Field Proven "Wheels on the EDGE"

JD Iles from Lincoln Sign Company in Lincoln, NH created this vehicle graphic more than a year ago.

www.signsneversleep.com

JD Says "we recently gave this edge job its 14 month checkup and it still looks just like the first day we printed it."

You can believe magazine articles for the durability of other technologies, or you can believe field performance with the GERBER EDGE.

See more of JD's vehicle work at http://signsneversleep.typepad.com/photos/lincoln_sign_company_vehi/dsc00347.html

EDGE Graphics on Reflective

Here is anopther great EDGE job from Artie Schilling in Myrtle Beach.

"Sparky the Dog" is printed with spot colors on reflective while the window graphics are reflective cut vinyl.

More great work from Artie!

Selection Tip

Here is a tip to help with selecting the proper vector shape in Composer. This is especially useful with complicated jobs where many vectors overlap:

• Click on the shape you wish to select. If the wrong shape selects, press the BACKSPACE key on the keyboard. This will select the next closest object within the selection "halo" of the original selection click.

If the selection does not change, or the system beeps at you there are no other objects within the selection range.

Where's That Confounded Font?

The good news is that you have thousands of fonts, regardless of whether they came with the software (1997 come with OMEGA CP), bought them from the internet (literally "a dime a dozen"), or you made your own (does anyone still do that?).

The bad news is that you can't find the font you just used five minutes ago because you have thousands of fonts! Plus your system is sloth-slow because you have so many fonts loaded.

OMEGA has some great tools to help you view organize, find, add and delete OMEGA fonts quickly and easily.

Font Catalog: Your Font CD includes a complete PDF font catalog that shows all the characters of all the URW fonts that come with OMEGA. You can look at fonts on the screen, print the catalog (about 65 pages) and the PDF is searchable so you can find a font by name.
Font Manager: Font Manager is accessed by right-clicking on the Gerber G at the bottom-right of the screen. Font Manager lets you:

• View your installed and uninstalled fonts
• Quickly install and delete fonts so you don't have to have thousands installed
• View fonts by style (serif, sans serif, script, etc...)
• Assign your own styles to fonts (specify fonts for "Penelope's Pantry" or "Damian's Dance Hall")
• and more...

Print Installed Fonts: Also in GSPTray is "Gerber Installed Fonts." Use this program to print the following:

• Print a a list of Gerber fonts and font file names currently installed in OMEGA.
• Print the installed Gerber Fonts in their letter styles.

Font View: If you are entering text in the text entry dialog box you can view specific fonts by clicking on View Font. Font View also will start if you double click on a Gerber Soft Font (*.gsf) file in Windows Explorer.

Be sure to read all about OMEGA fonts in your OMEGA documentation or the Gerber web site.

Two New GERBER EDGE Spot Colors

GSP recently made Traffic Grey and Vivid Blue thermal transfer spot colors available. This brings the total number of opaque spot colors to 47. Traffic Grey and Vivid Blue GerberColor foils are both strong matches to our 220 vinyl colors of the same names.

GSP also offers 11 Transparent Spot Colors, five shiny Medal-series spot colors, three fluorescent spot colors, Abrasion Guard, Matte Clear, and five Color Set value-oriented spot colors for a total of more than 70 spot colors! All these spot colors are in addition to our CMYK Process Pro process color foils for creating photo reproductions and other process color graphics. http://www.gspinc.com/products/foils/pdf/GerberColor_MAXX_Color_Tip_Sheet.pdf

Spot colors are important with the GERBER thermal transfer printers for several reasons:
1. Rich dense colors with no halftones.
2. Predictable and reliable color consistency. The color IS what the color is.
3. Great durability with solid color. http://www.gspinc.com/support/fastfacts/ShowFF.asp?ff=5563 Both new colors are rated for three year outdoor durability.
4. GerberColor Spectratone. http://www.gspinc.com/products/foils/spectratone.html Not only do we have two new spot colors available, but these can be overprinted with other spot colors to multiply into dozens of new Spectratone colors.
5. GerberGauge http://www.gspinc.com/products/foils/gerbergauge.asp. You always know how much foils remains on the roll, so you can better control your inventory and don't have to worry about running out of foil in the middle of the job.
6. Single Pass Color. You don't have to mix CMYK to achieve a color. You just print it in a single pass. Plus you can combine spot color printing with vinyl colors (print red flames with fades onto yellow vinyl) for even more special effects.

The GERBER EDGE of Direct Mail

The U.S. Postal Service offers a GREAT direct mail tool that allows you to sit at home or work and create quick and easy letters or postcards. It's like the EDGE because you have all electronic setup, you save lots of time, and its very easy!

• Create a document in Word or use a PDF file. For postcard images you can use a jpg file.
• Upload the file to the web site
• Upload your mailing list or create a manual list
• Pay for postage with a credit card. You even get a discount for letters at $.31 instead of $.37!
• The site does a mail merge. Letters are addressed, folded and inserted into envelopes.
• You can schedule the mailing up to 30 days in advance or it can be sent as soon as the next day.

See http://www.usps.com/mailingonline/faq.htm.

It's Good to be Dense!

I find it very easy to be dense, obviously through the use of GerberColor™ Floodcoat White and Jet Black!

Floodcoat White and Jet Black are specialty foils designed to prevent light from passing through EDGE® graphics.

• Floodcoat white is intended for use as a backing or floodcoat layer for reverse-printed clear graphics such as with LexEDGE or Clear Enamel Receptive. Floodcoat White is not a replacement for regular white spot color. Because of the heavy pigment load, Floodcoat White should only be used for simple geometric shapes.
  
• Jet Black is an extra-opaque black specialty GerberColor Foil also for use with clear graphics. Jet Black can be used with EDGE Positive for dense screenprint positives, or as a super black layer with clear labels and decals.

Both colors are offered in 45 meter lengths for the EDGE/EDGE 2 and the EDGE FX.

More Floodcoat White information: http://www.gspinc.com/support/fastfacts/ShowFF.asp?ff=5581

More Jet Black information: http://www.gspinc.com/support/fastfacts/ShowFF.asp?ff=5559