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Xccelerate™ Digital PrintingWelcome to the modern era of metal decorating! Xccelerate™ digital printing process is the state of the art for producing customized, highly-decorated metal tins in economic order quantities. As a result, packaging creativity is no longer reserved exclusively for customers purchasing tins by the truckload. In order to speed your order, we have prepared this list of Frequently Asked Questions to guide you through the process. How does Xccelerate™ Digital Printing work? Unlike conventional offset (analog) printing, which is designed for extremely large order quantities, digital printing is designed to eliminate the non-value added cost and associated lead time of printing plates. While analog printing is still cost effective for large orders, digital printing technology offers exciting customization capabilities previously unavailable with metal packaging. As with conventional offset printing, the Xccelerate™ pre-press process is fully digital. Artwork is designed on Adobe® Illustrator® software or similar graphic arts software. However, unlike conventional offset printing, this digital file isn’t used to create color separations and burn printing plates. Instead, the digital file is ripped and sent to a Print PC, a specialized computer which serves as the driver for the digital printing press. The digital printing press uses ‘Piezoelectric, Drop-On-Demand inkjet technology.’ In short, the digital printing press is able to interpret a computer-based digital artwork file (rip file) and jet ink directly onto the steel substrate. Immediately after application, the ink is cured using ultraviolet (UV) light. The process reduces the air emissions and utility costs typically associated with offset printing and solvent inks. As the metal sheet is decorated prior to fabrication, a developed proprietary technology guarantees ink adhesion to the metal substrate. Following the printing operation, the decorated flat sheets are processed into finished product using the same technologies used with analog lithography. I would like pricing for an Xccelerate ™ digitally printed tin. Who can I contact to discuss this project? Please call your Sales Representative at 800.749.9911. They will be happy to explain the benefits of Xccelerate™ and they can generate a quote based upon your requirements. What kind of development tools are available for Xccelerate™ digital printing? 1. An Adobe® PDF template for your desired can size. You will receive a separate template for each can component. 2. An Adobe® Illustrator® template (file type ‘.eps’) for your desired can size. This template will speed your artwork development process and provide critical placement information. I am ready to prepare my designs. How should artwork be formatted?
.eps Adobe® Illustrator® Vector-Based Files (please save as Version 11) .tiff Adobe® Photoshop® Raster-Based Files
Can I fill food or cosmetic products inside digitally-printed cans? Company manufactures tins for the food and pharmaceutical industry, following the requisite Best Manufacturing Practices. Plain electrolytic tinplate, side seam stripe and compound sealing materials are approved for food contact under Title 21 CFR § 175.300. Additionally, lubricants used in the manufacture of decorative tins are USDA H1 approved and also meet the FDA requirements defined under Title 21 CFR § 178.3570. However, for specific instances where products come in direct contact with the top curled surface of a decorative tin, a secondary barrier must be employed. Can I print my design on plain tinplate? Certainly! Please contact your sales representative and request a custom color profile to assist your design development. As designs constructed over plain tinplate can be influenced by the applied ink density, we recommend ordering color proofs. To bring your creative concepts into reality, we have the ability to adjust the applied ink density making your designs appear more opaque or more translucent. My design features areas where the background white is ‘reversed out.” Why do the white images appear to have slightly more gloss than the CMYK printed areas? In order to reduce the time required to process your order, we digitally print on white pre-coated stock metal sheets. While these white sheets are specially coated to enhance the digital printing process, there is a slight difference in gloss level between the white coating and the digital ink. If your design requires ‘normalization’ of the overall gloss level, please notify your sales representative. Can I spot print white on plain tin? Not yet, but please check back soon! This feature is currently in development. Look for an exciting announcement later in the future. Can I print PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® spot colors? The Xccelerate™ system currently employs eight process colors to reproduce your artwork. Printing with PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® spot colors is currently not available. However, with the PANTONE® color bridge™ solid to process guide, you can find a process approximation of your PMS spot color. The PANTONE® color bridge™ guide is available online at www.pantone.com or by phone at (888) PAN-TONE. How can I visualize the final product? In order to provide ‘what you see is what you get’ execution of your design, we will provide color profiles for your specific substrate background color. Since all printed colors are affected by the background color of the substrate, Xccelerate™ color profiles will allow your graphic artists to design on our metal. Xccelerate™ color profiles are currently available for the following background colors:
For many customers, Xccelerate™ color profiles can eliminate the need for color proofs. However, if you still require a proof, please contact your sales representative regarding the charges. We will happily provide a metal proof that has been produced on our digital printing press – the same press that will produce your order! My design features barcodes and small character fonts. How can I format these elements for improved appearance? The printed appearance of small characters can be improved through the following measures:
Printed text clarity and the barcode scanning performance are improved when designs adhere to specific orientation recommendations:
How large should I make the final artwork layout? The final artwork should be developed to the exact size of the template. For tin bodies, the template size is the overall size of the body blank. For tin covers and bottoms, the artwork should extend to the touching circle. The ‘+’ corner marks should be shown as 0.250” (L) x 0.250” (W) x 0.005” (thick) hairlines on the final artwork file. I have never developed artwork for a tin before. Where should I place my graphics? Please follow the guidelines on the Adobe® PDF template drawing. This layout drawing illustrates the positioning for text and graphics. Please include the template as a separate layer on your completed artwork file. The layer should be turned ‘off.’ We have free-lance graphics artists available that can “correct” minor problems all they way to completely designing your can for you. Please contact your sales representative who can connect you to the right source. Although we don't create artwork for you, we can direct you to free-lance graphics artists that we work with that are specialists in designing artwork for tins. I have an artwork development question. Is there an Xccelerate™ helpline? Yes! Please route all graphic arts questions through your Sales Representative at 800.749.9911. Wow! That was simple. Now how do I send my final design to Holiday Tins & Containers ™? In order to guarantee data integrity, Holiday Tins & Containers ™ prefers to receive graphics files via recordable media in either CD or DVD format. Please save Adobe® Illustrator® files as Version II. Please include the following when mailing your CD/DVD data disk:
Where do I send the package? Please send the completed development package to:
Holiday Tins & Containers ™ Or
Holiday Tins & Containers™ An ftp site is also available. Please contact your sales representative for sign-on information. Thank you for choosing Holiday Tins & Containers ™ for your packaging needs. We hope this document has answered your questions and reduced your artwork development time. If we haven’t exceeded these expectations, please call us to share your questions and comments. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator and Photoshop are either registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM®, PANTONE®, PMS® (Note: PMS is a registered trademark; however, it is one which should not be used.), and other Pantone trademarks and service marks hereunder are the property of Pantone. Xccelerate and the Xccelerate logo are trademarks of Ball Aerosol and Specialty Container Inc.
The name “Holiday Tins & Containers” and the logo are
trademarks of Holiday Tins & Containers. The mark "Shaping
your Packaging Possibilities..." is a servicemark of Holiday
Tins & Containers. |
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800.749.9911
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