ART & DESIGN
by Mail-Graphics

Good digital art is the foundation on which to build all your printed projects. Without good art to start with, it wont matter that your project or piece is printed on state-of-the-art equipment by highly trained people such as ours.

This section of our website is dedicated to helping you understand the basics and obtain the best possible art for everything we do here at Mail-Graphics. Our main goal is not to sell you on our expertise -- it is to make sure you have suitable art ready to go at the very beginning of each and every order we print for you.

Let's start with the basic two types of digital art we work with on a daily basis:

RASTER IMAGES

The most commonly found art on the Web is composed of horizontal and vertical rows of pixels. Photographs, whether in color or black & white, need to be able to produce tones and gradations for the human eye. So, way back in the 1950’s, the people who brought us color television were responsible for developing the RGB pixel.

RGB pixels are what you are looking at right now (see Fig 1 below). All modern screens, whether large TV’s and monitors or small cell phones and tablets, use RGB pixels of varying size, frame rates and color depth to produce the images you look at every day. In the printing business, we use a similar technique, commonly called “CMYK dots” (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) - Fig 2 below. The big difference between RBG dots (or pixels) on your computer screen and CMYK dots, is that screen pixels are being transmitted through the screen to your eyes in 3 colors (Red, Green, Blue) - whereas with printing the dots are being reflected from the printed material using only room light. This is why it is problematic to show color proofs on monitors because we never know exactly what our proofs will look like on your monitor or mobile device.

FIG. 1.

FIG. 2.

VECTOR IMAGES

Above we noted that raster images are created using pixels (or dots). Vectors are quite different. In Fig. 3 below we see a vector graphic. Notice that the colors are very well defined, solid, with no subtle shading. Vector images don't use pixels or dots. Rather they are created using smooth paths, mathematical points, lines and shapes.

The main thing we use vector images for is the ability to be enlarged infinitely and reduced to very small size and still look perfect. If you’ve ever noticed a jagged-edged photo or graphic, you were looking at a raster image that was not properly handled and probably enlarged beyond the ability of the pixels to look crisp and maintain their color (Fig. 4). This can’t happen with vector images. That’s why we try to use vector art for your logos when possible. So, whether you want to put a tiny “bug” logo on your page or you want to put your logo on the side of a building, it will still look great.

FIG. 3.

FIG. 4.

THOUSANDS OF FREE STOCK ART PIECES READY FOR YOUR MAIL-GRAPHICS PRINTED PIECE:

Need to find just the right graphic for your needs? Mail-Graphics has partnered with VECTORSTATE.COM to provide you with thousands of beautiful vector graphics for your printed projects created here at Mail-Graphics. Just go to VECTORSTATE.COM and find the graphic you want us to use and send us the image ID Number. Use their handy search box at the top of their home page. No need to log in or join unless you would like to. At no extra charge, we will incorporate the image into your printed piece, and if possible we will change the colors and alter the image to fit your needs.

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IN A HURRY?

Tell us what you are looking for below. We will get back to you within 2 hours(9 am - 6 pm Pacific Time)

Tell us what you are looking for below. We will get back to you within 2 hours
(9 am - 6 pm Pacific Time)