for printing onto balloons
click here to see latex balloon colours
click here to see foil balloon colours
TYPE OF ARTWORK REQUIRED Good quality, black on white. Regardless of the colour ink to be used, we need artwork in black in order to produce film for making the screens. If we have to enlarge your artwork or convert it from another colour into black then clarity may be lost. A good quality print finish needs good quality artwork to start with.
HARD COPY Good quality, dense black print on a white background. Printed as large as possible on an A4 sheet, definitely no smaller than the printable area as shown below for balloons.
FILE TYPES Diskette, CD, or email attachment. Files must be formatted for a PC (not Mac), in a file type of PDF, EPS, JPG or TIF. Some other file types are supported – if in doubt, ask. Image resolution to be a minimum of 300 dpi. Please also supply the supporting fonts or ideally convert text to curves. Word documents are not a good way to send artwork as we will not necessarily have the same fonts and alignment can be affected.
NO PROPER ARTWORK Our in-house designer is used to creating suitable artwork from letterheads, etc but this involves extra cost which we can determine on sight of the logo. Simple text can usually be recreated free of charge.
PHOTOGRAPHS / SHADING These can be printed on balloons as a series of dots. Photos are best printed onto a light coloured balloon using a dark colour ink. We can work from either a black & white or colour photo but the printing will be in one colour.
MULTICOLOUR PRINTING On latex balloons we can print up to 8 spot (ie, individual) colours, on foil balloons up to 6 spot colours. Please provide colour separated artwork (ie, one piece of artwork for each colour to be printed – ideally in black) and a colour composite for reference. We request at least 2mm separation between colours as semi-inflated balloons are not exactly a solid printing surface and there can be fine movement of the balloons between printing screens meaning that the alignment of colours will not necessarily be exactly the same from one balloon to the next. Close registration printing is possible but may involve additional cost; please ask. 4-colour process print is available but the minimum order is 10,000 latex or 5,000 foils with a lengthy lead time.
PANTONE COLOURS We try to match Pantone colours as close as possible to the U (uncoated) reference but cannot guarantee an exact match. The base colour printed upon can affect the finished print colour, with transparency also a factor on latex balloons.
Please note that printing onto balloons should not be compared to printing onto paper.