HOW TO SUBMIT ARTWORK

Customers can send Budget Signs digital (computer-generated) or camera ready (hard copy) artwork. Digital artwork can be either vector or raster (bitmap) imaged.

SUPPORTED MEDIA
Budget Signs will accept your Mac or PC digitized artwork on the following types of media:

3.5" DS/HD diskette (not DS/DD)
CD-ROM
Iomega ZIP cartridge, 100MB or 250MB
E-mail attachments - budgetsigns@qwest.net

ACCEPTED FILE FORMATS
Vector Files
One of the main advantages of vector images is that they are resolution-independent. They can be scaled — even drastically — with no loss of image quality. The software simply plots the new coordinates of all the elements in the image and redraws them. Vector graphics are also easily edited — changing fills, line weights, text, etc. is relatively simple.

Most illustration programs have their own proprietary file format but will also allow you to export or "save as" a generic EPS format that can be read and interpreted by other illustration software. If you are using a program other than CorelDraw or Illustrator, please save your art in EPS format prior to submitting it to Budget Signs.

All artwork intended for router and/or plotter applications such as cut vinyl, ADA signs or dimensional letters must be vector imaged. It cannot be raster (bitmap) imaged.

The following are acceptable vector file formats, in order of preference:

EPS (Encapsulated Postscript)
AI (Adobe Illustrator 9)
CDR (CorelDraw 10)
CMX (CorelDraw 10)
DXF (AutoCad)
WMF (Windows Meta File)

1. All text must be converted to curves, paths, or outlines
2. Include all placed/imported image files
3. Budget Signs uses Adobe Illustrator 9 and CorelDraw 10. If you are using a newer version of either of these, please save your files back to these or earlier versions.

Raster Files
Raster (bitmap) files (.tif, .bmp., .jpg, .gif, .psd, .pcx, etc.) are good for very complex artwork and photographs, but the disadvantage is that they are not scalable. If you start with a small file, when you make it larger to print, you lose resolution and the resulting image will not be particularly sharp. Raster images are made up of a series of small squares known as pixels. The number of pixels in a raster image is fixed. If an image is 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels long, it will always be 200 pixels wide and 200 pixels long. If you increase the size of your image, the squares just get bigger and the spaces between them are filled with "white space" or background. This has the effect of making the image appear broken-up or jagged, and is especially noticeable on curves and angles. The end result is either a very pixelated image, or an art charge for us to clean up your image or convert it to vectors. Whenever possible, it's best to start with an image as close as possible in size to the actual output. Raster (bitmap) files are acceptable for digital print applications only.

Budget Signs accepts the following raster file formats, in order of preference:

EPS (Encapsulated Postscript)
TIF (Tagged Image File Format) recommended
PCD (Kodak Photo-CD Image)
PSD (Adobe Photo Shop Document)
BMP (Windows bitmap) not recommended for larger graphics
JPG (JPEG) low quality, not recommended

UNACCEPTED FILE FORMATS
We do not accept and cannot use files created in word processing, page layout, or presentation programs. This includes Word files, Word Perfect, PowerPoint, PrintShop, Quark, and Pagemaker, among others. We produce products that are sometimes very large and these programs are not suited to that application. Occasionally, we are able to extract embedded images out of these files, but it's a hit and miss proposition.

If you want to use a format that is not mentioned on this page, give us a call and we'll see if we can figure out a way to use it.

CAMERA READY ARTWORK
If your artwork is a "camera ready" hard copy (non-digital), send Budget Signs the artwork as clean and large as possible, no larger than 8” x 14”. Budget Signs will scan the artwork and convert it into a digitized raster image file. If a plotter will be used with the artwork to cut vinyl, then Budget Signs will outline the scan and convert it into a vector image file.