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On this page is a brief overview of our services &
rates for artwork and extra work (color separations, color matching, scanning, etc.)
required for imprinting. And information on artwork being submitted. Please enclose your
fax number as we fax finished art that we do back to our customers for their final
approval. Customers who do not have us fax art or email art; waive their right to inspect
art. CSI Chicago cannot be held responsible for incorrect spelling, layout, etc. due to
customers who do not check final artwork and OK it.
When coming in to do artwork bring
everything you have for us to work with, any printed items,
logos, photos, digital files, etc. Send as many
different files as you have, in case one does not work or we are unable to open it, then
we don't waste time trying contact you to get a different file.
For CAD
CUT PRINT PROCESS we need an EPS or AI CS3 or lower
file or can use a good black & white art like a PDF, TIF, etc. file; as we can then
convert it to an EPS/AI file which is what we need for Cad Cut. For screen printing we black & white art as well. If more than 1 color print we need artwork in black & white separated
art. Black & white art is best for that process, do not bring in color
art for screen printing or Cad Cut Printing. Full color art only works for digital
imprinting.
For our DIGITAL PRINTED
TRANSFERS or Embroidery full color high quality JPEG files work well (300 DPI) if you don't have
a jpeg file for digital printing transfers then color art will work, but a scanning charge
will apply, plus scanning will sometimes alter the color, art cannot be bigger than 8.5 x
11 in size for scanning.
If you do not have vectorized art (EPS or AI file) we can
have that done for you, you can submit a jpeg file or whatever you have, most artwork
conversions cost about $25.00. We have even done artwork from printed items. If in doubt
feel free to contact us. Below are some examples of artwork done from customers art that
they had.
Submitting Artwork
Please read the following below for what kind of
artwork we need, what usually delays orders is not having artwork that is usable. Artwork
that is not usable will delay your order! If in doubt call us.
- Originals: Please when sending artwork, photos or any originals of value, send us
duplicates; as we cannot be responsible for originals should they be lost or damaged.
- Customers always ask if they can submit artwork on disk or
email art to us, we say Yes but we would prefer all artwork be submitted Black & White camera ready art (PDF art is
preferred as we have the least amount of trouble with this
file type and can convert it to an EPS file should we need to; TIF, AI (CS#3 or lower) and
EPS and any vector files will work well also; but depending on the program and version it
was designed on sometimes causes problems, when sending artwork, send all available file
types you have as it's better to have more than enough) for the screen printing process,
if more than 1 color, submit it color separated in Black & White, see example below. For example if you have a
3 color design that is red, black & yellow. Each color should be on a separate piece
and in Black print (not in the
color of what it is going to be printed). The reason we prefer black & white art is
that if we have problems reading the customers disk or since we use only graphic PC
compatible and it's in a MAC format we are liable to have problems using it. Also many
times customers disk for some reason the artwork is not there or is not readable by us. By
having camera ready artwork we know we have what we need to start your job and there will
no delay in getting your order done on time. A black laser print of 300 x 300 or better is
usually good enough to reproduce from. You can enclose the disk with the art (a PC 1.44 or
zip disk) should we need to enhance, change it or reprint it. Or need a type font from it.
Always enclose the type font on the disk or email or convert
it to freeform, you can find the font in your font folder on
your PC as we may not have the type font that is needed for your artwork. On a Mac
you can usually find it in your system/library/font folder. We use a special graphics
program that has it's own special format .GED file, but next to that we prefer a .EPS if
in Illustrator version 8.0 or lower, TIF or PDF file will work as we can usually convert
it to a format we need from that. Artwork submitted should have a line width of 1.5 or
thicker. Anything under 1.5 cannot be guaranteed to print properly. The only exception to
submitting art is when we are doing a four color process imprinting because we then output the films directly from the disk as it
is less expensive and faster to it this way, in this case we can accept MAC or PC format
(Photoshop works well) when doing this. When doing four color process films from disk we
usually output at 55 LPI and prices for films are about $23.00 ea. for 10" x 12"
size. Four color process consist of Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black. Please
keep in mind when doing four color process on t-shirts that additional time is needed
because of film work, special plates, proofing and getting colors to print
right takes time, sometimes color printing output is not definite because of what we
start with and how well colors print together after films & plates are made. Those of
you who wish to supply us with your own films have them output to 55 LPI and plates
supplied mount them on a 305 mesh.
- Example of a 2 color separation is shown below. Each piece of artwork color should be in
black & white regardless of what the printed color is. As
you can see the blue design on the left and the red color separation next to it fits
perfectly with each color. On the right is what the two colors look like when put
together, there is a very slight overlay when the 2 colors butt up to each other. When in
doubt and you want us to do the color separations you can submit your 1 color design and
include a colored-in art piece to show where the colors go. We then can do the color
separations here, there is a charge for us to do the color separations. We do not
recommend printing ink on top of ink as you get ink build up and tend to lose detail when
doing this.
Re-Doing Customers artwork
If you do not have good artwork you can submit what you
have and we will have our art staff clean up and re-do your artwork. Most artwork can be
redone to a good Black & White vector file for about $25-$35. Below are some examples
of how your artwork will look before and after it has been re-done. From photographs to
color vector art (trucks), xerox type copies (Dragons) to good black & white art, from
rough sketch (bird) to good full color art and from full color drawings (Madonna) to good
black & white art for silk screen printing. For silk screen printing and most printing
we need black & white art NOT color art. Except when doing digital printing the we
aork from FULL color art.
 
(Photo)
After (artwork)
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Submit what you have and we will be glad to give you a quote
on re-doing your photo, sketch, bad xerox copies, etc. into good clean useable EPS vector art. Once converted to a vector
file EPS (Encaspulated Postscript) which is the best art file format; we can then export
it into other file formats such as Jpeg/JPG a common file to compress and store images for
transfer over the Internet often used to compress photographic images for web pages, TIF
(Tagged Image File Format), BMP (Windows Bitmap), WMF (Windows Meta File), GIF
(Graphic Image Format) or CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile).
Services/Information
- Artwork use fee is $40.00 per hour, Minimum art charge is $20.00 (1/2 hour).
Average artwork takes about 1-2 hours for logos from your idea or sketch. For simple
designs or incorporating our clip art for use on t-shirts & product imprinting usually
takes about 1/2 hour. Customers supplying camera ready art, there is no art charge.
- Plates for most wearable orders is $25.00 each, Large plates (a heart size & full size design) or halftone plates (photographs being reproduced in one color are $40.00 each Each
color in a design requires a plate, example a 3 color design
requires 3 plates. Four color
process plates are about $60.00 ea.
- Halftone Scans are $15.00
(photographs to be imprinted on wearables and products) require a halftone scan to be done
before a plate can be made from it. Please keep in mind when submitting photographs to be
halftoned that photographs should have good contrast, color and clarity. Some photographs
will not reproduce properly depending on contrast we will try to inform you of that,
customer assumes all responsibility for photos given to us for halftone reproductions.
- Please keep in mind that in the custom imprint product
business, that it is standard to have a 10% over or underun due to different printing processes. All over/underuns are billable to
the customer plus any shipping cost to get products to our warehouse or to the customer.
- Please note all artwork and typesetting by us for
customers, requires the customer to proof all finished work for accuracy, spelling, color, etc. Customers who do
not proof work waive all rights to work done and is done strictly at customers risk. You
can come in to our showroom or we can fax artwork for you to proof. Rush jobs where there
is not enough time for the customer to proof art will be done strictly at customers risk.
- Art fees charged by CSI
Chicago is an art/use fee and we retain all rights to art designed by us for use by our
customers. As long as we produce the items for our customers there is no additional art
use fees, use of artwork for other purposes is restricted and needs a written waiver by us
for other use, as in ads or other advertising use not reproduced by us. Customers who wish
to own artwork outright can discuss buying all exclusive art rights from us.
- Color Matching imprint colors
is a $14.00 per color match charge for wearables. PMS color matching for other products
will vary. You can submit a PMS color number or submit a color chip if not sure of the PMS
number. Please keep in mind that when we will do our best to match the imprint color you
have in mind but cannot guarantee exact color matches. First off PMS color are a offset
printing ink match and not a silk screen ink match but we do have a computer program that
helps us convert PMS colors to mixing silk screen colors. To see our PMS color chart click here.
Be sure that artwork is black & white
and not in color as shown below. Color is only useable if we are doing a
digital print process, for silk screen printing we need black & white art.
 +
 = 
Blue Separation
Red Separation
Finished 2
color Job design
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