelDRAW. With our articles and search engines we help you ll in the gaps that limit your use of the program. Missing business knowledge. With our articles and search engines we help you identify and take action on specic entrepreneurial skills that can make a difference in your business. Missing customers. Our business resources as well as the new Graphic Services Guide can help bring you new customers. Lack of dollars. More graphics skill and more entrepreneurial savvy, gained from the association resources, translate directly into more income. Info overload. Most business owners are overwhelmed with information. We help with this hurt three ways 1) our stories and issues are generally shorter so you have more time to read; 2) by being digital, our publications dont clutter up your ofce; and 3) our editorial approach lters out what is useful news and what isnt so you dont have to try to read everything that comes your way. So if you have any of these hurts then consider joining ACDRP. We are also easy on your pocketbook, as membership is only $60 per year. Its a lot of value for a small cost. Check out the details at www.coreldrawpro.com/join.htm
OCTOBER 2007
EDITOR / PUBLISHER Michael R. Neer mikeneer@coreldrawpro.com GRAPHICS John Mise ADVERTISING John McDaniel II jhmcdaniel2@coreldrawpro.com 541-990-6687 OFFICES Membership & Publishing ofces located at: 4709 N. El Capitan, Suite 103, Fresno, CA 93722; 800-276-8428, 559-276-8494 Fax 559-276-8496 www.CorelDRAWPro.com editor@coreldrawpro.com
Subscriptions: Free to qualied individuals and businesses. Send change of address to the above. ACDRP Membership: $60/yr., See the website for details. Includes exclusive content and more. Advertising: Request a Media Guide or download it from www.CorelDRAWPro.com. Writers: CorelDRAWPro accepts articles from industry experts. Email publisher for details. Copyright 2007 by ACDRP. All Rights Reserved.
A friend of mine, Dr. Matthew Norton, who is a chiropractor, is about to publish his rst book entitled Where Does It Hurt? Its a great title, and I hope you will check it out in December when it comes out. But the title got me to thinking about the sales process that we all go through in our businesses. Just like a doctor always asks his patients, Where does it hurt?, so we have to know where our business customers are hurting. When we know that, then we can more easily meet their needs with our products and services. What kind of hurts do you help your customers with? Maybe they dont have the skill to design a yer, logo, or graphic. Maybe they didnt plan ahead, and need a job done in two days for an event. Maybe they need a special gift and cant nd anything. Maybe they need a sign and want it done well. Maybe they need some good ideas or products for promoting their company. Maybe they need some labeling in their factory and dont know how to do it. Maybe they need an idea for how to honor someone whos retiring. Maybe they need badges for employees and want a special color. In this list, it seems the biggest hurts are: 1) lack of skill, 2) lack of time, or 3) lack of ideas. You have the knowledge to relieve their hurts! In that case, you would promote: 1) your experience to resolve the skill problem; 2) your speed to resolve the time problem, and 3) your knowledge to resolve the idea problem.
Published by Association of CorelDRAW Professionals President: John H. McDaniel Vice President: Judith McDaniel Executive Director: Michael R. Neer Assoc. Exec. Director: Steven V. Neer
ACDRP Corporate Ofce: Albany, OR
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10
Using CorelDRAW
How to set the miter limit in CorelDRAW X3
By Corel Corporation Introduction: The miter limit determines whether sharp corners in objects appear pointed or beveled. In CorelDRAW X3, you can quickly change the miter limit for any object in a project and enjoy the exibility of having objects with different miter limits. When an object contains lines that meet at sharp angles, you can determine their corner shape by setting the miter limit. Corners with angles above the miter limit are pointed (mitered); corners with angles below the miter limit are beveled (squared off). To set the miter limit
Training
Youll draw a star, apply two different miter limit values, and compare the results. 1. Open the Object yout, click the Star tool, and drag in the drawing window to draw a star. On the property bar, choose 2.0 pt from the Outline width box. You can also apply a ll to the star.
The Star tool is located on the Object yout.
Changing the miter limit affects the appearance of sharp corners. In CorelDRAW X3, setting the miter limit is easier than ever. The miter limit is no longer an application setting that applies to all objects in a drawing. Instead, it is now an objects outline property that can be changed in the Outline pen dialog box. This enhancement gives you the exibility of having objects with different miter limit values in the same project. A star with an outline width of 2.0 pt and a fountain ll applied
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2. Open the Outline tool yout, and click the Outline pen dialog button.
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3. Type 45 in the Miter limit box, and click OK. All sharp corners with angles that are smaller than the miter limit of 45 appear beveled. 4. With the star selected, open the Outline pen dialog box, type 5 in the Miter limit box, and click OK. Zoom in on a corner and observe the change of shape. The corners now appear pointed because their angles are bigger than 5.
The Outline pen dialog button is located on the Outline tool yout. The Outline pen dialog box appears.
The star with a miter limit of 45 and beveled corners (left); the star with a miter limit of 5 and pointed corners (right). Continue to experiment with miter limit settings to get the most out of this feature. Youll nd that the miter limit can be very useful for controlling the appearance of corners in text objects.
Note: Make sure that the rst option is enabled in the Corners area as shown above.
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12
Using CorelDRAW
Scanned Images
By Dave Demoret, Contributing writer Many times before you can turn a bitmap into a vector image you will have to scan in a picture or drawing. The, now old, adage Garbage in - Garbage Out is denitely in effect here. If your scanned image is not up to a certain quality, you will have more time and effort in cleaning it up than you can afford. You may pass the cost along to your customer or not, its your choice. However, you will be paying for it if you take too much time to do the converting. There comes a limit to what you can pass on to your customer. Expectations We will be talking mostly about scanned images but there are a couple of important points I would like to make here. The rst is that you need to teach your customers that you expect a certain level of quality from images they send to you. Many of your customers are in a hurry and they are also cost conscious. Most of these customers have access to the artwork, sometimes already in vector format, and they only have to exert a little extra effort to acquire it. They choose not to when they think you can and will do the work for them at no extra charge. If you take a few minutes to explain that you can save them both time & money, they will listen. Not all artwork is what it appears and sometimes you will end up spending 2 or 3 hours on something you thought would only take 30 minutes. Tell them you can reduce the overall amount of the bill with good artwork and probably lessen the turn around time too. You can do this because you will spend much less time correcting or cleaning up their images. The second point here is that you cant always rely on the autotracing programs to do the job you need done. You may have to manually trace some images you thought would auto-trace easily. Also, if you have a colored image to trace, even at 800dpi, you may nd yourself with color variations within the image that you will have to clean up. This can be just as bad as a dirty image at a low dpi and will take just as long to make usable. Scanning Options Most of our customers think you can take anything they bring you and you can magically turn it into beautiful artwork without any problem... or any charge. However, we do have limitations and so do our scanners & other equipment and software. You will need to know how your particular scanner works in order to come out with the best possible image for the given job. Lets take a look at a piece of artwork from a business card (gure 1). This can sometimes be a fairly clean image although they are usually quite small. The following is only one way of acquiring the knowledge you need to work with scanned bitmap images but it can help you in the long run. Make a chart and see what you can do with your scanner before wasting too much time experimenting on each image that comes into your shop. This chart will give you some idea, and experience, that you can reference before going in blind. The image of the bear is what we want to vectorize so were going to crop just that image. The customer just wants the bear and some simple text on the back of a jacket. We can create the text straight from the font list in CorelDRAW, so we dont have to scan and vectorize it. In gure 2 you see an image from a worn business card. Although the image is pretty good you wouldnt be able to auto-trace this without cleaning up a lot of detail. In gure 3 we used a clean business card that will give us a chance at using an auto-trace program. That isnt to say you can automatically assume that you will be able to auto-trace this image just because you used a clean business card. It simply gives you a better chance to do so. Ive done a chart in gure 4 to let me see what my scanner will give me with different settings. This allows me to quickly assess dif-
Training
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Using CorelDRAW
ferent settings and determine where I might want to start with a particular image. A good image isnt always acquired by using the highest dpi with the most contrast & brightness. If the image is supposed to be a rendition of the original artwork, a lower dpi may work well for that artsy look. If the image is scanned at a high dpi, it may pick up too much detail for the process you are using creating unwanted cuts, stitches, or colored trash along the edges. There are also other considerations to be assessed and used to enhance a piece of artwork. In gures 5 & 6 you see the same images scanned in with additional adjustments made during the scanning process. We have added a Brightness and a Contrast value to the image. This can give us more denition for doing either the auto or manual tracing. CONCLUSION In the nal analysis, the better the image you have to start with the better the end results under any circumstances. From a good quality image you can adjust quicker, easier, and with much less cost to you or your customer. Keeping these hints in mind, and doing a chart, should get you started in acquiring higher quality scanned images and, hopefully, with a little less time and effort.
Training
Dave Demoret, founded Prolink Graphic Services to help people understand and profit from learning CorelDRAW. He has been in both the Flat Graphics Industry and the Decorating Graphics Industry over the past 30 years. He has written several articles for Screen Graphics Magazine on Color Control & Matching in the past. Dave has used CorelDRAW since version 3 and became a CorelDRAW Training Partner in 2006. During the past 5 years he has been conducting workshops all over the U.S. and is the author of several Video CDs & Instructional CDs on CorelDRAW. Dave continues to conduct workshops in the U.S. & also worldwide online. He can be reached at 765-DO COLOR (362-6567) or by email at daved@prolinkgs.com
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INSIDE COLOR
By David Milisock
Training
Digital Cameras Part Deux!

This will be an interesting experiment in color integrity. The concept of this article is to explain why honoring an images color space is important, from the time of capture to the end at print time. The problem is that to demonstrate this I have to create a CorelDRAW X3 document in RGB mode, using Adobe RGB 1998 as my internal RGB space as demonstrated in capture (A). In that CorelDRAW document, place a screen capture of an Adobe RGB image display capture (B) and a capture of the same Adobe RGB image as displayed in sRGB capture (C). We then have to generate composite Adobe RGB images to send along to the editor for placement along with our text in an InDesign le for PDF generation used for the Internet which will display in Acrobat Reader or Professional on our readers screens in various RGB color spaces. Now, if you have followed that, you can take a copy of this article to any mental health institution and use the fact that you can follow this article as proof that you need a well-deserved rest. The problem The reason we are using Adobe RGB is demonstrated in capture (D) which is a capture of the 3D gamut view of the Adobe RGB color space (in white) and the sRGB color space in green from a 3D position of L100. Adobe RGB is a larger gamut then sRGB and the image in capture (B) is an Adobe RGB image. In fact, it is an Adobe RGB image that has some signicant aspects that are out of the sRGB color space. When we open a capture or a converted RAW image we must make sure that our internal RGB in Corel PHOTO-PAINT X3 is set to match that images color space, that the arrow from the internal RGB to the monitor is activated, and that we have created and installed a monitor prole. What happens is that we have a properly displayed image like capture (B). Unfortunately if we do not set our color management setting properly, we can get a display from the very same image like we see in capture (C). The problem is that we make bad editing choices based on a false display. Note the changes at positions 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7 on capture (B&C). These small changes are crucial. Why its a problem A small section of capture (B) has been cut out and placed on top of the leaf (position 2) on capture (E).
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INSIDE COLOR
As we can see by the small circle of shifted green color in the leaf directly below the 2 in capture (E), (enlarge and look closely), it is extremely important that we understand what color space our camera is shooting or to which color space we are converting our RAW images. This large a shift is disastrous. If we base all our color corrections on a misconception, those mistakes continue on down the line as demonstrated in capture (F). Here we have a CMYK image created from the two images and BOTH SHOULD BE IDENTICAL. However, the green leaf to the right of position 4 on the right of capture (F) has a dominant red hue to the green, but on the left the same leaf has a signicant less red drift. Similar things can be said about each and every labeled area of capture (E). However the photographer or color editor has made improper decisions due to the fact that the display on PHOTO-PAINT was incorrect. This is because of the incorrect coordination of color management settings between the camera and/or the RAW converter and PHOTO-PAINT.
This has been a demonstration where NO COLOR EDITING has taken place -- only captures and conversions of improperly displayed images. Had real color edits taken place, the differences displayed in capture (F) would have been even more signicant, as the source prole and therefore the changes made for the destination prole are incorrect. What happens is that the eyedropper readings of the RGB image would read correctly however the CMYK conversions are based on the RGB reading of an assumed color space which didnt match the original RGB image so the resulting CMYK colors are incorrect. The rules For RGB its a simple rule -- when you are editing, displaying or imaging an RGB image, your devices color management must be set to match the RGB color space of the image. For CMYK its a bit stickier -- for editing, displaying or outputting on a composite digital print engine, the devices CMYK color management setting must match the color space of the image. For CMYK press output, the plating devices are color blind and honor all CMYK numbers across the plating devices per their ink limit, linearization curve. Next month we tackle a subject that is a wide spread Corel fable. That fable is that you can turn off Corel color management. David Milisock is president of Custom Graphic Technologies Inc. He has been in the print production business since 1975, and specializes in professional support for the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. He can be reached at 717-509-3523 or davidmilisock@comcast. net. See full bio on writers page.
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INSIDE TRANSFERS
By Bill Leek
Applications
Beyond the Basic Box
Dont Be a Square Sell New, Innovative Designs
ack in the early days of sublimation, in the waning days of the last century (1994-95), there werent many things to sublimate to. Imprintable options were pretty much limited to coated award metals, ceramic tiles, and ceramic plates. The majority of coated tiles were available in 4.25 and 6 inch sizes. At that time a few vendors were selling wooden frames, boxes, trays, and other accessories to an established base of customers who created hand-painted and kiln-red tiles. The vendors wood boxes were a natural complement to the new coated tiles and soon became very popular with sublimators. Thirteen years have passed, but for many sublimators not much has changed. They are still offering the classic square tile box. Just do a Google search. You will wear yourself out nding companies that offer the same basic box with some stain and nish differences. The novelty of the square box is long past.
ONE SIZE DOESNT FIT ALL When you visit a photographers studio, an art gallery, or museum, how many square framed items can you nd? My guess is not many. Most artists and photographers create in a rectangular format. It is often very difcult to crop a square from a rectangular composition without losing some important components of the source image. Just this weekend I tried this with a group of 19 images from a well established artist. Only 2 of the 19 could be effectively cropped for transfer to a square tile. There is a real need for 4x6, 5x7 and 6x8 rectangular boxes. In addition, other shapes can add more visual appeal. Round, oval and heart-shaped boxes are becoming more common and should be considered for inclusion in your box offerings. Wood, metal, and resin inserts should be considered for your new box designs. They can be easily cut and reduce the weight of the box lid. Weight is especially important in larger box sizes. MATCHING COLOR AND FINISH TO THE APPLICATION Wood boxes come in a variety of nishes and colors. Its important to match the right art or photo with the right box. Bright-colored boxes work great for kids and holiday applications, but are not appropriate for traditional heirloom items. A velvet box interior is desirable for a jewelry box or music box. But real men dont like velvet boxes! A man would most likely prefer a box with a quality wood interior for his dresser or desk. Black and white boxes are perfect for simple contemporary designs. A variety of mahogany, cherry, pecan, maple and oak nishes in both gloss and satin are now available in high quality box designs.
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This Unisub keepsake box uses a white aluminum insert that provides an image area on the outside and inside of the box. A VARIETY OF INSERTS Boxes are available for a variety of inserts. We utilize a high quality 5x7 photo box, and 2 inch ring box from Laser Reproductions that use white-backed glass tile inserts. The artwork is completely protected under the glass. We have also transferred images to glass using a color laser printer and then backed the glass with silver, gold, and holographic backgrounds to create very rich effects using the same boxes. Unisub offers their keepsake boxes with white aluminum sublimation inserts coated on both sides. This unique design allows you to produce a box with both an exterior and interior image. Unisub white metal can
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New oval, round, and heart boxes are now available for sublimation.
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These bright colored boxes from Conde are a great match for holiday and childrens designs. also be cut in a variety of sizes to be used as inserts in odd size box designs. We are currently experimenting with a variety of plastic and resin inserts that can be used for both sublimation and color laser decoration. This will allow a variety of new box designs to be fabricated at very reasonable cost. SELLING HIGH QUALITY VS LOW PRICE Look for markets where you can sell a high quality box at a higher price with better margins. The labor costs are the same for a box that sells at $20 retail or $40 retail. In addition, it is difcult to compete with the multimillion dollar personalization companies that are buying container load shipments of boxes from China and selling boxes at less than $20 retail. Find your own niche markets and sell quality and uniqueness over just price. A rectangular box is often a better match than square boxes when cropping an artist or photographers image. A SPECIAL THANKS Laser Reproductions, Universal Woods (Unisub), and Conde have all contributed input and photos to this article. A special thanks to Ken Young of Essex International who offers a variety of boxes, frames and accessories through a network of distributors. Kens insight and vision for this market was invaluable in writing this article. Bill Leek is a color consultant for JBL Graphics in Houston, TX, and has over 30 years experience in computer engineering and graphics design. He has developed several lines of color imprintable products, and does testing on a variety of products for different manufacturers. He can be reached at support@jblgraphics. com or 281-970-6677.
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INSIDE PRINT/SUBLIMATION
By Judy and John McDaniel
Applications
Getting Started in Sublimation Part 3

Here are some guidelines we use to help evaluate adding any new process. You might nd them useful whether youre just starting out or expanding an existing business. Weve applied the same basic formula each time weve decided to add a process. Heres how we applied it to sublimation. How do we think well sell the products this fascinating new process will allow us to produce? 1) Do we think we can provide our existing customers additional choices; and perhaps capture more of their business? Its always easier to expand business with someone youve already developed a relationship with, someone whos purchased from you before. When youre rst starting out you may not have a customer base to work with, so your job is a little more difcult. Youll need to rely on friends and relatives for advice, and perhaps to become your rst customers. But dont rely on them alone. Do some research and see whats selling in your area; where you might be able to provide a service; and how you intend to market your products. When we started our personalization business, we started by marketing through various shows and fairs, but, thats another story for another time. In the case of sublimation, we were already producing photo engravings, so adding photo mugs and other photo items allowed us to expand our gift offerings to our retail customers. We found that many of our retail customers return from time to time looking for something new. They may have already purchased a photo engraving, and now theyre looking for other gifts they can give. In a way, they rely on us to help them discover unique items. The same thing applies to our business customers. Theyre too busy running their businesses to look for unique gifts and awards; thats our job. Since we were already offering sandblasted glasses and mugs, and had provided that service to many businesses, adding sublimation enabled us to expand our offerings to them as well. We could now offer full color mugs, and other products which required color. If we make their jobs easier, and provide quality products and service, theyll return time and again. 2) Do we think well attract new customers with this new process? Have we lost business by not having this new process? In our case, before we ever added sublimation, we had had requests from both retail and business customers for products with color. Sublimation seemed to be a process that would ll this requirement. Does it allow us to do something more efciently? For sublimation, this question didnt have a clear answer in our situation. Since we werent producing full color products, sublimation didnt offer a more efcient way of production. Had we been involved in screen-printing cups or t-shirts, it would have been more meaningful. Now that were sublimated products, this question becomes relevant in evaluating other image transfer processes.
Johnson Plastics offers a variety of sports products that can be sublimated.
Can we afford it? With sublimation that doesnt seem to be much of an issue. The equipment cost to get started is well under $5,000; in fact, weve seen some packages that include a heat press, inkjet printer and inks advertised for around $1,000. Of course if youre just starting out, you may have the cost of a computer and software to include, so your total investment might approach $3,000. For us, the addition of sublimation represented something on the order of a $4,000 investment. We already had all the computers and software we needed. To that, we decided to add a printer that could be used to print t-shirt transfers; both a at press and a cup press; along with the disposables, ink and transfer paper. What do we plan to produce with the new process, and can we produce it with some other process we already have? This is a question youll have to answer for yourself. Obviously if youre just starting out and have no other
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INSIDE PRINTING
processes available, then this question is easy for you to answer. Our decision was based on two motivating factors. We wanted to add a full color process for hardgoods to augment our existing product offerings; and we had an artist friend that wanted us to produce t-shirts with her artwork on them. For these needs we didnt have an existing in-house process to use. Is there another process that can be used to accomplish the same end product? For example, if you wanted to ultimately produce full color name badges, you might consider sublimation, a badge printer, or possibly some other digital print process. If you wanted to produce full color short-run t-shirts, you might want to consider sublimation or one or the new direct-to-garment printers. You get the idea, what other processes can accomplish your objectives? If you nd multiple processes that will work for you, then you need to evaluate their relative advantages and disadvantages. Dont wear blinders.
In our case, there wasnt another process that could meet our requirements. Screen printing was the only other option at the time; and it wasnt economical for the short runs we anticipated wed have. Whats our product cost and what will our selling price be? This can be complicated or simple. It depends on whether you factor in labor, ovehead costs, and prot, which you should, or simply use a multiplier times raw material costs. Will our price be competitive? This question really is a two part question. 1) Are we competitive with other sublimation producers? To answer this question, you can rely on suppliers suggestions, research the internet, and call or visit local competitors. 2) Is our pricing competitive with other methods of production? This is a little more difcult question to answer. Lets say you have a customer that wants badges, and you think you can make them with sublimation. Then what does the customer want? How many does he need? Does he want full color, or black and white? What material? Metal or plastic? How else can they be produced to meet his need? Can they be printed? Engraved? What is the cost of the other methods? Should you farm-out the job? Being competitive not only means with others doing it the same way, but with othermethods. Usually the customer doesnt care how you meet his need; only that you do. Would our existing customers be interested in this process? After weve satised ourselves, then we
A great holiday gift is a sublimated Santa tin from JBL Graphics.
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PSI has unique lobster frames that hold sublimated tiles.
may discuss our plans with key customers to get their reaction. Typically our discussion goes something likeif we could provide (ll in the blank) for (price), would that be of any value to you? This will elicit a yes, no, or open a discussion. In some cases for us, it has initiated orders before we ever had the equipment in house. This was the case with sublimation. Conclusion Obviously we went ahead. Our startup experience with sublimation, leads us to recommend that you start small; then expand; and at least consider starting from strength which well explain next time. Judy and John McDaniel are owners of JHM Marketing in Albany, OR. JHM provides consulting and training services for the industry. They also owned and operated a retail personalized gift shop for six years in California, and over twelve years in Oregon. (For information on training services offered and their application support service visit www.CorelDRAWhelp.com.) They can be reached by phone at 541-9674271, via SKYPE (user name JHMcDaniel), or via email at mail@CorelDRAWhelp. com.
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INSIDE SCREEN PRINTING

By Jeff McDaniel
Applications
2-Color Printing: Part 6

Background In our last article we reclaimed our screens from the last job and prepared them for the next job. In this case, the next job is the front pocket patch on the shirt. Our setup and yours Our setup is the Printa 770 series screen printing machine from Printa Systems Inc. All of the supplies and tools we will cover from here on were provided in the turn-key system from Printa with the 770. Your setup may be from another source but will most likely contain components of what we will discuss below. Artwork We already have artwork from the back of the shirt. The important thing to pay attention to is that all of the colors have been converted to spot colors (see image 1) and that we have an overprint outline (trap) set for the black which we will apply after the yellow (see image 2). The original artwork is 10.5 inches across so we will need to reduce its size for the pocket patch. We will be reducing the artwork down to 4 inches across for the front of the shirt. There are a couple of important considerations when reducing or enlarging screen art. 1. Does the artwork look good visually reduced or do the outlines thicken the artwork beyond what is appealing? The outlines will remain the same unless you have selected scale with image in the outline pen dialog box (see image 3). 2. If you feel the need to reduce the outline thickness, can you physically produce the design with a smaller trap outline? In this case, the outline does thicken up the design substantially when we reduce the size to 4 inches. If
Image 1: Be sure all of the colors have been converted to spot colors.
Image 2: Be sure you have an overprint outline (trap) set for the black which we will apply after the yellow.
Image 3: Outlines will remain the same unless you have selected scale with image in the outline pen dialog box
Image 4: We like to have a 1 point outline AT LEAST and our preference is generally 2 points.
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we decide to scale the outlines with the image, we will have less than a 1 point outline. For the purposes of production we like to have a 1 point outline AT LEAST and our preference is generally 2 points (see image 4). If our trap outline is too thin, it can be very difcult to keep the screens properly registered to each other. We will use the 1 point outline because it is much closer to the true logo design and be very careful with our registration. Printing the artwork Just like any other spot-color screen printing job, you should be only printing out separations for the number of colors you are using in your design. You can check on the printout by selecting separations in the print driver and looking at the separations available. In this case we have a Pantone process black and a Pantone process yellow. If you do not see available separations (they are grayed out), be sure you have selected Print Separations. Also be certain that you have told the printing software to Preserve document overprints (see image 5). On a pocket patch we can use the Imposition Layout Tool in Print Preview to get both of our color
Image 5: Be certain that you have told the printing software to Preserve document overprints.
Image 6: On a pocket patch we can use the Imposition Layout Tool in Print Preview to get both of our color layers onto one sheet of inkjet lm
Image 7: This is how the image sets up for the lm.

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Image 9: This is the general purpose platen. Image 8: There is a tremendous difference in the amount of space between our proposed location on a small shirt and a triple extra large. layers onto one sheet of inkjet lm (see images 6 and 7). Once we get our printed separations and we are sure they are opaque enough to process capillary lm, we can get ready to set up the press. UH OH whats the problem? When we ran the back side of the shirt with the full-size logo we were running the logo on center and in a xed location on our t-shirt platen. We created shirts from size small all the way through size triple extra large. For the purpose of our pocket patch we would like the logo to be just about centered on the left breast. There is a tremendous difference in the amount of space between our proposed location on a small shirt and a triple extra large (see image 8). We need to nd a way to get the location correct regardless of the shirt size. Solutions Printa manufactures a modular platen holder that has a variety of platen work surfaces for various odd-location or odd-shape jobs. We will use the general purpose platen (see image 9). There are also platens which can be used to print the front of a t-shirt pocket
Image 10: Other platens can be used to print the front of a t-shirt pocket.
(see image 10) or a long sleeve on a t-shirt (see image 11). There is an available specialty screen for this type of work but we prefer the standard screens we already have because they allow us the greatest design exibility. Conclusion This time we briey touched on considerations when shrinking your screen art and printing your screen art. We also introduced the idea of specialty platens and what they are used for. Next time we will set up and use our general purpose platen to run the pocket patch and nish our job. Jeff McDaniel is the Owner/Operator of Creative Graphic in Philomath, Oregon. Jeff has been working with computers since the age of 5 and was a journeyman machinist before working in the graphic arts business. Creative Graphic offers services including laser engraving, rotary engraving, sandblasting, sublimation, image transfers, vinyl signs, banners, screen printing, and promotional products. Jeff routinely applies graphics to a wide variety of materials. You can contact Jeff by email at Jeff@creativegraphic.net.
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Image 11: Or a platen for a long sleeve on a t-shirt.
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INSIDE SANDBLASTING
By Judy McDaniel
Applications
Stage Carving:
A Simple Little Bear

where. I originally picked it because we were teaching hands-on stage carving at a show and I wanted something that didnt have as many stages as the eagle. It looks simple, like a childs coloring book drawing; however, it is anything but simple. Number it for looking through the glass at the nished project; with the carving on the back of the glass. Im going to use a piece of glass that is 4 x 6 inches and inch thick. You can use whatever you would like for your practice piece. THINGS TO REMEMBER: NUMBERING 1. Each part must be numbered separately considering only the parts that are touching it. 2. Number one will be the part where you can see the whole complete object, such as leaf, feather, circle, etc. 3. No part can be numbered until all the parts on top of it are numbered. 4. The correct number will be the next higher number starting with number one. 5. There can be more than one part with the same number in a project. BLASTING 1. You will blast the numbers in sequence, one number at a time. 2. You will blast the outline and all of the number ones rst. (This will make the number one parts the deepest; and give you the base structure for the rest of the carving.) 3. Peel off all of the number twos and blast them making sure to get a good edge around the areas where they touch the next number with a mask still on it. 4. Continue in this manner with the threes and then the fours etc., until you run out of numbers.
ast time, we completed the Eagle which is part of a clip art collection by Rayzist. I think that this is a great clip art collection for beginners in sandblasting or in stage carving. Some of their clip art is already numbered for you to stage carve and has a SC next to it. This can be of help to those of you who are just starting. For other sources for clip art, see the Graphic Products Guide at www.CorelDRAWPro.com. Im not sure where I found the bear that we will talk about this time. I think it was in a CorelDRAW clip art book; however, I found it a long time ago and am not sure
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drew a circle and then contoured it to the inside. For the center balloon you will need to break the contour group apart, and then use the virtual segment delete tool (X3) to remove the overlapping lines. This is the way that I would number the bear. I could have numbered each of the balloons consecutively which would make a total of 15 peels instead of 10, like the one on the right; however, I didnt feel it was necessary. I will just remember that I would like the balloon on the right to be a little deeper than the one on the left. The rst thing that you will do is blast all of the lines into the piece to cut your mask and make it so that you are able to peel it. Be very careful with the bears eyes. Because they are black, they are going to be part of the rst blast. Make sure that you do not make the eyes too deep! This will make the bear look like he is bug eyed. So go lightly around the eye area. I am numbering the center of the ears and the mouth last because if you make them too deep, the bear will look like he is sticking his tongue out at you and the center of his ears will be coming at you. As you can see, our little coloring book bear is not as simple as it looked. Next time, we will take a look at a deer jumping a log. Until then, have fun with your stage carving! Judy McDaniel, with her husband John are owners of JHM Marketing in Albany, OR. JHM provides consulting and training services for the industry. They also owned and operated Moments Remembered, a retail personalized gift shop for over ten years in Sisters, Oregon. (For information on training services offered visit www.graphic-productstraining.com; and for information on their application support service visit www.CorelDRAWhelp.com.) They can be reached at 541-967-4271, fax 541-967-4272, or via email at mail@CorelDRAWhelp.com. See full bio on Writers Page.
5. Blast only on the side where there is still a mask there. (If you blast on the side where you already removed the mask, you will lose the sharpness of the line, or lose the line all together.) Everyone has a tendency to try to make the balloons too deep around the edge, but if you think about it, the outer edge would be less deep and the center deeper. Making the balloons deep around the outside makes it hard for you to get an evenly deep center, so the balloon ends up looking like it is partly deated. So, in the case of the balloons, you want to break rule number 5 above. You want the center of the balloons to be the deepest so that they will look round when you are looking at them from the other side. A good way to get around this is to make concentric circles of the balloon and peel them one at a time from the center out. I did the same thing with the bears ears, making the outer edge look less deep and the center of the ear deeper. This will take a little work on your part to modify the drawing. I simply
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INSIDE ENGRAVING
By John McDaniel
Applications
Machine Accuracy 5: Hysteresis

Weve been discussing machine design elements that contribute to a machines accuracy. So far weve covered resolution, speed and repeatability. Ill pickup the discussion this time with hysteresis. What is it? What causes it? Hysteresis can be dened as a loss of control of movement when the direction of movement is reversed in an axis. Its caused from looseness in the mechanics, or ex in the structure, of a machine. For example, lets assume were vector engraving a perfect circle; and for the sake of discussion, were engraving our circle in a clockwise motion. Our engraving starts at the 12 oclock position. As our machine is moving from the 12 oclock position to 3 oclock, both the x and y axis are moving in one direction (See Picture 1). As the machine continues from the 3 oclock position to 6 oclock, the x axis reverses direction. When the direction changes, if there is any play in the machines x-axis mechanics, an error will occur and our circle will be less than perfect. As we then move around the 6 oclock position, the y axis reverses direction, presenting another opportunity of error. In fact, the x axis changes direction at the 3 and 9 oclock positions and the y axis at the 12 and 6 oclock positions. This offers four opportunities for errors in our circle. Each error will appear as a at spot in the engraving, a deviation from the planned path (See Picture 2). The severity, or length of the at spot, will depend on the looseness of the machines components and the degree to which the machine exes as the moving load is reversed. The moving load consists of the weight of all the moving parts, table, gantry, etc.; and for cutting machines (rotary engravers), the cutting resistance load. A deviation of only .001 is visible to the naked eye. Why is it important? Okay, so you cant remember the last time a customer asked you to engrave a perfect circle; so why should you care about hysteresis? Because it will affect all of the curves you cut or engrave all those lovely Ss and Os, and all the owing, sweeping curves in your customers favorite script lettering, or perhaps in his logo. Perhaps you have a job that requires you to cut shapes out of sheet stock. We
have jobs that require us to cut holes in, or shapes out of, a variety of materials with both our rotary and laser engravers. A machines hysteresis will impact the accuracy of these shapes. Ah, you say, I dont vector engrave or cut out shapes. I have a laser and do most, if not all, my engraving in raster format, so hysteresis wont affect my work. Wrong! You should also be concerned, especially about hysteresis in x-axis movement. Since raster engraving with a laser typically requires the x axis to reverse direction 300, 600, or even 1200 times for each vertical inch of surface area, a slight amount of play in the x axis can cause the raster dots to shift, i.e. be offset in every other row (See Picture 3). This offset can cause the edges of the engraving to be poorly
Picture 1: When starting to engrave a circle, the x and y axis are moving in one direction.
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Outline & Overview

The Nuts and Bolts of Machine Accuracy Machine accuracy, or capability, can be dened as a result of six features: 1. Resolution the smallest incremental movement/positioning of a specied axis 2. Speed the ability to complete a task in a reasonable amount of time without sacricing accuracy or creating damage to the machine or product. 3. Repeatability the ability to duplicate a previous position without error. 4. Hysteresis the slop or play in motion control components. 5. Structural Integrity stiffness or strength the ability to cut materials without error or damage. This is especially important for mechanical engravers. 6. Structural Tolerances the sum accuracy of a machines mechanical components. Machine Components Well examine nine factors that determine a machines accuracy. They include: 1. Motors including DC Stepper, DC Brushless, DC Servo, and AC Servo. a. Spindles motors that rotate the cutting bit. b. Axis Drive motors that position the material to the cutting bit. c. Horsepower ratings real versus advertised. 2. The Motion Control Drive Unit including Geared Belt and Lead Screws. a. Lead Screws including Acme, Re-circulating Ball, Standard and Precision. b. Mounting including Simple, Fixed, and Thrust bearing types. c. Protection Open or Closed. 3. Guide Rails Types include, V Bearing Rail, Bushing Shaft, Dove Tail, and Re-circulating Ball Bearing. 4. Encoders Types include Rotary and Linear. Methodologies include incremental or absolute. 5. Tachometers used for speed stability, acceleration, and breaking control for closed loop servo systems. 6. Bearings including Sleeve, Ball, and Linear Re-circulating Ball. a. Applications including Radial, Thrust, and Linear. b. Quality Standard thru Ultra Precision. 7. Spindles including top/bottom loading, Collets and Sleeves. 8. Material Hold Down including mechanical clamps and vacuum systems. 9. Electronic Interface Computer control methods. Well also examine Reliability, what makes it? And, Serviceability, is it xable?
dened and look jagged; since the smallest laser dot is about 0.003, (approximately 300 dpi), the jagged edge effect will be more pronounced at lower resolutions. All machines start with some built-in hysteresis. There must be some clearance between the lead screw and nut to allow the parts to move without binding. The hysteresis a machine starts with will depend on the quality of its components. Then, over time, as parts wear, more will develop and the quality of curves will decline. Machine Design Factors Some machine designs use lead-screw/nut assemblies to move the tables or gantry. Some designs use pulleys and belts. Because of the greater force they can apply, lead-screw/nut designs are primarily used in cutting machine applications; therefore, most mechanical engraving machines incorporate this design. The pulley and belt designs are primarily used in machines where resistance to movement is minimal, like laser engraving machines. For machines that use lead-screws in their motion control design, hysteresis is a result of looseness in primarily three areas; lead-screw/nut assemblies, thrust bearings, and
Picture 2: Hysteresis errors will appear as a at spot in the engraving, a deviation from the planned path.
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structural integrity. For machines that use pulley/belt designs, hysteresis results from looseness in carriage attachment; i.e. how the carriage, table, or gantry is attached to the belt; belt stretch; and again structural integrity. Lead-screw/Nut Assemblies In most cutting machines, motion is achieved by turning a lead-screw. A nut attached to a table or gantry moves up and down the threads as the lead-screw turns, just like a nut rides on a bolt. When pushing in one direction, the nut is riding against one surface of the threads. When direction changes, if there is any looseness between the lead-screw threads and the nut, there will be a momentary lag as the nut shifts to the opposite thread surface. This is hysteresis. There are two major designs for lead-screw/nut constructions the ACME standard and the recirculating ball. The ACME types are the most common because of their low initial cost. The disadvantage of the ACME design is high friction which results in component wear. Therefore, service life for ACME types is difcult to predict. Ball screw designs, on the other hand, are more complex to manufacture, and therefore machines that incorporate them are more expensive initially. Because of their very low friction, however, they are highly efcient and, as a result, are more cost effective in the long run. The ACME lead screw assembly can be thought of as somewhat similar to a sleeve bearing, where metal in motion rides against stationary metal, or some other material, presumably on a lm of lubricant. The recirculating ball screw assembly is similar to a ball bearing, where the stationary nut is separated from the lead-screw by hardened balls that roll as the screw turns. Next time well continue our discussion, delve a little deeper into lead-screw designs, and explore the other machine design elements that contribute to hysteresis. John McDaniel with his wife Judy are owners of JHM Marketing in Albany, OR. JHM provides consulting and train-
Picture 3: In a laser, a slight amount of play in the x axis can cause the raster dots to shift, i.e. be offset in every other row. ing services for the industry. (For information on training services offered and their application support service visit www. CorelDRAWhelp.com.) They can be reached by phone at 541967-4271, via SKYPE (user name JHMcDaniel), or via email at JHMcDaniel@CorelDRAWhelp.com.
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INSIDE LASER
By Louie Alvarez
Applications
Adding COLOR to Laser Engraving

Remember way back when: TVs were black and white, computers were white text on a black screen, pretty much everything -- PDAs, cell phones, printers, digital cameras, you name it, they ALL began life in black and white mode. I personally remember those days as I was an avid (addicted?) technology enthusiast as I bought all the above and more in their black and white glory. I just didnt have the patience for the technology to evolve, mature, and become affordable. The choices we make can be foolish and expensive ones, huh? But, to this day I still remember when I was complaining about the X amount of dollars I felt I had wasted on technology, a friend gave me an epiphany. He said, Without all that expense, trying and testing, but most of all learning, I wouldnt be as knowledgeable as I am today. With that said I thank myself, literally pat myself on the back, for spending the bucks back when very few would. Although color was the Holy Grail, the price of color technology was too cost prohibitive at rst. But as technology evolved and supply nally exceeded demand, the cost to manufacture plummeted which in turn drove down the selling price so consumers could nally afford colorized technology.
COLOR!
Now it is nearly impossible to purchase a black and white anything. Why bother: it looks cheesy, cheap and just plain old and outdated. Besides today who wants black and white? Without a doubt, the bottom line is we all want color! History repeats! Then, the trophy industry began its evolution, and lasers engravers overnight were all the rage. This unique and versatile machine, often compared to a laser printer, could print on nearly any substrate; everyone had to have one. The excitement of lasering text, clipart, logos and photographs onto nearly any substrate was at its peak. For quite some time the masses were content. Now step forward a number of years and all these substrates have been mastered and regularly lasered day in and day out. History begins to repeat itself as once again the masses want COLOR! The lasered look As a laser owner, or maybe youre not an owner but entertaining the thought of embarking into laser technology, you probably already know that there are nearly unlimited materials that work very well with laser engraving, such as, stone, plastics, acrylics, glass, coated metals, and woods. Now all materials have their unique characteristics, such as stone vaporizes, plastics melts, acrylic frosts, glass
fractures, coated metals vaporize away, wood burns, etc. But once again the resulting image is typically a revealing of the undercoating or natural burn of the substrate. After youve seen one image lasered, the next isnt so exciting and actually begins to take on a dull, ordinary, lackluster, boring, unappealing, lifeless, unexciting, mediocre (you get the picture) look to it. When to use color So lets begin this months topic of Adding Color to Laser Engraving. I personally think that the natural burn on wood, the white exposed in marble, the frost on acrylic, the oxidation on anodized aluminum, or the colors revealed in plastic leave a most impressive image on the surface of these materials and dont necessarily require color to be added. But there are instances where adding color may be desirable. Lets look at instances that might justify the color
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processes. 1) Your competitors put out quality work that is as good as or better than yours and you must differentiate your work from theirs. 2) The customer specically requests color. 3) A logo or image in order to be used legally requires specic colors. 4) The overall project is humdrum and color would spice it up. 5) Or you are a workaholic that must ll every precious minute with more work. All right so there are times when adding color does make sense. But let the natural color of the material youre working with display the quality of your work. In the event that color will lend itself well to the project, then here are a few pointers to make it a little easier and faster.
The key is masking your substrate First you must add to your laser engravers arsenal some sign-makers transfer tape. Swing by any sign supply store, or if none are nearby, go to your nearest sign shop and buy a roll. This is what vinyl sign makers use to transfer cut graphics to the substrate the vinyl sign will go onto, i.e., banners, windows, magnets, etc. The reason why you want to use this transfer tape over other tapes is quite simple -- it is very low tack allowing for easy removal. The primary reason to use this low tack tape is you must protect the areas you dont want any color on. With the transfer tape applied to the surface of the area to be color lled, you simply laser your design through the tape. The engraved-away area is now prepared to accept your method of coloring. Color, WHAT to use? There are a variety of choices available that I have found to work well dependent upon the colors I want and the material I am working on, such as Rub & Buff, Shoe Polish, Spray Paint, Model Paint, Acrylic Paints, Oil Paints, and Watercolors. The beauty of having so many choices is the ability to mix and match to create the unique color required for your project. Of course the laser industry has spawned a few materials of its own that work well on various substrates. These materials that can add color to your work are vinyl, foil, and the color-based metal marking solutions (Cermark & Thermark) that are available for glass, ceramic, and tile. NOTE: Always have an extra sample available for testing purposes to ensure the color works well, doesnt bleed, and provides the shade of color you are seeking, adheres well, dries well, and doesnt damage the surrounding surface. Did I mention masking? Glass. This materials is difcult to add color to since the laser does not etch any depth but creates
thousands of minute fractures. Use Cermark/Thermark, Vinyl or Foil. Wood. This popular material works very well in SOME instances. You have to factor in the pores that tend to bleed the color applied. Use thick paints, Rub & Buff, foil, vinyl, or the various thick paints for porous woods, while thinner paints should work ne on less porous woods. Acrylic. This material scratches very easily so masking is essential, and the preferred handling method when applying color is with cotton-glove hands. The protective paper coating that comes with acrylic can be left on to replace sign-makers transfer tape. I prefer not to use it as the older the acrylic is, the harder the tape is to remove, as it comes off in chunks. When using paints, be gentle on the cleanup. Use foil and/or vinyl and simply vector-cut your image, leaving behind the resulting image in the color foil or vinyl you chose. Stone. This is marble, granite, slate, etc. These materials generally are used with photographs, so painting by hand, literally, is the rule of thumb here. If you want to use masking to add color to text,
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logos, and such, then the process will be the same as any other material. But if you want to add color to photographs, then paintbrush, cotton balls or swabs, etc. are the only real method to use -- and of course your painting talent. Good luck. I might add that using the lighter shade of stone materials will REQUIRE color ll to give that contrast that you should always strive for when laser engraving. Corian. This man-made stone comes in hundreds of colors and it holds up so well to lasering that crisp, clean, detailed images are easily obtained when lasering. This material lends itself well to color lling since your image may not be easily distinguishable due to the Corian color being the same consistency throughout the entire thickness of the material. Use masking here and apply high contrast colors to bring out the image, yet maintain the beauty of the substrate. Mirrors. These are an excellent candidate for color application. Laser through the reective backing to reveal the glass, try not to laser/fracture the glass itself to keep it clear. Once the backing is revealed, then apply color for excellent contrast. My very rst laser venture was a 10-day county fair in which I ONLY laser engraved photos into various standard-sized mirrors I had pre-cut for the event. Using only black spray paint and the very rst digital camera, a black and white by Logitech, I managed to make $16,000 in sales in that 10-day period. This was over a dozen years ago when no one knew what laser engraving was, had never seen it, and the market was wide open. I saw a need, fullled it, and made a huge prot! As you can see adding color is a little messy, but rather simple and easy when using sign- makers transfer tape. With the numerous coloring options available and having a few tips, this is simple enough even for the layman to tackle. So seek your market, locate the need, and fulll it well, and youll make your own next huge prot! Tune in next month when I detail the latest industry breakthrough, Laser Engraving in FULL COLOR. See how to do photo quality lasering in full color that is UV resistant, wear and scratch resistant and durable enough to last year after year. Louie Alvarez began acquiring his experience in the awards and engraving industry in Central California over 15 years ago, rst as an employee of the largest and oldest trophy shop and then as owner of one of the rst laser engraving businesses. Louie has been a featured workshop instructor and seminar speaker throughout the industry in addition to being a contributing writer to numerous industry publications. Louie is based in Las Vegas, NV, and can be reached at alvarezwriting@gmail.com.
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LASER TIP
By Kathryn Arnold
Applications
Ornaments
Being able to offer your customers personalized items to share with their families at the holidays each year is a rewarding part of laser engraving. It might be to commemorate a special loved one that has passed or celebrate the birth of a baby. Ornaments can be made in a variety of materials. We will focus on ornaments made from acrylic, glass and on pre-cut glass shapes. Glass & Crystal Precut Shapes Laser engraving on glass/crystal is a micro-chipping process. Heat energy from the focused laser heats the surface and causes the aking away of the glass or crystal. Controlling this micro- chipping process can be tricky as the surface may have a tendency to have large akes come off and create a very uneven look. Dampening the intense heat (by placing a damp piece of white printer paper on the surface to be engraved) from the laser will give a smoother, more professional look to the engraved product (See Figure 1). Working with glass & crystal can be tricky process. Sometimes the results maybe not be dark enough and that is where CerMark comes into play (See Figure 2). Thermal bonding is a process that has been proven for many years for the application of metal marking. The heat energy of the laser is used to bond the special coating to the base material. Advances in material development now offer the ability to bond on glass, crystal or ceramic tile of any type or surface. Acrylic When cast acrylic is laser engraved, it turns a frosty white color. Cast acrylic sheets are made from a liquid acrylic that is poured into molds that are up to 4 x 8 feet in size. These large sheets can be molded into several sizes, ranging from a thin 1/16 of an inch to a larger 1- and 2-inch thickness. The cast acrylic available at 1/8inch thick can be both engraved and cut. For ornaments, you will need to be able to cut through the acrylic (See Figure 3). The second type of commonly found acrylic is extruded acrylic. Extruded acrylic is formed into sheets by a large machine much like a printing press. Being a high volume manufacturing technique, this process allows sheets of extruded acrylic to be less expensive than cast acrylic. Again, for both engraving and cutting, the acrylic will need to be at a thickness your laser is able to both engrave and cut (See Figure 4). Color-lling acrylic is a great option in adding value to the product (See Figures 5 & 6). The number one rule when color-lling acrylic is to use an acrylic-based color.
Figure 1: Use a dampened paper to relieve the intense heat on glass.
Figure 2: CerMark can be used to darken the engraving on glass.
Figure 3: Ornament made from cast acrylic.

Figure 4: Ornament made from extruded acrylic

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Figure 5: Snowake acrylic ornament
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LASER TIP
The results of using a solvent-based paint can be disastrous and include cracking and crazing around the engraved area where the solvents have interacted with acrylic. Other acrylic options include mirrored acrylic (See Figure 7) and colored acrylic (See Figure 8). Wood, quite obviously, is a natural product and not man-made. Each tree is graded for quality and then precisely sawn to take full advantage of the maximum amount of usable timber available on that tree. The wood boards are then chemically treated and dried in large ovens or kilns. During the drying process the moisture content is accurately measured so the wood dries free from cracks and splits. The nal moisture content of the wood is important for the woodworking shop that will receive the timbers. Well-dried woods will allow minimal shrinking after fabrication and produce top quality nished goods. The ideal wood type for laser engraving would be one that is light colored and has high resin content for dark engraving. See Figure 9 for wood ornaments that are engraved and one that is color lled. The ornament in Figure 10 was engraved and Laser Foil was used to add color. All of the acrylic and wood ornaments above were cut using designs from a template CD by LaserBits. Sometimes starting is the hardest part. Follow this link and you will receive four ornament designs from the above CD free! This is courtesy of LaserUniversity & LaserBits. http://www.laseru.com/laseru/1234/Oct2007/magazine1007.html Figure 7: Ornament made with mirrored acrylic. Submitted by Kathryn Arnold, Senior Developer at LaserUniversity, sponsored by LaserBits Inc. of Phoenix, AZ. She can be reached at 1-800-733-7705 or laseru@laserbits. com. Or visit www.laseru.com.
Figure 6: Snowake acrylic ornament with color lling.
Figure 8: Ornament made with colored acrylic.
Figure 9: A variety of wood ornaments, mostly engraved and one that is color lled.
Figure 10: An ornament that was laser engraved and then Laser Foil was used to add color.
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35
GETTING AHEAD
By Deborah Sexton
Opportunity
Making the Most of Your Web Site

Find out what content and graphics you need to ensure you are maximizing your Web site investment and using it to its full capabilities as a marketing and sales tool.
The good news is that there are innumerable resources to tap to make your Web site all that it can be and they dont all cost thousands of dollars. Making the most of your Web site has two critical components. First, you have to build a site that speaks to the customer about his needs, and in a way that compels him to purchase your products and services. Second, you have to draw people to your site and keep them coming back for more. Heres a look at the content every successful site must have. The Right Stuff One of the most common mistakes in Web development is a lack of focus on the customer. The site must be built in a way that speaks to the customers needs. Its not so important what you want to say; whats important is what the customer wants to hear. Otherwise, the result is that the owner loves the site but the customers leave feeling that theyve wasted their time, says Jason Sherrill, president, InetSolution, Utica, Mich. Content must speak to customers, engaging them and making them excited about your business, and its products and services. You have to write content for the audience. Invariably, content is written for the people who wrote it the owners not the people reading it, Sherrill says. And the design has no credibility. They spend all this money to get people there, for nothing. One great way to add compelling content to Web sites that are product- and commerce-driven, is to create a blog (a Web log), where you regularly provide ideas about how to use your products. For instance, if your company sells trophies and awards, you might write a blog entitled, Five Creative Ways To Recognize Employees. Articles like this help customers view your product in ways that they hadnt thought of before, and generally
Your Web site has the potential to be a very powerful marketing tool that can 1) introduce and educate potential customers about your business, 2) elicit more business from existing customers, and 3) help you gather and track information that you can use to make sure you continue to offer what customers want. Or it can be just another lonely page oating out in Internet space that people only stumble onto by accident and quickly leave when they cannot discover any reason to stay. Most people are well aware of the critical importance Web sites play in all corners of the business world. From research to purchase, much of the buying process has shifted from the real world to the virtual arena, and companies that want to maximize prots have invested in developing top-notch sites. Unfortunately, companies in the decorated apparel arena on the whole have not taken advantage of all that a Web site can offer in terms of marketing their business. Whether its a lack of time, resources, or knowledge, too many sites have no clear focus or strategy and are slapped up on the Web with little or no thought. They know they should have a Web site so they put up a Web site and then basically forget about it. The irony of Web sites is they are the great equalizer. A small to mid-size shop can create just as professional and appealing an image on a Web site as a large-volume producer doing millions in dollars. For the average consumer looking for a source, they have no way of knowing what size the shop is. They may be evaluating the company solely on its Web site, which means you might be losing business to a customer who might have chosen you if your Web site had better communicated your services and advantages.
Publishing articles packed with your ideas and opinions is a great way to give your company credibility and to help customers feel like they know you and can trust you. People buy from people they know and trust, says Jason Sherrill, president, Inet Solution, Utica, Mich.
Take a Look Around
Many decorators get a ballpark sense of what they should be charging by calling the competition and seeing what they charge. Likewise, its not a bad idea to take a look at your competitions Web sites and see what theyre doing well and not so well. You want to differentiate yourself, but you dont need to reinvent how the Web works, Sherrill says. Ask yourself, Who are your competitors? Why are they successful? From what youve seen online, what would you like to do?
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GETTING AHEAD
will trigger enough sales to easily pay for the time and money spent to create the content, Sherrill says. Publishing articles packed with your ideas and opinions also is a great way to give your company credibility and to help customers feel like they know you and can trust you. People buy from people they know and trust, Sherrill says. Take the time, even if its only once every other week, to write something. If your writing is terrible, hire a ghost writer. Just make sure you contribute those ideas. Picking the right tone for your site is easy enough: Make it match your companys image. If your store is down home and folksy, your content should read that way. If youre upscale and ritzy, and you sell high-end products, write that way. Is it OK to be promotional in your blog? If thats your personality or persona, why not? I know of one blogger who toots his own horn left and right. He just tells you every day how great he is, Sherrill says. But people expect that from him. It matches his personality. The worst blogs are corporate ones with no personality. What to Say, How to Say It Your sites written information should directly reect your companys goals. For example, if your goal is to generate leads, the content should focus on the benets your products offer. If your goal is to garner online sales, steer customers toward that goal.
When you read your Web site copy, insert your competitors name. If statements on your Web site could equally be applied to your competitor, rethink what some of your advantages are and tout those instead.
smaller chunks of information online than they would in print, so you should offer only as much information as the customer wants to know at each stage of the buying process. Finally, evaluate what youve said and how youve said it by inserting your competitors name into the copy. If you can do so and the copy still makes sense, you havent said anything original. You havent done anything to differentiate yourself from your competition. When we talk A compelling technique to draw visitors to your Web site is to post a about the bare minimum of what you blog. The most important key to a successful blog is one that reects want to accomplish you want to personality and also ideally offers practical or interesting information. differentiate yourself from everybody Screen capture courtesy of http://sethgodin.typepad.com. else. Thats a big one, Sherrill says. If what you say applies equally well to your competitor, Your sites copy also should be professional, credthen your customer isnt going to be able to differentiible, and specic. Consumers want you to make it easy for them to determine whether you can provide the serate you either. vices they need, Sherrill says. For example, instead Deborah Sexton, former editor of Impressions of saying, We repair computers, a site should say, We Magazine, has been in the apparel graphics industry repair Intel-based HP, Compaq, and IBM computers since 1981. She currently does marketing and public manufactured between 2002 and 2007. relations for apparel graphics companies. She can be Its also important to offer pricing, as reluctant as you may be to offer that kind of information. Consumers reached at dsexton@sbcglobal.net. want to know how much your services cost. The majority of service-based business owners I talk to refuse to list prices on their Web site. I charge by the project, so I Who Is Jason Sherrill? cannot put prices on my site, they say, Sherrill explains. Jason Sherrill is president of If you charge by the project, you likely have a minimum, InetSolution, a company that offers maximum, and average price range for your projects. Web site software and development, Simply telling people that range will help them determine Web site hosting, consulting, and whether they would be wasting their time, and yours, products to make Web sites easier by contacting you. to use, less expensive, and more What about the competition seeing your prices secure. He has 14 years experience in e-commerce online? Big deal, Sherrill says. Today its nearly imposbusiness operations and 10 years in Internet develsible to hide your prices. Even if you dont post them opment. For assistance in creating or ne-tuning online, one of your customers eventually will. your Web site, contact him at http://www.inetsoluPart of the challenge of writing copy for your Web tion.com. site is guring out how to present it. People tend to prefer
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MARKETING SECRETS
By Donna M. Gray, CRM
Opportunities
Give Yourself a Timeout!

Here we are in October...almost at the end of the calendar year. Lately, time has been flying by in our store. We are grateful for the busyness, however, even though deadlines are met, customers helped, and priorities taken care of, one can come to the end of the day and feel like there hasnt been a moment to breathe. We need a time out! Were working on a new system, doing what my husband, Dave, believes are the 15 most important moments of our daythe time we use to prioritize our daily schedules. Henry Kissinger said, There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. During certain seasons in our industry it seems like its crisis time everyday. Nowadays, customers are used to instant gratication shopping, not only online, but now its carrying over to brick and mortar stores. Many clients dont plan in advance, or sometimes last minute changes create new, urgent deadlines. So to go with the ow, we, in the custom products business, have to be prepared to tackle and complete our customers work with speed, service, and smiles. The secret of advance planning Some days (in certain seasons, everyday) in our business, we have to hit the oor running, and it could be that way all day long. One could leave the building at days end, exhausted, feeling like he/she hasnt quite caught up with all the work. A good problem to havebut yet it is a problem. Chatting with others in our industry I discovered that not everyone has this challenge. Some, even with the same kinds of rush orders and obligations, accomplish more and still have time left over, while some of us are always racing to beat the clock. There is a secret to better time management that we discover when we start planning in advance and prioritizing. True, our clients can put a monkey wrench in the mix when they ask for a stop everything and do my rush order favor. But mapping out your schedule in advance allows the opportunity to streamline daily tasks and allow for the unexpected. Simple time savers Ive been addicted to time management for many years. It goes back to the days when I was in school, working and raising a family at the same time. I couldnt forget anything so I created a system I could depend on to keep all the balls in the air. Not wanting to become a time fanatic with spreadsheets on everything Im supposed to do, I needed a simple plan that I knew Id stick to. So I found some time savers to keep me in the fast lane as I went through the day/week/month/year, like the following: Dont take forever to make a decision. Once a decision is made, a weight is lifted. Its easy to fall into the research trap. Just do it. Do only one thing at a time. Many of us are great multi-taskers, but when it comes down to saving time versus possibly making mistakes, doing one thing until its nished wins every time. Establish daily priorities. Daves A-B-C method works for me. This will help get the important stuff done rst. Those who live with deadlines must live with priorities. Divide up the work. Small parcels of work can be more manageable than diving into a huge project. This could actually help with adapting a large project into a hectic schedule. Get started! Once daily priorities are identied, get going on them. The longer one procrastinates the harder it is to begin. Sometimes, more time is wasted preparing to get to work than
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actually doing the job. Get into a routine with daily prioritizing and jumping into the project(s) at hand. Get rid of busywork. Delegate things that can be done by others. Even if you secretly think you can do the job betterdelegate it anyway. Empower others to help. Keeping all the keys to the kingdom in your pocket is fatal. If you think no one else can handle the job, you will be overwhelmed with responsibilities. Burnout follows quickly. Learn to say no! Dont commit to unimportant things that belong to someone else. Stop attempting to take on too much. No one works best under pressure. No amount of organizing can keep pressure at bay when theres way too much to do. Murphys Law reminds us that everything we take on takes longer than we think it will. Use check-lists and To-Do lists. Invest in a good calendar system and use it. Keep the calendar up-to-date. Slip in personal appointment time for yourself and use that time for things that will help you with your day. You can use your personal appointment time for reading, catchCONTENTS INFO REQUEST FULL SCREEN
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MARKETING SECRETS
ing up on industry news, or ling your nailsit doesnt matter as long as you use it for you. Making a To-Do List Time management is about controlling the most valuable resource we have. Good time management comes with good planning, and that requires uninterrupted time. For me, planning works best rst thing in the morning. Most days, 5:00 a.m. nds me working on my To-Do list for the day. I take all that days appointments off my calendar, add in things that just came up, leave a little time open for just in case, and then identify the top priorities with AB-C designations, and email the list from home to my ofce computer. Lately, Ive been adding a 15-minute timeout break just to give me some space to catch up. Spending our time I read, not too long ago, that efciency expert Michael Fortino predicted that the average American worker will spend up to
times a day, take an hour of work home, read less than ve minutes, talk to a spouse for four minutes, exercise less than three minutes, and play with the kids for two minutes. Well, if thats the case, how can we nd the time to do the things we really must d o ? The way I see it is that we have to spend our time doing things that are important to ourselves, our families, our businesses, our customersnot necessarily always in that order. Once weve spent it, we cant get it back, so it may be time to take a timeout to gure out how we can make time work for usnot against us. Making a daily plan To make time work, experts say that daily planning should include two to ve essential tasks that absolutely must be done. Then they say to throw in scheduled appointments, important meetings, (note the word important), and time set aside to accomplish other specic tasks. Finally they say to add in your To-Do list, and then enter in all the things you simply cant forget about, and any other low priority items that youd like to get done. Whew! This seems like a lot to t in, or remove from your schedule of events. But once you begin planning for the really important stuff and eliminating the extraneous busy stuff, it will become a habit that will simplify your life.
You can use your daily plan as a basic start for creating a long range set of goals that carry forward every day. But now, once you have your plan, you need to thin it out by identifying the things you can cross off your To-Do list, like things that can waitthings that someone else can take care ofor things that simply dont really need to be done. Then youll be giving yourself a timeoutand isnt it about time? Donna Gray is the president of Total Awards, Promotions, & Gift (aka AwardsMall.com) in Madison, Wis. She and her husband Dave have run their full service awards and personalization business since1977. She can be reached by email at donna@AwardsMall.com. See her full bio on the Writers Page.
seven years in the bathroom, six years eating, ve years waiting in line, three years in meetings, two years playing telephone tag, eight months opening up junk mail, and six months waiting at red lights. Supposedly, we also get interrupted 73
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PRODUCT FOCUS
Opportunity
Sublimatable Clocks and Boxes

SUBLIMATABLE GIFT BOXES FROM JOHNSON PLASTICS Johnson Plastics, based in Minneapolis, MN, presents an ever-growing line of wooden gift boxes just in time for the holiday season. All can be personalized with sublimation and would make uniquely thoughtful and much appreciated gifts for the holidays. The newest additions include the wooden recipe box shown here, perfect for friends who love to cook and share their recipes. For more information about these and the many other products for sublimation available from Johnson Plastics, call 1-800-869-7800 or go to www.johnsonplastics.com. Use the Info Request button below. PRINTA OFFERS SUBLIMATABLE CLOCK KITS Clocks make great promotional items, awards, thank-you gifts, and decorations, and Printa Systems of Kirkland, WA, offers unique clock kits that allow you to design custom clocks for your customer. The clock kits come in several styles and sizes. A 4-inch by 4-inch square clock, #1027, has a 1/8-inch clock face. An 8-1/8-inch round clock, #1015, has a 1/8-inch clock face. There also is an aluminum clock kit without a frame that is 8-1/8-inches round. Each kit includes a face that can be decorated with a sublimation transfer, hands, motor, and a frame or stand. You can decorate clocks with corporate logos, accomplishments, schools, teams, photos, and much more. Each clock face has a durable, scratch-resistant coating specially designed to work with sublimation transfers so you can be assured of brilliant color reproduction and consistent quality. Use the Info Request button below. LRI GLASS CLOCK, HUMIDOR, AND BOXES LRI of Skokie, IL, has introduced a new Glass Clock. It is a round glass clock that ts any dcor and can be used on the wall or desk. It includes the glass face, mechanism, hands. The back is white coated. It is available in two sizes 8 diameter by 3/16 thick in smooth nish, and 12 x 3/16 in smooth or textured surface. The black wire clock stand is sold separately. LRI also offers an exclusive humidor for your customers who smoke cigars. Boxes of this caliber sell in department stores and boutiques for as much as $300. Finely crafted solid wood with rosewood satin nish and cedar lining. Spring-loaded brass hinges and concealed magnetic closure lock in freshness, measured by a high-quality hygrometer and ensured by a built-in humidier. Fits 6 x 8 sublimatable glass or U.S. tile (sold separately). Premium piano-nish boxes, made of the nest solid wood and lined in soft velvet are also available. They feature a hidden-hinge lid, and come in Pecan, Rosewood, Black. Black boxes lined in black velvet. Fits U.S. tiles. Call 877-7951500 or visit www.laserreproductions.com. Or use the Info Request button below.
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PRODUCT FOCUS
Opportunity
PSI OFFERS ASSORTED CLOCKS AND KITS Paramount Systems Inc. of Hollywood, FL, offers a wide assortment of clocks and kits to suit everyones tastes. From pegged tile frames to resin versions of portholes, they may be congured several different ways with the use of optional clock movements as well as clock and instrument inserts such as the Mini Weather Stations. One example is The Village Clock and Tile Frame which is a classy piece of home decor with a high perceived value. Constructed of solid red oak, it is designed to accommodate a 6X8 standard Dal-tile on the bottom and a 6 square on top. While it features a depth that will hold a clock mechanism, it also makes a beautiful frame for 2 associated pictures. Put the proud parents below with a picture of their new baby on top, or perhaps someones favorite youth baseball All Star on the bottom with a team photo above. Lots of possible combinations will make this a cherished timepiece or heirloom. It comes with a solid back and allows a clock to be mounted in the top with the use of a tile, metal, hardboard or FRP cut to size. An attractive 3-D style frame is designed to accommodate a 4.25 tile with plenty of depth to hold a clock if wanted, but makes any tile stand out. While having a keyhole slot for hanging, it makes the perfect addition to any desk, ledge or shelf with the included peg legs inserted in the back. Made of solid red oak and beautifully nished with several coats of a catalyzed lacquer. An arched top frame is designed to accommodate either a 4 tile with 3 pegs on the frame (not shown) or a 6 tile with 4 pegs on the bottom that are useful for hanging a variety of things. It comes with 36mm clock insert that features a Seiko PC21 quartz movement and ts securely in the top of the frame. Visit www.Dye-Sublimation-Products.com, or call 800-455-7212. Use the Info Request button below.
CONDE HAS NEON BOXES & TEMPERED GLASS CLOCKS Conde Systems Inc. of Mobile, AL, carries a range of boxes and clocks for sublimation gifts. The neon-colored keepsake boxes offer a bold new design with these eye-catching designs that feature color-coordinated vinyl linings and hinged lids. They accept one 4.25 x .25 tile. Colors include neon red, yellow, green, purple, orange, and pink. Also available is a tempered glass wall clock, which measures 7.87 in diameter and features a quartz movement for accurate timekeeping and years of enjoyment. It runs on one AA size battery (not included). The kit includes the quartz movement, hands, and clock face. Call 800-826-6332 or visit www.conde.com or use the Info Request button at the bottom.
INFO REQUEST For more information on the products in this Product Focus section, click on the Info Request button at the bottom of the page, and select by company name or product.
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GRAPHICS NEWS NETWORK

All these news and information products and services are part of the Graphics News Network, developed for ACDRP. The goal is All the News, All the Time For the World of Graphics.
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Louie Alvarez started in the industry working for one of the largest trophy shops in Central California, and then opened one of the rst retail laser engraving businesses. He has given seminars and workshops on CorelDRAW and Laser for many years, and has written for several publications. He is now with Vytek Industrial Lasers and is based in Las Vegas, NV. He can be reached at alvarezwriting@gmail.com. Kathryn Arnold is the Senior Developer at LaserUniversity, sponsored by LaserBits Inc. of Phoenix, AZ. She can be reached at 1-800-733-7705 or laseru@laserbits.com. Or visit www.laseru.com. Errol Barr has a wide range of experience in sales & marketing, eventually getting into laser systems in 1999, currently with Vytek Industrial Lasers. He also sold extensively in the CNC router industry selling the machines as more of a business opportunity wrapped around the machine. He can be reached by email at errolbarr@gmail.com. Dave Demoret founded Prolink Graphic Services to help people understand and prot from learning CorelDRAW. He has been in both the Flat Graphics Industry and the Decorating Graphics Industry for 30 years. He has written articles for several publications, is a Corel Training Partner, and conducts workshops nationwide and online. He is the author of several CD Instructional programs on CorelDRAW. He can be reached at 765-DO COLOR (362-6567) or daved@prolinkgs.com Donna Gray is the president of Total Awards, Promotions, & Gift (aka AwardsMall. com) in Madison, Wis. She and her husband Dave have run their full service awards and personalization business since 1977. She has presented seminars on a variety of topics nationwide, and has won many marketing awards. She is the author of two books on family business, and can be reached at donna. gray@AwardsMall.com. Bill Leek is a color consultant for JBL Graphics in Houston, TX, and has over 30 years experience in computer engineering and graphics design. He has developed several lines of color imprintable products, and does testing on a variety of products for different manufacturers. He can be reached at week@jblgraphics. com or 281-970-6677. Jeff McDaniel is the owner of Creative Graphic in Philomath, Oregon. He worked as a journeyman machinist before getting into the graphic products business. Creative Graphic offers laser engraving, rotary engraving, sandblasting, sublimation, image transfers, vinyl signs, banners, screen printing, and promotional products. Jeff routinely applies graphics to a wide variety of materials. Contact him at Jeff@creativegraphic.net.
John McDaniel is the co-owner of JHM Marketing in Albany, OR, which provides consulting and training services for the industry. He worked for many years with computers in electronic data processing and pioneered the use of CorelDraw for engraving applications. He owned a retail personalized gift shop for over ten years, and writes about hardware design, software, laser engraving, sublimation, and more. He is a Corel Training Partner, and co-founder of the Association of CorelDRAW Professionals. For information on training and more, call 541-9674271, or write to mail@CorelDRAWhelp.com. Judy McDaniel is the co-owner of JHM Marketing in Albany, OR, which provides consulting and training services for the industry. Her background includes many forms of art and retail sales, as well as the operation of a retail personalized gift shop for over ten years. She is a regular columnist on sandblasting, sublimation, and diversifying business, as well as a Corel Training Partner, and co-founder of the Association of CorelDRAW Professionals. She can be reached at 541-9674271, fax 541-967-4272, or via email at mail@CorelDRAWhelp.com. David Milisock is president of Custom Graphic Technologies Inc. in Pennsylvania. He has been in the print production business since 1975, and specializes in professional support for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Output includes computer-to-plate processes for all commercial digital front-end applications, as well as Postscript-compliant graphic applications. He offers technical and color management support for all RIP-driven corporate digital output systems. He can be reached at 717-509-3523 or davidmilisock@comcast.net. Deborah Sexton, former editor of Impressions Magazine, has been in the apparel graphics industry since 1981. She currently does marketing and public relations for apparel graphics companies, and is a columnist for several industry publications.. She can be reached at dsexton@sbcglobal.net. Otis Veteto is the Western Regional Manager for the R.S. Owens & Co. Inc., manufacturer and supplier of the Elegance in Awards & Gifts line. With more than 30 years experience in the industry, he offers the PROspective of a veteran sales rep in reporting on ideas, people and places that he visits. Otis also presents sales and motivation seminars. He can be reached in Sacramento, CA when not on the road at 916-567-1867.
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Traveling Tidbits
by Otis Veteto
A Play, Utah, Golf, Autumn, Halloween, & Your Word

Businessman and play producer While displaying at a small regional show, I had the opportunity to get to know Michael McCarron, owner of A+ Wine Designs of San Diego, CA. His company is a supplier of high quality deep hand-etched wine bottles and custom labeled bottles. They recently introduced Corkey as their mascot. While talking with Michael, he told me he is producing a musical stage play. The play is entitled Tiny Tim, and opens in San Diego in November. His general manager, Ruff Yeager, is the brains behind the production. What a great diversion from the norm! Green River, Utah Here is a traveling tip. If you are headed west from Denver, CO, on highway 70, a good layover stop is Green River, Utah. I always stay at the Best Western Motel, which is located right on the river. There is a great restaurant next door, and if you get there early you can get a table by the window that looks out over the Green River. The John Wesley Powell History Museum is just across the street from the motel. The area around Green River has lots of history, and there is an abundance of touristy things to see within a short driving distance -- things like Goblin Valley, and dinosaur tracks. Like a lot of towns in this area, they lay claim to Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch that liked to hang out in Green River. Good place to rest up. Vilia Johnson Vilia Johnson, Regional Vice President for Geiger Inc., has tendered her resignation effective Oct. 31. Vilia said in her email: Geiger is a great company, but just not the right t for me right now. Thanks a lot for all youve done for the industry, Vilia. Best of luck to you in whatever path you choose to follow! Golf in the family! On a personal note, my daughter-in-law played in the California State Fair Womens Golf Championship Tournament in September. Traci was the low net winner! The publicity report said Low net winner Traci Veteto came from the third handicap ight, scoring net 61, 62, blowing away the entire eld by four strokes. Way to go, Traci! Autumn in the air As I am sitting here writing this, the sun is shining in Sacramento, and a breeze is creating a continuous ow of leaves, creating a blanket of color on the lawn. (Just as I was writing this, two neighborhood kids knocked on the door and offered to rake our lawn for $5done deal!) Pleasant afternoons, cool evenings and occasional rain showers to freshen things upwhat a glorious time of year! Halloween is a new start Halloween is right around the corner, and the neighbors have their yards and shrubbery
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Otis Veteto is the Western Regional Manager for the R.S. Owens & Co. Inc., manufacturer and supplier of the Elegance in Awards & Gifts line. With more than 30 years experience in the industry, he offers the PROspective of a veteran sales rep in reporting on ideas, people and places that he visits. Its a fun and informative column focusing on the human-interest side of the industry. Otis also presents sales and motivation seminars for industry organizations, and some of that knowledge will rub off as well. He can be reached in Sacramento, CA when not on the road at 916-567-1867.
decorated for the occasion with spider webs, giant spiders, and scarecrows. And speaking of Halloween, aka All Hallows Eve, and All Saints Eve, I found this interesting article. Halloween originated from the pagan festival Samhain, meaning Summers End. It was celebrated (and still is, I suppose) among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. The celebration begins at night, with the belief it marked the beginning of a whole new cycle; and in the dark comes the whispering of new beginnings. For our industry, it marks the beginning of a busy season, we hope. The Four Agreements I will close out this months column with the rst of four excerpts from the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, sent to me by Sherry Armstrong, president of Award & Sign Connection in Greenwood Village, CO. I found it to be very insightful. BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. Thats all for now. Remember to save some time for yourself and your family. And when you travel, please travel safe.
October 2007
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the entrepreneurial magazine for CorelDRAW users worldwide October 2007

Cover Art by Emily Cheney Details on page 7

Published for the Association of CorelDRAW Professionals (ACDRP) / www.coreldrawpro.com

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APPLICATIONS: How to Apply

OPPORTUNITIES: How to Prot

19 Inside Print/Sublimation: Getting Started in Sublimation 3

38 Marketing Secrets Give Yourself a Timeout!

22 Inside Screen Printing: Two-Color Printing -- Part 6

25 Inside Sandblasting: Stage Carving -- A Simple Bear

27 Inside Engraving: Machine Accuracy 5: Hysteresis

31 Inside Laser: Adding Color to Laser Engraving

40 Product Focus: Sublimatable Boxes & Clocks 42 GNN Network

42 Marketplace 43 Contributing Writers

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GRAPHICS NEWS WIRE

Product News Headlines:

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About the Cover

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By Michael Neer, Executive Director

Where Does It Hurt?

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The Star tool is located on the Object yout.

continued on next page

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continued on next page

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Digital Cameras Part Deux!

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Beyond the Basic Box

Dont Be a Square Sell New, Innovative Designs

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Getting Started in Sublimation Part 3

Johnson Plastics offers a variety of sports products that can be sublimated.

A great holiday gift is a sublimated Santa tin from JBL Graphics.

PSI has unique lobster frames that hold sublimated tiles.

INSIDE SCREEN PRINTING

2-Color Printing: Part 6

INSIDE SCREEN PRINTING

Image 7: This is how the image sets up for the lm.

INSIDE SCREEN PRINTING

Image 11: Or a platen for a long sleeve on a t-shirt.

A Simple Little Bear

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Machine Accuracy 5: Hysteresis

Outline & Overview

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Adding COLOR to Laser Engraving

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Figure 1: Use a dampened paper to relieve the intense heat on glass.

Figure 2: CerMark can be used to darken the engraving on glass.

Figure 3: Ornament made from cast acrylic.

Figure 4: Ornament made from extruded acrylic

Figure 5: Snowake acrylic ornament

Figure 6: Snowake acrylic ornament with color lling.

Figure 8: Ornament made with colored acrylic.

Making the Most of Your Web Site

Take a Look Around

Give Yourself a Timeout!