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We have a huge range of standard images which can be used on our signs, plaques, wheel covers, printed canvases and personalised gifts. Click here for single colour images for use on wood, slate, engraved and cut vinyl signage Click here for full colour images and backgrounds for printed signs |
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What constitutes a Ready to Use Image?
Single Colour
Single Colour Images for Wood, Stone and Engraved Signs again need to be in the vectorised format created in drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw. Click here for more information. If you are unable to send your image in this format, and most people can't, we will send the image to a graphic designer to re-draw @ a cost of £22
Full Colour
Colour photographs should be taken at the high resolution or fine setting on your camera. If you are scanning a photo, scan it in at the high resolution. They are usually sent as tiff, jpg or bitmap images. Check out the size chart at the bottom of the page.
Colour Artwork can be sent as an appropriate size tiff, jpg, gif or png file - see size chart below. Alternatively it should be created as vector artwork in a drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw. It allows artwork to be enlarged without any loss of quality. If you do not have suitable colour artwork we can send it to a graphic design to vectorise for you. See the before and after image below. Most images from the internet are low resolution and will need to be vectorised.
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Artwork as Sent to Us | Re-created as a vectorised Image |
CHECKING THE IMAGE SIZE for Bitmap Images eg photographs
To see if a photograph or artwork image is large enough bring it into your photo software. Look at the image size and you should be able to see how many pixels high and wide the image is.
Height or Length of
Printing in Inches Height or Length of
Printing in mm No. Pixels required 4 Inches 100mm 400 - 600 pixels 6 Inches 150mm 600 - 900 pixels 9 inches 225 mm 900 - 1350 pixels 12 inches 300mm 1200 - 1800 pixels 18 inches 450mm 1800 - 2700 pixels 24 inches 600mm 2400 - 3600 pixels
WHAT IS A BITMAP IMAGE? | |
Most digital images you see on your computer, phone or ipad are composed of bitmaps. A bitmap is made up of dots or bits, which when you are a reasonable distance from the screen appear as an image. However if you zoom in or enlarge the image it becomes blurry, pixilated or blocky. Typical bitmap image file types are jpg, giff, png and tiff. If taken from a website they are usually too small to print with any quality. |
WHAT IS A VECTOR IMAGE? | |
A vector image is is made up of mathematical paths which are defined by magnitude and direction. This kind of image can be enlarged easily without losing quality. |
CAN A BITMAP IMAGE BE CONVERTED INTO A VECTOR IMAGE | |
In most cases - yes, but not at the press of a button! Our graphic designer can usually scan, trace and redraw the artwork and then save it as a vector file. This cost for this is normally £22 |
SAVING A VECTOR FILE | |
Create the file in a drawing program such as Adobi Illustrator or Corel. NB Although you can bring in a bitmap file into a drawing program and then save it as a ai or eps file, it will not be converted to a vector file. |
COLOUR MATCHING | |
Our vinyl printing uses CMYK colours. For artwork with very specific colours you must send us any ready to print artwork in CYMK as opposed to RGB. If we are designing your artwork you will need to ensure we have the CMYK reference numbers. |
More Images
If you can't find anything suitable from all our images - you can subscribe to iCLIPART for a week to download any of their 8 million images. Alternatively for an extra £12 you can ask our designer to find you an appropriate image or look on on shutterstock.com and choose one for us to download.
Hand Painted Images
Finally we do have the option of a local artist hand painting an image. On wooden signs we usually suggest finishing with Coach Kote. On stone signs we sand blast out a panel into which the image is painted.
Cost varies but is usually about £45
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