Gift Mugs make great coffee Mug Gifts

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• Can you put my digital images on the inside of your coffee mugs, on the outside bottom and/or on the mug handle, too?
  
  We can only decorate the white outside of all of our coffee mugs.

  That includes our:

  • all-white coffee mugs, our
  • inside-colored, and our
  • rim-and-handle colored coffee mug,
  • Stainless-Steel Travel mugs.

  Nor can we decorate the bottom of our mugs (either inside or outside) nor the mug handle itself. The outside bottom of our mugs carries only our own back stamp label.

  In general terms, it is not recommended to have any food or liquid come in permanent contact with any decoration of any kind on any kind of ceramic or other materials - and might even be illegal in some states/countries.

  
  
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• Why do my drop shadows have a "pinkish" hue to them on your coffee mug decorations. In my digital file they show as real gray?
  
  

  The sublimation pigment inks we have to use to decorate our full-color mugs or tiles with are very complicated, and on some occasions they might not reproduce colors faithfully (and grey is one of them) even in the space age.

  It is very likely that your drop shadows (or any grey for this matter) have a pinkish hue to them as it is rather complicated for our pigment-based inks to reproduce a CMYK gray color (as for example a 35% or 45% pure CMYK black)

  By the same token, any color density of about 15% or less might not be printable at all in any color.

  In color-critical designs it is hence strongly recommended to have a Sample Mug decoration made to determine the degree of color shifts (if any) so that remedial actions can be taken, such as, for example, NOT using any CMYK mode colors at all, especially for grays and use instead these RGB mode colors for:

  - Light grey:     R154-G155-B159;  or C33-M27-Y27-K0;
  - Darker grey:  R111-G117-B121;  or C55-M44-Y44-K3.

  which will produce much "better-looking" grays.

  In general we recommend that RGB mode color be used for the creation of any digital files destined for mug decorations and not any CMYK mode colors at all.

  
  
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• What is Pixelation - or Pixellation?
  
  The easiest way to describe what pixelation, or pixellation is, is to show you what we mean:

  Very pixellated, low-resolution image	High-resolution image
  The lettering is very rough and clearly shows a "stair-step" pattern in it as well as in all lines.	Lettering and lines are smooth as they should be.
  Resolution: 72 or 96	Resolution: 300 or 360 dpi's
  Likely raster file formats: .gif and .jpg	Likely raster file formats: .psd, .tif and .cpt
  Please remember that optimal digital files should have a: Resolution of at least 300 dpi's;  AND /li> be in the dimensions (or larger) that have to appear on the finished mugs. Both requirements go hand in hand

  
  
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• The virtual mug decoration you e-mailed with your order confirmation does not cover the mug completely
  
  We always use the digital art work submitted by our customers AS IS

  We always use the digital art work submitted by our customers If its dimensions are such that they do not cover the maximum space we can decorate on our various coffee mug sizes, then the decoration will have much more "white" space around it than normally, as we cannot decorate the entire exterior surface of our coffee mugs under any conditions. (By the way, we cannot decorate the mug handle, the mug bottom, nor the inside of our coffee mugs.)

  You can easily determine the maximum areas that we can decorate from the information readily available in this web site.

  
  
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• The virtual mug you e-mailed with your Order Confirmation is rather fuzzy. Is this how the printed mug will be?
  
  The virtual mug layout/decoration we many times send to our customers along with our order confirmation is not representative of the printed mug decoration. This virtual mug decoration is only so that you can see what your mug might look like overall and might or might not be like the finished coffee mug decoration.

  Our virtual mug decorations always have a resolution of only 72 dpi's as otherwise many e-mail programs and Internet Access Providers (AOL, for example) will not receive it and, if they do, the file would be so large that it might virtually take hours to download over a slow phone connection. Furthermore, we compress all our virtual mug layouts with the lossy compression format of .jpg which further decreases the image quality forever.

  If the digital file you sent us has a resolution of only 72 dpi's and/or is in the .jpg (or in even the unsuitable gif) format - just as our virtual mug decorations - then, of course, the printed mug will look very similar to the virtual mug decoration.

  We suggest that any digital art work files submitted to us for the decoration of coffee mugs have a resolution of at least 300 dpi's as this is the resolution we'll use to decorate your mug order with notwithstanding the resolution of the art work you submitted. Hence, we'll print, for example, your low-resolution digital file with our printing resolution of 300 dpi's;  yet this will not result in a high resolution mug decoration, but in a  rather pixelated low-resolution mug decoration based on your digital image resolution.

  Furthermore your digital file should be in the .tif format AND in the dimensions, or larger, that have to appear on the finished mug decoration. 

  Here we offer some detailed suggestions on digital image preparation.

  
  
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• I printed my image on my printer but your mug decorations are not the same
  
  

   

  We use uniquely-formulated, special pigment-based inks to decorate our white coffee mugs, while you're most likely using the standard ink jet or laser printer inks that came with your printer which where developed for printing on paper only, the printed results will be very different.

  Even if you'd use the same pigment inks we use but printed with a different resolution from ours, the print-outs would be different as different amounts of ink would be printed at different resolutions and, hence, the color saturation will be rather different.

  Also, the same ink used on different printers will produce different print-outs even if the same resolution is used...not to mention the medium on which we print our mug decorations which will greatly influence the final appearance of the printed image as the chemical make-up alone of each will produce different results.

  Another important point to remember is the particular software used to create, display and then print your digital images. Software - graphics applications specifically - are responsible for bringing all your image components together. And we all know that they are not created equal and hence each will produce a different out-put. (To further complicate this, you might want to read here and here.)

  And as if this would be not be all, we still have to fire the print-outs onto the mugs - which is another chemical reaction.

  It might become apparent that there is a very, very slim chance that your print-outs will equal the decorations on the finished photo coffee mugs.

  Based on this as well as the many other points made elsewhere in this FAQ section, if color fidelity is of concern, Sample Mugs will have to be created so as to be able to adjust your digital image to arrive at more-or-less the mug decoration you require.

  
  
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• How can the same image look different on the same color monitor depending on whether I chose RGB/Windows or RGB/Macintosh and also look rather different on the actual mugs
  
  

  Because of the way the two computer platforms handle color, the same image is "seen" differently on either a PC or a Mac monitor. You can very easily "see" this difference if you open an image, for example, with PhotoShop, and then from the Menu select >View  >Preview and then alternate between the >Macintosh RGB and >Windows RGB formats.

  The numerical values of the colors do not change at all. They are identical in both views, yet the images display completely differently. The RGB/Macintosh appears to be "lighter" in appearance, and "darker" in RGB/Windows mode. And while we're at this, you might also want to take this opportunity to check on the "printability" of your image by turning the Gamut warning on:  by going to View >Gamut_Warning. Immediately you'll see which colors cannot be printed as seen on your monitor so that you can change them to colors that can be printed. (See also an expert's opinion on this.)

  Based on this fact - and many others mentioned elsewhere in this web site -  it is impossible for us to print images/colors exactly as they are "seen" on any monitor - this on top of all the other reservation and limitations that exist on this topic. 

  The color decorations on our coffee mugs will thus either be "lighter" or "darker" from what the original creator of the digital art work file "sees" on the color monitor. You should also expect color shifts.

  Furthermore, images seen on a monitor are similar to slides in traditional photography. Slides - which are backlit, just as images seen on your monitor - are much more brilliant than any print will ever be...and mug decorations are just like prints. A monitor can display over 16 million colors while only a fraction of these colors can actually be printed by any means.  Hence, it is important to also check the gamut of your digital art to actually see on your monitor which colors cannot be printed and for which the printing process will substitute other colors which can be printed.

  Since we're PC-based you might want to consider turning the  "Windows RGB" mode on when creating your digital images for our sublimation, full-color mug decorations to keep the color differences you actually see in your monitor to a minimum. See also here.

  We prefer that all our customers prepare and send in their digital files in the RGB format ... whenever possible.

  In conclusion, we'll not be able to print your images with the same brilliance and luminance as you see on your monitor. Our mug decorations are only print copies and reproduction that will never equal the images seen on your screen and you should and cannot expect them to be like images seen on any screen...maybe someone will invent a better printing process in the future but for now we can only use the technology available today with all its limitations and short comings.
  
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• Why is the full-color reproduction of my digital art work on your coffee mugs different from what I see in my monitor?
  
  There are many reasons why the reproductions on our white photo coffee mugs differ from what you see in your monitor. Here are just a few of them:
  • Images seen on any monitor are in the RGB color mode while all printed images are in the CMYK mode. There will always be a "loss" change or "deterioration" generated somewhere in the translation process. (Consider: The basic color of your monitor is black and that of paper is white);
  • All spot colors are converted to process colors as our composite printers can only print with process colors (still more "translations");
  • Colors out of gamut will be automatically "replaced" by printable, similar colors available to our composite printers. Hence the reproductions cannot be the same as those you see on a monitor. (Consider: Your monitor can theoretically display up to 16.4 million different while that many colors can never be printed by anyone.)
  • Diversity of devices used to create and print an image:
    Each device that is used in the creation of a digital drawing, photo, etc., has a range of colors, or color gamut, that it can reproduce. For example: a monitor displays a different range of colors than a printer can reproduce. This means that a drawing might contain colors that display properly on a monitor but cannot be printed properly.
    Different monitors, scanners, printers, digital cameras, and other devices might all have a different gamut.
  • There is no way that all the components/settings you use in creating a digital art work will correspond to the settings we use in the printing process of your digital art work files.

  >There will always be differences in what you see in your monitor and what you see on our coffee mugs - sometimes they are minimal and sometimes they are rather very pronounced, even unacceptable. The reproductions can never "look" the same in a monitor as they do on paper or our white coffee mugs.

  If color fidelity is of importance, Sample Mug decorations are a MUST so that the digital file can be adjusted to what the final outcome on the coffee mugs should be. In other words, you have to work ";backwards" - from the final mug decoration to the digital art work as sometimes color shifts are unavoidable. More on this can also be found here. You might also want to read question # 40.

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  For an independent view on this aspect of digital decorations we are offering you here the opinion as expressed by the world-renowned CorelDraw expert, Foster D. Coburn, in a recent article entitled: Secrets of Color Management. This article is partially re-printed here with the express permission of the author.

  Secrets of Color Management © 2000 by Foster Coburn. All Rights Reserved. A question that arises quite often is geared towards color management. Users of graphics software are frustrated that the colors they see on screen do not match the colors that come out of their printer. In short they will never match so get over it. If you need to match colors, there are a number of ways to do it and I'll cover them in this article. Why Colors Don't Match To first understand the concept of color management, you have to understand why colors don't match. The screen on your computer displays colors in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colors. This is what is called an additive color model. As you add more of each color, you get closer to white. With no color, you get black. Printed colors are exactly the opposite. They use the CMYK model (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) which is a subtractive palette. The more color you add, the closer you get towards black. Each of these colors models has a gamut or a range of colors that can be represented. There is some overlap within these palettes, but you would be surprised at how few colors are represented in both palettes. Thus the reason that the colors you see on screen don't match your printer. If the color you want isn't one of the colors that is within the gamut of both models, it won't match. Well over half the colors won't match. If that isn't confusing enough, let's throw in some other variables that further confuse things. The colors you see on screen are dependent on the video card and monitor that you use on your system. And as monitors age, the colors change. So two separate users won't even see the same color on their respective screens unless their equipment is identical and the stars are in alignment. Then we throw in different brands of printers, different brands of ink and different kinds of paper. So many variables to consider and it all leads up to colors that just won't match.

  Click here to read the full article and many other, very interesting tips and suggestions as they apply to digital graphics in general and vector-generated graphics in particular, especially those created with CorelDraw.

  
  
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• 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 300+ 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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• Why are there differences in appearance from one mug decoration to another using the same digital art work file?
  
  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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