Services
Design Studio
Web Design
Litho Printing
Digital Printing
Large Format Printing
PVC Banners
Vehicle Wraps
Vehicle Vinyls
Signs and Signage
Custom Labels
Self Adhesive Labels

Solutions
Variable Data
E-Printing
Storage

E-Printing
What is E-Printing
How Does E-Printing Work
Benefits of E-Printing
E-Printing Enquiries

Support/Help
Artwork File Upload
Artwork Help and Advice
Printing Help and Advice
Paper Guides and Sizes
General Help










Spectral Design are THE supplier for your digital printing and litho printing needs, based in Hook, Hampshire RG27 9GR. With in house services such as business stationery packs, covering letterheads, business cards, compliment slips, NCR sets, continuous forms, invoice paper, post it notes, etc.. plus vehicle graphics and signage – including full vehicle wraps, custom self adhesive labels, brochures, leaflets, PVC banners, exhibition stands and pop up displays and much, much more - there's no need to spend hours trawling through google! - It's all right here! We have produced work for such names as Yates, Toshiba, BP, KFC, Pizza Hut, Mars Drinks, Costa Coffee, Shell, Butlins, Verbatim and many, many more smaller, local businesses. Spectral Design in hampshire are committed to providing a first class customer service and we believe this has been the foundation of our success, for well over a decade. Browse through the 'services' above - for a full overview of what we can offer. You'll find our web design services in the 'design studio' section. Our Spectral Design Team are fully qualified professionals utilising the latest software technologies to bring you bespoke design solutions. We offer packaging design, stationery design, identity design, corporate branding, exhibition design, website design and management – including hosting and much more. . . . Just starting out? - no problem. Our Spectral Design Team are experts at designing logo's, corporate identity and branding, or if your branding is looking a little tired, bring it to us, and we'll update it for you. In addition to providing a full creative and design service, we can also accept client files in all the most common software formats, across mac and pc platforms. This means we can carry out amends on your behalf, or simply check your files are ready for pre-press processing. If you need any help or advice, we'll be happy to point you in the right direction, simply give us a call or email us. Even with the advances in digital technology – the digital printing process is still far from being in a position to compete with traditional litho printing, especially on larger size jobs, or larger print runs. Spectral offer B1 litho printing and B2 litho printing which gives us the flexibility to ensure that your print project is produced using the most cost effective method, whilst maintaining our commitment to the environment, and our own green policy. If you are looking for Printers in Hampshire, or indeed, nationwide (we supply to clients all over the country) to produce your stationery, brochures, folders, letterheads, business cards, reports, NCR forms, or any other printed literature, contact us now or click the 'get a quote' link, and we'll contact you right back to discuss your litho printing or digital printing requirements. Alternatively, if you have a smaller project, visit our digital printing page to see how we can help. Although digital printing is still unable to compete with traditional litho printing on certain criteria,it has transformed the print industry and the technology is constantly being updated, resulting in very high quality digital print. Digital printing is a perfect medium for short run print such as stationery items (letterheads, business cards, compliment slips etc) brochures, leaflets, flyers etc. Digital printing also provides a great spring board for peripheral services such as variable data – which allows every single sheet that comes off the press, to be personalised in various ways. Traditionally, with a litho printing press – this would have meant several passes through the press, then passing the job to a specialist mailing house. The benefits of this digital printing process mean less waste for the environment, faster turnaround, greater quality control for us, and less cost to you! Get in touch and ask how digital printing, variable data or any of our other services can help to improve raise your awareness and subsequently, generate more business for you! Our large format printing capability (sometimes called wide format) comprises both internal and external machines. We operate high quality dye based machines for internal work such as posters, canvas prints and exhibition stands, including roller banner stands and pop up exhibition stands. Our Eco Solvent large format machine is capable of producing PVC Banners, vehicle vinyls, vehicle wraps, blueback prints, canvas prints – and lots more. We can print DIRECTLY ONTO foamex, DiBond, vinyl, paper, canvas and lots more besides. Marry this extensive large format print capability with our flat bed cutters and routers, we can print and cut almost anything – to any shape! Some of our main products include Dump bins, Pop up exhibition stands, Signs, Lightboxes, Hoardings, Showcards, Posters, Bespoke Packaging and boxes, Adhesive labels to any shape – in fact, all manner of presentation and display materials. One of the cheapest and quickest short term signage options, is a PVC banner. They are flexible, low cost solutions for “instant grab” messaging. We can produce any size of PVC banner or flag – onto a wide variety of media including Mesh Banner material – PVC material, Polyester based flag material and canvas.We provide all the fixings and poles you need to display your banner too – whether a semi-permanent solution, or a frame to enable your pvc banner to ‘free stand’. Ask for our advice and we’ll be happy to help. Vehicle Wraps - or Vehicle Wrapping is the new generation of vehicle vinyl graphics! Our vehicle graphics and vehicle wraps are state of the art. From a simple logo on the doors to full vehicle wrapping, we provide high impact, cost-effective vehicle graphics to help keep your company high profile. Spectral offer full vehicle wraps, part wraps, or traditional vehicle decals. Research shows that up to 3000 people per hour could see your vehicle graphics on the roads, making them more powerful – and profitable - than some other forms of advertising. We design and fit vehicle graphics for small local businesses and large national companies. With our studio facilities carrying all the latest up to date software, designing and ‘building’ a vehicle wrap is a complex process – but we have the experience and expertise. We stock the best materials from the worlds leading vinyl manufacturers and can therefore guarantee our vehicle graphics. Combine this with an experienced design team and customer-focused support staff and you have a winning formula to promote your business, your brand and services on your vehicle(s). All our printed vehicle graphics are produced using Eco Solvent machines – we care about the environment! With the ability to cut and/or router materials up to 90mm thick – we can produce high quality bespoke internal signs or external signs for any application. Signage is extremely diverse and obviously bespoke so we quote on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis. We always, however, carry out a site survey free of charge prior to providing a quote for your signage to ensure you receive the best advice and support for your sign project. Traditionally, most sign companies will out-source the fitting of their signage to ‘handymen’. This is not the case with Spectral. We only use our own sign fitters, trained by us to our high standard, thus ensuring a control over costs, quality and customer service. One of the newest strings to our bow – is the ability to produce long or short run stickers and self adhesive labels – to any shape or size. We can produce security labels, metallic finish labels (such as brushed aluminum) or standard labels onto vinyl and polyester. We also produce a wide range of labels for the GRP industry – providing labels for portable cash units, ticket machines and touch screen systems. We have produced labels for Virgin Trains, South West Trains, Southern trains, GNER, DLR, Toshiba, Virgin Media, Citybike, Premier Inn, Link cash systems, Triton and many more. With no minimum order qty, why not give us a call to discuss your label requirements, our advice is free!! With the current advances in technology and digital printing techniques, variable data seems to be the new buzzword! On average, an 18% response increase from a mailer is achieved when the mailer is addressed to the recipient, or personalised in some other way (business to consumer). Yet, a 30% increase is achieved – business to business. No longer do your mailers need to be addressed ‘Dear Sir’, or ‘Dear Madam’. Irrespective of your print run, each and every sheet can carry personalised data, including names, addresses, and even the actual content of the mailer itself can be bespoke to each recipient – similar to the way you receive your gas or electricity bill! Variable data is relatively simple to set up and create, and most of the work can be done yourself, or via your agency (or, of course, we can offer our services) which mean much reduced costs and possibility for error. If you need help or advice for your variable data project, please contact us. Spectral are now in a position to offer e-printing, or on-demand printing. If you operate a purchasing system for multiple branches and/or departments, such as manuals, brochures or simply business cards, e-printing could be for you! With secure access to a dedicated server, and online editable templates, you could create your own artwork online! – no more studio costs, or you can simply place a repeat order for stock items or a reprint of your stationery or brochure. Marry our e-printing service with our fulfillment and storage capability, and we can handle all the storage and distribution of your collateral or promotional products, whilst providing accurate stock control and reporting results as often as you see fit (this information can even be accessed and controlled yourself!). The benefits of online ordering are reduced lead times, greater control of stock ordering and stock management, reduced costs assuming that an authorized account manager is appointed to place all orders and the instant reporting facilities. Having previously serviced a client which manages an estate of over 300 pubs nationwide, our Fulfillment and storage service is as streamlined as it could be. Coupled with our online ordering facility, or ‘e-printing’ – Spectral carry the expertise and experience to ensure that all fulfillment is carried out accurately, cost effectively and to deadlines. With as many as 300 consignments leaving our premises each day, all of which could be, or are different to each other, it is important to ensure that everything is packed properly, labeled properly, and received in good order. Spectral also hold accounts with several of the UK’s national and international freight carriers so we can always ensure we have the right solution whether your items need to be delivered to Ashford, or Australia and we are constantly working away to ensure we receive competitive rates – which we can pass on to our clients. Our Warehouse facility can store up to approx 600 pallets – which means instant access is always guaranteed. e-Printing is fast becoming the next big thing in print procurement. Spectral offers a hosted web based e-commerce/procurement platform capable of handling a wide range of products and services ranging from stock items, variable print and direct mail. Our customers select the service offering they require: Full service offering including the technology platform, on-line artwork management, production (including printing) warehousing, distribution and reporting. Or A bespoke solution that is based around the Spectral online technology but uses the customer’s other suppliers (such as your provider of promotional business items for example) and any other element of the Spectral full service offering that is required. We currently hold customers in the business to business (B2B) and the business to consumer (B2C) markets in the UK, USA and Australia. In the B2B sector the key customer benefits include brand control and reduced cost of ownership. In the B2C sector, the Spectral system is a highly versatile, powerful and cost effective way for a business to enter into e-commerce. Prior to recommending and implementing a solution, Spectral offer a free consultancy service to assess your business needs. The consultancy covers assessment of your technology needs for e-procurement or e-commerce, the catalogue structures, user account structures and variable item customisation. We will also assess production methods balancing the benefits of low piece prices from long runs against on demand print which offers increased flexibility, allows extensive customisation and eliminates write off costs. Other areas which will be assessed during the free consultancy include data management, reporting requirements, distribution and service levels. Only when we have a clear picture will we recommend a solution that meets your business needs. On the basis of our recommendations, we will illustrate how we can implement access control, and full structure of the system which means that if you only want certain managers to access certain products for ordering, no problem. The structure can include further criteria, such as maximum spend levels, authorization procedures for each order (or certain orders which meet certain criteria), template editing in real time, providing PDF proofs for managerial approval, reporting (including notifications of dispatched goods etc). Apart from the obvious benefits such as 24 hour ordering facility, cost management and reporting, others include:Business Process Solutions, Free consultancy, e-procurement/e-commerce platform, Full range of products including direct mail and variable print, Account structure to meet your business structures, Product allocation to user to reflect your business needs, Seamless integration with your Intranet, Powerful back-office suite with Management Information, Approval interface for further control over brand, message and/or spend, Credit accounts as well as our own secure on-line payment facility, Customer support by Spectral or by you or your contractors as required Business Benefits ,Control your brand and image, Flexible approach to meet your business needs, Low cost of ownership with highly cost effective entry into e-commerce, Service levels to meet your business needs If you’d like to arrange a free consultancy, or receive some more advice about how we can implement a tailored system that’s right for you – please just call 01256 761101 or drop us an email here. IMAGES: If you are scanning photographs yourself, save them as either EPS or TIFF files as this will preserve the colour and clarity of your images. If you are scanning a previously printed item, such as a magazine photo, you will need to ‘de-screen’ the image, blurring it slightly to avoid a moiré effect. GIF or JPEG formats compress the image and actually discard information, causing colour shifts and blurriness. Don’t use either of these file formats – they may actually print in black and white and you won’t like the results. When you are scanning, consider the final size your image will be used at. Always scan photographs at 300dpi at the size you are going to use them. There’s no point scanning a postage stamp at 300dpi and then blowing it up to A4 size – use your scanning software to help you calculate the output resolution. Conversely, scanning photographs at more than 300dpi will have little or no effect on the actual printed quality and will unnecessarily increase file size and processing time. Don’t enlarge/reduce your scanned images in your drawing/vector software (such as Illustrator) – it’s always best to use an image-editing application such as Photoshop for this task. When converting photographs from RGB to CMYK, In the ‘edit’ menu choose ‘colour settings’. From the window that appears, choose ‘custom CMYK’ from the list in the ‘CMYK’ section of ‘working spaces’. scanning flat or black and white line art (i.e. a logo), scan this at 800 to 1200dpi for best results. Any lower, and the logo may look blurry. Pay careful attention to the CMYK makeup of any ‘black’ in the logo. The automatically created Photoshop black, for example, provides 250% ink coverage. You may need to adjust the colour settings in your application to get a black that is made from 100% black ink. Make sure that any alpha channels are removed and all layers are flattened before finally saving your image. ACCEPTABLE FORMATS: Please always send us the native file from your application, and make sure it is clearly labelled. To avoid confusion, it would be helpful if your disk contained only the relevant files you want printing. We are happy to accept any of the following file formats, and disk types. We’re always updating our software and hardware, so if your application or media type is not listed, please call us. PDF FILES: As long as you have set your files up correctly, there is no reason why you shouldn’t send a PDF file if you have the facilities. OTHER MEDIA TYPES CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, E-mail, USB Key, Macintosh SOFTWARE Quark up to 6.1, Photoshop up to CS3, Illustrator up to CS3, InDesign up to CS3, MS Word - will incur charges CHECKLIST Finally please use this checklist to be sure your file is supplied correctly, Page Size/Layout, Product page size is correct, Page includes correct bleed. (3mm), All important elements are at least 5.5mm from the page edge, Design is created in an application we accept, Design is saved as the native file from the application, Design is supplied on a media type we accept, Only files required for this job are included and are clearly labeled, All tints have a value of 10% or more of CMYK, and that the total ink coverage of ink,  in any one area is between 225% and 275% maximum, All images are converted to CMYK, and saved as TIFF or EPS files, Photos are scanned at 300dpi at 100%, Line-art images are scanned at 800 to 1200dpi    at 100%, TIFF and EPS files are saved without any image compression    (JPEG, LZW or ASCII encoded), Any alpha channels are removed and images are flattened, All linked/placed TIFF or EPS files are supplied, Picture boxes in Quark Xpress have a fill other than ‘none’, All screen and printer fonts are supplied (including those used in EPSs), No Multiple Master, Metric or Mac Sytem fonts are used, No effects from the ‘text effect’ menu in Freehand are used, A mock-up or hard copy is supplied and the design works on a functional level, No hairlines/fine lines less than 0.25pt are used, No corel texture or postscript fills have been used, All OLE objects have been converted to Bitmaps, There are no EPS files within other EPSs, Overprint items are set correctly If you are still unsure or have any further queries then please don’t hesitate to contact us. COLOURS SPOT Colours: When choosing different colours for your job, try to choose colours from the Pantone© colour palette if your software has it. If the job you require is to be printed in process, make sure these colours are converted to their CMYK equivalent. If your job is to be printed with a spot colour, check to make sure you have just one version of the spot colour. Some packages will have a CV or a CVC version of the same colour. A good way to check how many colours you have in your document is to print separations on your desktop printer. If you have more than the required no of sheets out of the printer you have too many colours. RGB to CMYK Your scanner, digital camera, computer and monitor use a combination of three colours: Red, Green and Blue (RGB) to create images. The printing process uses four colours to print the same images: Cyan (light blue), Magenta (cerise), Yellow and Black (key colour), commonly referred to as CMYK or process colours. At some stage the production workflow all RGB images have to be converted to CMYK. The conversion from RGB images to CMYK should be done before the file is sent to us in an image manipulation package like Photoshop. If this conversion is not done there is a danger that the standard RGB to CMYK conversion profile we use may make some of the colours appear to be washed out or dull. BLACK is BLACK? You may not realise, but a lot can be done with black to help you to achieve the desired results. To get the best from our process, black can be produced in two ways. The first method is single colour black, made from 100% black ink. This is ideal for small areas such as text.On larger areas of black solid single colour black can often appear grey or washed out. The way to achieve a dense black on large areas of black solid is to print a 40% Cyan underneath the 100% Black. This will give an even and dense colour as the second colour disguises any inconsistencies. SET-OFF: Set-off is the marking of the underside of a sheet by the transfer of ink from the sheet on which it lays. It can occur when pressure is applied during guillotining or simply while the paper is stacked. Set-off is caused by the fact that the ink is still wet, and is most prevalent on uncoated stocks. Set-off shouldn’t happen if you are careful about the weight of colours you pick. We have set some guidelines to help you avoid set-off or lengthy drying times. Our recommended ink coverage limit is 225%. This means that, wherever possible, the colours you use should contain less than a total of 225% when you add together cyan, magenta, yellow and black. It is very important that the page size of your document is the same size as the finished, trimmed document size. If the job you are creating has ink which ‘bleeds’ off the edge of the sheet, include 3mm bleed all round on each edge. If the software package you are using will not let you set 3mm bleed then make the page size 3mm bigger on each edge, e.g. a 55x85mm business card will need to have the page size set to 61x91mm. Please tell us at the time of ordering what the finished size should be if this is how you have set up your document. If you have more than one item you are sending us i.e. letterheads, business cards and compliment slip, it is best to make each of the page sizes the correct size i.e. letterhead A4, compliments slip 210x99mm, business card 55x85mm. Spectral Design & Print Ltd, 43 Murrell Green Business Park, London Road, Hook, Hampshire RG27 9GR. Tel: 01256 761101 Fax: 01256 761102