Frequently Asked Questions:

CMYK is an abbreviation of:

C: = Cyan M: = Magenta Y: = Yellow K: = Black

These are the colours used by printers to create the 4 colour process print you see in magazines, brochures, leaflets and photographs. Often people refer to this as 'Full Colour'.

CMYK values are a close as possible match to a Pantone Spot Colour but can never be a perfect match.

Some CMYK colour matches are actually completely different to the original Pantone Spot Colour as CMYK simply does not have the depth of range that certain Pantone Colours do.

This is because Pantone Spot Colours are made from a mix of materials including pure minerals, literally from the ground (rocks, oil, plant extract, metals etc).

CMYK is a standard designed to avoid having to use spot colours (as it’s much cheaper for the end user). Unfortunately they can never be perfect as you only have Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black to work with on a printing press or laser printer.

A spot colour is simply a solid colour. The spot colour ink is pre-mixed using a set of base colours to ensure consistency in colour reproduction. Most printing and design companies use a spot colour reference book to match these colours when they are printing onto an item. The most common reference book used in printing is the Pantone system.

RGB is the colour model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colours. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colours, red, green, and blue.

The main purpose of the RGB colour model is for the display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers so is not suitable for printing.

In order to print an RGB artwork file, the file must first be converted to CMYK. This can be done in most professional design applications such as Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign

In the world of logo embroidery, you are likely at some point to encounter the words “stitch count” or “thread count”.  In reality they mean different things, but in the context of embroidery, it's easier to treat them as the same.

Stitch count, in its simplest terms, is defined as the number of embroidery stitches it takes to create a logo in embroidery.  If a logo is more detailed and/or larger, there are more stitches needed.

The net result is that more stitches means more time on the embroidery machine, bigger size would potentially use up more materials. Both would result in higher production costs for the embroidery.

Yes we do, our business is set up to manage full stock control for our clients promotional merchandise schemes. we can even hold and distribute your own stock as well as integrate your existing web site or build a bespoke public facing retail web site. for more information

Vector files are images that are built by mathematical formulas that establish points on a grid. Because they can infinitely adjust in size without losing resolution, vector files are more versatile for certain types of tasks than raster files. The most common types of vector files are:

.ai: Short for Adobe Illustrator, this file is commonly used in print media and digital graphics, such as logos.

.eps: Encapsulated PostScript is an older type of vector graphics file. .eps files don’t support transparency in the way more modern file formats like .ai do.

.pdf: The Portable Document Format is built for the exchange of documents across platforms and is editable in Adobe Acrobat.

.svg: The Scalable Vector Graphics format is based in XML (a markup language used widely across the Internet that's readable by both machines and humans). It’s useful for the web, where it can be indexed, searched, and scripted.

Raster files are composed of coloured blocks commonly referred to as pixels. Comprising a fixed number of pixels, raster images can’t be resized significantly without losing some of their resolution quality. Images distort and become grainy when stretched to fill a larger space, which is why they can appear pixelated when resized. Common types of raster files include:

.jpg: A compressed image format standardised by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). This is the most commonly used format for digital and online photos.

.png: Images saved in the Portable Network Graphic (PNG) format have the ability to display transparent backgrounds.

.gif: The Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) file extension is used for animated graphics. This is the second-most used image format online. 

.tif: Images saved as a Tagged Image Format File (also TIFF) are popular with photographers and graphic designers as they can be edited and re-saved without losing image quality.