Dillon Mooney, Technical Consultant at Printing Industries of America, answers some of the frequently asked questions he receives through the technical hotline. In this episode, he answers the question, “Are you aware of any resources that outline the tolerance for quality in the printing industry?”  We’re very excited to be able to present these bite-sized chunks of information for your viewing pleasure. We have more in the works and, if these are are well received, will consider doing more of these in the future....

Peter Muir wrote this piece on our Integrated Print Forum Blog. Peter, along with many other leaders in the social media field, will be presenting at the Integrated Print Forum this October at Printing Industries of America’s head quarters in Pittsburgh, PA.  1. Something gets posted you don’t want others to see. Is it a corporate secret, comments of a disgruntled employee or an upset customer because of a lack of customer service? If you don’t already have one, a brief internal social media policy should cover what can and can’t be said along with how it could be said by those inside the organization. It should be flexible enough to encourage passion for customers and the brand but should also make sure the brand remains an asset. If the comments are from outside the organization they should be quickly judged to determine constructive criticism or inappropriate behavior and appropriate steps should be taken to deal with them in a timely manner. 2. You create a social presence but no one is participating. Social media should start with a strategy and part of the strategy should include audience, content and appropriate channel(s). It takes time to grow a community. You may think you’re talking to yourself but really you can be honing your message to your customer while you also spend time listening to what is important to them and include it in your community content. The time you take working at establishing your social media standing can also be used as an ongoing case study to discuss what you’ve learned with your customers. 3. You’re trying to be social but the topic gets sidetracked or even hijacked. Simply ask, “Why?” Perhaps there is something else more important you could or should be covering. One of the first rules of social media is that it’s not about you. Or perhaps you can suggest covering the new topic in next week’s discussions where you can research it further and get more input on it. The point of social media is that you don’t have direct control of the message but the more involved you are in social media and are aware of your business and customers, your ability to influence the message increases. 4. Some people don’t tolerate change. As your social media community grows and expands its reach there is a possibility of alienating your core followers. You need to consider your core first before diluting your approach to please the masses you’re not currently connected to. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but if you include the core in your growth and choices for growth it’s often easier for them to deal with change. Also remember, there are some people who...

In this video, Brad Evans shows three different ways to test UV adhesions problems. Find it informative? Enjoyable? Want to see more videos like this? Let us know in the comments. Also, visit http://www.printing.org/labservices for more information on what we can help you with.  We just finished filming a series of videos with Dillon Mooney, our technical consultant, so look for those in the coming...

The ability to create 3-D images is currently a hot marketing tool as new technology has sparked interest in three dimensional media. One of the oldest and least expensive methods to create and reproduce a 3-D image is the anaglyph. Anaglyphs are a method of encoding a three-dimensional image in a single picture by superimposing a pair of pictures. The anaglyph consists of a left and right image encoded to create the perception of depth in the image. Anaglyphs are not difficult to create, however creating good anaglyphs is a craft. A poorly made anaglyph can make the viewer feel uncomfortable. The most important and difficult part of the anaglyph is creating the original photographs or images. The originals should have depth in the image; otherwise the anaglyph will not exhibit much 3-D effect. Objects in the foreground of the original photographs will create the appearance of depth or accentuate the 3-D effect. The original images should be bright and ideally not have much red. With the red/cyan-blue anaglyph glasses, the right eye sees blue and green, the left eye sees gray. What about red? Red is absent, some light leakage through the glasses’ filters may produce limited red, and professional anaglyph designers go to great lengths to tweak the color channels to produce some resemblance of red, but this will never approach commercial quality color. Black and white or duotone anaglyphs can be used to compensate for problems with color reproduction shortcomings, especially reds in memory colors. Original photo-fluorescent pink geranium Simulation of loss of red in anaglyph viewed thorough red-cyan glasses, gray balance is better in the 3-D anaglyph. A stereo camera with two lenses that captures both left and right images simultaneously in the exact same plane is the preferred method to create the left and right images for the anaglyph.  A single lenses camera can be used if mounted on a tripod with a slide that enables the same image to be photographed several inches apart.  With a single lens/image camera, the subject can not move between images.  A limitation to the single lenses/image camera is anything that moves including people, pets, and clouds which will produce an unusable stereo image. The last method is free hand, where the photographer tries to hold the camera exactly the same and only shifts a couple of inches to the right for the second image. This method is unreliable and may require many attempts to produce a useable left and right image. There are software programs that automatically combine the left and right images to form the anaglyph. Instructions to manually create anaglyphs in Photoshop are in a link at the end of this discussion. Some software will...

  The web2awards is the premier–and only–annual award competition that names the best websites in the print/marketing service provider industry. Why should you enter the 2011 web2awards? Here are the top 10 reasons: You will receive a professional analysis and critique of your website. You will receive a private report showing how your site compared to others in the competition. Because the categories are grouped by company size, businesses of all sizes have a good opportunity of winning. Multiple categories give your company a chance to win more than one award. A submission for a customer’s Web-to-print portal site solidifies your value as their partner. All contenders get great exposure through the People’s Choice Award and the official web2awards booklet, which features all participants. Winners get even more exposure with inclusion in Printing Industries of America’s press releases and promotional campaign. If you win a web2award, you can publicize it yourself to further impress your customers, your competitors, and your staff. Winners get to receive their award during our awards ceremony on the floor at GRAPH EXPO 2011. Winners receive the beautiful crystal web2award statue and can proudly display it in their facility. So there you have it. The deadline to enter is this Friday, June 10. If you have any questions about the contest leave a comment on this post. We look forward to seeing your...

Avanti’s Graphic Arts Management System v12.2 passed stringent testing by the Printing Industries of America to become the 50th product to be certified by the CIP4 organization. The Avanti Print MIS software was specifically certified for its ability to facilitate automation by electronically communicating with prepress equipment using Job Messaging Format (JMF) communications while transferring the appropriate JDF requirements for prepress workflow completion.   There are 17 additional companies who have shown JDF/JMF integration specialties in multiple ICS documents and JDF versions. A complete list of certified products is online at http://www.printing.org/jdfcertified. More information on the certification process can be obtained by contacting Automation at 800-910-4283 ex 787 or...