To provide accurate pricing, physical artwork or computer files should be submitted as part of the bid process with specifications. Observing the following guidelines will allow your artwork to be processed in a timely, efficient and cost effective manner.

Artwork for the Graphic Blast® process must be clean and sharp. To provide maximum visual clarity on engraved projects, any letter (regardless of typestyle, looking at the width of a lower case "l" or "i"), stroke, line, or dot should have a minimum width of .020" (.5 mm). Raised or applications on wood require a minimum width of .050" (1.25 mm).

With submitted black and white artwork, the black areas representing the area to be engraved or removed. Please remember that any irregularities will be picked up in our process.

In the Graphic Blast® process when more than one accent color is required for a design, dividing lines are necessary to separate the colors. These lines must be a minimum width of .040" (1 mm).

IMPORTING ART FILES:
 When we import your file, one of three things will occur:

1. The file will import with no problems and there will be no cleanup required.
2. The file will import, but there are areas of the artwork which we will need to modify (common with floor plans or maps). We will discuss with you the scope of the work required. We will provide a firm quote to modify the file to the level required for our process, based on the amount of work required.
3. We can not either use or import the file. (A note for Mac users: please save to PC compatible formats)

The following software formats are preferred for file import: Adobe Acrobat® (.PDF), Adobe Illustrator® (.AI), Encapsulated PostScript (.EPS), AutoCAD® (.DWG or .DXF), Gerber Plot files (.PLT), and CorelDraw® (.CDR).

ABOUT ART FILES:

Before sending us your computer artwork, please read the "Preparing" sections on this page. If you have received an artwork file, it may have been created with publishing software. This software was designed for paper or web/Internet publishing. If your artwork file was scanned, it is a bitmap or raster file. Before Best can use either of these types of artwork, we will usually need to convert the artwork to vector format.

BEST ART SERVICES:

Art labor time will vary depending on the complexity of the job. We will provide firm pricing based on the amount of work required to make the file usable for the Graphic Blast® process. The estimate will be based upon the initial artwork and directions supplied. A draft will be sent to the customer for approval. Any further customer revisions may result in additional charges.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL FILE CONTENTS SHOULD BE IN VECTOR FORMAT

Bitmap or raster formats such as .jpg, .gif, .tif, etc., are not usually compatible with our Graphic Blast® process. Other file formats may contain both vector graphics as well as embedded raster images.

PREPARING FILES:

Be sure to use a working copy of your file, not your original.

Remove all shading, half-tones, gradients or fills, and overprints.

Make sure all components are vector graphics; most programs have functions or utilities to convert bitmapped images into vector based graphics. Convert all fonts to vectors. Most software has a "Text to Pathes/Curves", "Create Outlines", "Embed Fonts" or similar command. By converting the text to vectors or embedding the font, your text will remain in the correct font.

Export your file to either an EPS, AI, PDF, CDR, PLT(Gerber) or DWG/DXF file format.

PREPARING FLOORPLANS & EVACUATION MAPS:

For AutoCAD® files please make sure all work is done in model space and the file has no reference files (Xrefs), blocks and/or proxy-graphics. In most cases with CAD files for evacuation maps and floorplans, the only items that should be in the file are the walls, room names or numbers and/or evacuation routes. All other things such as door swings, restrooms (urinals, sinks), cabinets, utilities etc. will need to be removed. The floor plan or evacuation map should be drawn to the scale of the signs required and made by using single line construction or poly-lines. Please delete layers which do not contain necessary details.
CAD file example in .dwg format.

SENDING A FILE:
Either mail or express ship your disk or send the file(s) via email to: Best Art Department. If you are mailing a disk, print out and include two copies of the image. Indicate the colors desired on one copy and leave the other copy as printed to use for scanning if needed. Be sure to include your company name, the job name, your sales consultant's name, and a purchase order number if available. Large files may be compressed using a file zipping utility before being sent to us via email. If you are sending the file on disk, we support 100 and 250MB Iomega® ZIP Disks as well as standard CD / DVD-roms.

SCANNING AN IMAGE:
If computer artwork is not available or usable, we might be able to scan printed artwork. The artwork should be a clean black and white such as Photostat, a Photo Mechanical Transfer ( PMT), ad slick, or similar artwork. The maximum scanning size we support is 8 ½" x 14". If you provide a 600 dpi or higher printed image on of a 6-10" wide logo (rather than a business card or letterhead size), we can create a higher quality vectorized version. Labor time will vary depending on the complexity of the job. Once we receive the artwork, we can provide firm pricing to get the artwork to a usable format.

FILM:
Film may be furnished in place of original artwork. If the image is to be raised, send full-size film negative, emulsion down, black representing the area to be removed. If the image is to be engraved, send full-size film positive, emulsion down, black representing the area to be engraved.

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