gift mugs make great coffee mug gifts

Custom Sublimation Decorated Ceramic Coffee Gift Mugs
The Coffee Mug Lovers Paradise - Frequently Asked Questions

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21	What is a fractal? What are some examples of fractals?
22	How come that sometimes text, straight lines and delimited designs appear a little bit tilted, that is, they're not completely parallel to the mug's top or bottom?
23	Why should I insure my mug shipment if it's already well packed; and why do you offer Delivery Confirmation Receipts?
24	What are your delivery times (lead time)?
25	I cannot decide on what mug side (with respect to the mug handle) to put my mug decoration
26	How can I eliminate the white background on my digital raster/bitmap artwork - the square block -  as I do not want it to print. This white area should be transparent.
27	How "light" a color can you reproduce on the sublimation coffee mugs?
28	What is the difference between a wrap-around decoration and a handle-to-handle decoration?
29	Why are there differences in appearance from one mug decoration to another using the same digital artwork?
30	Why does the same color in a bitmap/raster file not turn out to be the same in a vector artwork file or vice versa?

 

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21.) What is a fractal? What are some examples of fractals?

A fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. Fractals are generally self-similar and independent of scale. All fractals in this web site and used on our ceramic coffee mugs are totally computer generated.

There are many mathematical structures that are fractals; e.g. Sierpinski triangle, Koch snowflake, Peano curve, Mandelbrot set, and Lorenz attractor.  Fractals also describe many real-world objects, such as clouds, mountains, turbulence, and coastlines, that do not correspond to simple geometric shapes. 
Benoit Mandelbrot gives a mathematical definition of a fractal as a set for which the Hausdorff Besicovich dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension. However, he is not satisfied with this definition as it excludes sets one would consider fractals. According to Mandelbrot, who invented the word: "I coined fractal from the Latin adjective fractus. The corresponding Latin verb frangere means "to break:" to create irregular fragments. It is therefore sensible - and how appropriate for our needs! - that, in addition to "fragmented" (as in fraction or refraction, fractus should also mean "irregular," both meanings being preserved in fragment." (The Fractal Geometry of Nature, page 4.)

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22.) How come that sometimes text, straight lines and delimited designs appear a little bit tilted, that is, they're not completely parallel to the mug's top or bottom?

Since we do not print directly on the mugs themselves but first on flat media which we then apply around the mugs, the slightest difference in the mug's physical dimensions, or the mug not being perfectly cylindrical and straight, causes these slight misalignments which can and do vary from mug to mug as not all mugs are created equal. This effect can be seen on the mugs as the decoration does not appear to be parallel to the rim/bottom of the coffee mug.

These slight misalignments are not because we do not have any quality control. Even though,  we cannot guarantee a perfectly perpendicular appearance of the decoration on our mugs. 

They  can only be minimized by designing art specifically to account for this rather irksome and unavoidable fact. To "compensate" for this, we very slightly rotate our own images depending on which mug side they are. We do, however, not change, re-touch or rotate any customer supplied images which are always used AS IS.

Thus, should you have single-sided design that are to be applied to both mug sides send them to us as single-sided images or panels and do not incorporate them into one continuous - wrap-around - image as this will prevent us or you from rotating them individually into the right position. 

Unfortunately there is very little we can do for wrap-around and handle-to-handle full area designs that cannot be broken down into distinct "right" and/or  "left" image portions or panels which could then be independently rotated slightly.

A sample mug decoration will permit you to determine the approximate amount that your digital image file should be "adjusted" so that a more or less horizontal mug decoration will result. The ideal adjustment would be along a curve. Yet, since every mug is different, no perfect solution can be found and every mug decoration will be different.

For a discussion on this subject and how to overcome the "curvature" or "warp" effect, please consult our Gift Mugs Corner where we and our customers try to hash out these "problems".

As you can see, the decoration of coffee mugs is not - and maybe never will  be - a perfect science.

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23.) Why should I insure my mug shipment if it's already well packed; and why do you offer Delivery Confirmation Receipts?

Insurance: Even though we package and label  our mugs very carefully to protect them from the hazards of rough handling and misdirection by the transportation companies and to assure the save arrival of your mugs, in a few cases our protection was not enough and some mugs and/or mug handles arrived broken.
Please note that we DO NOT ship mugs with broken handles nor broken mugs.  This does not mean, however,  that some mugs might not arrive damaged even though the packaging does not show any exterior signs of damage or mistreatment. By the way, did you ever observe how packages are "mis" handled as a way of life? Just look out from your airline seat when they load your bags into the plane.
Since we cannot anticipate and prepare for extra rough handling while your mugs are in transit, we highly recommend that you have your mugs insured, just in case. It's a small price to pay.
Furthermore, it is possible (and it has happened) that the carrier apparently "misdirects" your mug shipment and "delivers" it at a wrong address or zip code - even though the information on the shipping label is correct. 
This can very easily happen when the delivering carrier punches in the wrong zip code in the Delivery Confirmation Receipt (see below). 
When your mugs are insured, some one has to sign for it and hence the carrier - and you and we - have a written trail of when the mugs where delivered, to whom and who signed for it.
If you have insurance on your mug shipment and they arrived damaged, etc.,  then YOU must file your claim immediately with the receiving Post Office. 

A Delivery Confirmation Receipt as issued by USPS permits you to check on us to see when we shipped your mugs and you can also track them to know where they are at any given moment while in transit. If the Post Office loses your package or it never arrives, you'll have some proof of shipment with which you can at least substantiate its mailing. This is well worth the cost of only $0.50 per package (max. 36 mugs per package). You can find out about the whereabouts of your mugs by phone at: 1-800-222-1811 or on the Internet at: http://www.usps.com
We very highly recommend that you take advantage of this service.

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24.) What are your delivery times (lead time)?

Under normal conditions we can have your custom mugs ready for shipment within up to 2-6 business days after receipt of useable digital art and payment of your mug order. 
However under certain circumstances, especially before Christmas and similar festivities, we very highly recommend that your gift-mugs shipment that should arrive in time for the holidays be ordered so that we can ship them at least by December 10 as thereafter the Post Office and all other carriers cannot be relied on for timely and guaranteed delivery even with Priority Mail, Express Mail, 2nd Day, Overnight and similar delivery schemes.
Once we ship your gift mugs in a timely manner, there is nothing more we can do to make sure that they arrive in time. You should also request at least  tracking information from us so that you can track your mugs (see above).

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25.)  I cannot decide on what mug side (with respect to the mug handle) to put my mug decoration

We normally recommend to have the mug handle to the left of a single-sided mug decoration so that when sitting at a table/desk the person(s) sitting across will see the mug decoration instead of "a blank" mug - this, of course, only works with right-handed coffee drinkers - as we presume that the coffee drinker knows what decoration is on his/her mug. Thus, the more persons that sit across from the coffee drinker the more will see the mug decoration - how about this for multiple exposure?!

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26.) How can I eliminate the white background on my digital raster/bitmap artwork - the square block -  as I do not want it to print. This white area should be transparent.

All raster art, also known as bitmaps, have a square or rectangular delimitating field or shape around them. This "bloc" is normally white and your design "sits" within, or on top, of this white field. Since almost all of the time this white bloc is not to be printed, many of our customers have asked us how to eliminate this white area as they do not want it to be printed at all. This area should be "transparent" so to speak, that is,  not to be visible nor be printed on the mug decorations.
Since we decorate all of our mugs with the full-color sublimation process, we cannot print the color "white" as there are no white color pigments for digital printing on the market. (This is also why all our mugs are white-glazed and we cannot decorate any colored mugs.)
Thus, you do not have to worry about this white shape in your digital artwork - it will not print, nor will any other part of your digital art file print that has white in it. The "white" color in your artwork will be the "white" of the mug - the mug's white color will shine through the mug decoration and you'll hardly notice that there is no white "paint" in your mug decoration.
Just make sure that the "white" shape around your design is really white. This can easily be verified, as pure white has these values on the RGB scale: R255, G255 and B 255. And on the CMYK scale all the values are: Zero (0) for all four values.

Please make sure that you save your raster/bitmap art file with a resolution of at least 300 dpi's in your graphic's program native file format - we prefer the .tif format for PC's - and do not save it as a .gif (nor as a .jpg file) as this will reduce your resolution to 72 dpi's for the .gif format and to 96 dpi's for .jpg files with most Web graphic programs - as these are the Internet Standards for images where you will only need to see them on your screen. 
These resolutions, however, are not sufficient for printing purposes and at these low resolutions your images will be rather pixilated and will show the by now famous "stair step" pattern. We offer some tips on how to overcome these problems in our arts section of this web site.

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27.) How "light" a color can you reproduce on the sublimation coffee mugs?

Like with any other printing process, the sublimation decorating process cannot reproduce all the colors you can see on your monitor. "Light" colors with a "density" of about 15% or less will print so faintly that they will not be noticeable on the printed mug. 
For example, a 15% black - which would be a light gray on your monitor - would not print "right", and so is it with almost all colors, except for white.
You can very easily determine the percentages of the colors in your digital artwork by temporarily switching from your RGB "screen mode colors" to CMYK, "the printing mode colors" in your graphics program. There under the CMYK color scheme you'll see the percentage of all the four CMYK colors, namely, cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
You can now adjust the "density" of your colors so that they are around 20% or higher to assure that they will be visible on your printed mugs.
At the same time you can also check if your colors are out of "Gamut", that is, colors that cannot be printed under any circumstances and with any printing process and hence, should be changed to colors that can be printed.

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28.) What is the difference between a wrap-around decoration and a handle-to-handle decoration?
(For a graphical representation, please click here)

The human eye can only see a certain amount of information placed on a cylindrical surface. In our case this works out to about:
-  3" in width for our 11-oz and 18-oz mugs;  and to about 
- 3.5" for our 15-oz and 21-oz mugs.
Based on this, the standard decoration included in the price of a custom mug is:
- 3" x 3" for our 11-oz and 18-oz mugs; 
- 3.5" x 3.5" for our 15-oz and 21-oz mugs; 
If we now place another decoration - based on above indications - on the other mug side, we then obtain two images that can be seen with one "eye-full" on either side of the mug. This is what we call a decoration on both mug sides.
Measuring from the extreme right of one image to the extreme left of the other image - as defined above - we can now determine the total "width" of a wrap-around decoration - whereby the space between the two images is also decorated.
The handle-to-handle decoration represents the TOTAL width/height we can physically decorate on any given mug, stopping short of the mug handle.

Thus we can decorate areas with the following Approximate dimensions only - for a graphical representation, please  click here

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29.) Why are there differences in appearance from one mug decoration to another using the same digital artwork?

Sometimes there is a slight difference from one decoration on one mug to the same decoration on another mug using the very same digital artwork as their source. This is sometimes more noticeable with full-size raster/bitmap decorations containing continuous-tone images than with vector-based artwork.

These differences can be caused by many factors, as for example by:

• the surface differences of the individual ceramic coffee mug itself; 
• the composition and quality of the mug coatings;
• the chemical composition of the white glaze on the coffee mugs; 
• slight variations of size and circumference of the coffee mugs; 
• differences in the pigment inks used for the printing of the decorations;
• the use of a given printer, as no printer prints the same;
• color correction applications produce different outputs;
• printer drivers for different operating system and printers generate different print images;
• the quality and characteristics of the paper medium the decoration is printed upon.

Since we purchase all of the above (such as blank coffee mugs, pigment inks, paper media and printers) we have absolutely no influence over the final printed mug decoration and hence cannot guarantee the same identical mug decorations from one production run to the next.

Slight differences from one mug decoration to another are unavoidable especially for full-color reproductions of continuous tone images such as scanned photos and/or raster artworks with rather large dark areas. Even some banding has also to be accepted as normal for spot- and full-color mug decorations.

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30.) Why does the same color in a bitmap/raster file not turn out to be the same in a vector artwork file or vice versa?

As strange as it may seem, the same color (for example: R255 G0 B0, which is red) comes out a little bit different depending on what graphics program was used to create the digital artwork in, and/or was imported into.
Furthermore, it is possible that the raster/bitmap art file was create in the RGB color mode and the vector art file in the CMYK mode. 
Based on these observations, a vector text for example, placed over a bitmap or raster image that both contain the same color red, for example,  will print out slightly different red colors. This phenomenon is due to the different ways vector-based images and bitmap/raster-based images are prepared for printing by the various digital printing engines.
To overcome this "oddity" it is possible to create all text in the same raster/bitmap program that also created the image file. To assure that the text so created will not be reproduced in a pixelated manner, the resolution of the raster/bitmap file should be at least 360+ dpi's. In the case of an artwork completely created in a vector program, there are no limitations as to colors nor resolutions, as all vector files are resolution independent.

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Should you have any questions you believe should be incorporated into this 
Frequently Asked Questions  
page, please let us know and we'll add it to this list. 
Thank you for your cooperation.