EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) is a new promotion being rolled out by the US Postal Service that enables regular niche publishers to mail at an astounding 14.2 cents per piece. It is not for everyone, but if you meet the requirements then you are going to love this new program because it saves on postage, mailing house costs and turn-around time.

EDDM has two categories, EDDM/Retail Entry and EDDM/BMEU (Business Mail Entry Unit)

1. With EDDM Retail you can:
• Get a rate of 14.2 cents for each mail piece.

• Avoid mail processing costs (such as ink jetting and labeling).

• Save on time (usually takes a couple days to process your mail and get it prepped for mailing).

2. To qualify for EDDM/Retail:
• Your mailing piece must be under 3.3 oz.

• You must do a saturation mailing to a mail carrier route (you do not have to do a saturation mailing to an entire zip code, just an entire mail carrier route).

• Your mailing must be at least 200 mail pieces and not exceed 5,000 per day.

• Your mailing piece must be more than 11 ½ long OR more than 6 1/8 high OR more than .25” thick. USPS doesn’t use the term “width”, they are looking for the “height”. To clarify, regardless of how it is bound, the longest side of any piece is always considered the “length” and the shortest side is always considered the “height”.

• Your piece must be a standard mail flat.

3. Some other things to be considered:
• EDDM/Retail cannot mail more than 5,000 per day so if you have a publication or piece that must be mailed quicker than 5,000 per day, you will need to go out as EDDM/BMEU. There is a limit of 100,000 pieces you can mail thru EDDM/BMEU.

• EDDM/Retail must ship to the local DDU to get this low rate (this is the term used for the post office closest to the place where your mailings or carrier routes are) so you need to get a shipping cost to that location and combine it with the 14.2 cents per piece cost to realize your total mailing expenditure.

• EDDM/BMEU must be verified at the BMEU where the permit number is registered and also be addressed using the city, state, 5 digit zip code. So if you have a mailing that covers multiple zip codes, you will have additional costs in the form of ink jetting fees or plate change costs (this is where you change out a plate during the press run to put a different zip code on a portion of the print run).

• You will need a CRID (Customer Registration Identification) to mail thru EDDM/Retail. There is no cost to this and you can get one here (www.uspseverydoor.com/).

The Internet is full of gazillions of fonts that can, at times, make life tough if you are looking to find the name of a particular font. You know, those situations where you have the font but you don’t have its name? You know it will work. You like it. But, you cannot use it because you don’t know what it is called. Such a situation can baffle any web or graphic designer at the best of times. Thankfully, technology comes to our rescue in such a scenario. This article will list down some of the famous Font Identifying Tools that make life easy when you are stuck. Also, I will test these tools quickly to gauge their authenticity. Each time I will pick a random font from Da Font and see if these tools can identify it. Checkout this great article…

Dance into the New Year with this Vivacious and Appealing Reddish Orange

The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Over the past several years, orange has grown in popularity and acceptance among designers and consumers alike. A provocative attention-getter, Tangerine Tango is especially appealing in men’s and women’s fashion. Fashion designers featured in the PANTONE Fashion Color Report Spring 2012, including Tommy Hilfiger, Nanette Lepore, Cynthia Steffe by Shaun Kearney, Elie Tahari and Adrienne Vittadini, are incorporating this attractive orange into their spring collections. A fun, lively take on a traditional autumnal hue, Tangerine Tango will surely carry through to fall fashion as well.

A winner in cosmetics because of its versatility, Tangerine Tango is a bit exotic, but in a very friendly, non-threatening way. Add a sultry flair to lips, cheeks and nails with Tangerine Tango. An unexpected eye shadow color, Tangerine Tango is a complementary opposite that flatters blue or green eyes. When paired with brown eyes, it brings out an amber cast.

Energize interior spaces with Tangerine Tango patterned home accessories. Pillows, bedspreads and tabletop accessories in this high-impact hue add spice to any room. Or incorporate Tangerine Tango appliances and personal electronics for an unexpected pop of color. Looking for an inexpensive way to perk up your home? Paint a wall in Tangerine Tango for a dynamic burst of energy in the kitchen, entryway or hallway.

Check out the finalists of the Obama 2012 Art Works poster project — and help choose the winners by voting for your favorites.
Check out the finalists of the Obama 2012 Art Works poster project — and help choose the winners by voting for your favorites.
Obama for America invited artists from across the country to volunteer their creativity to support President Obama’s jobs plan.

We’re thrilled with all the creative responses we’ve received. Thank you to everyone who submitted a design or spread the word about the contest.

Now, it’s your chance to vote for your three favorite submissions among the 12 finalists. Some criteria to keep in mind, in addition to aesthetics: how well posters stick to the theme, quality of workmanship, tone, and creativity.

The three winners will receive framed prints of their posters signed by President Obama.  Check them out…

Colors are vital elements it web designing. It can make a site look visually attractive. It is important for web designers to consider colors for it can greatly influence the site and the visitors as well. The choice of colors has different effect to a person. That is why one should think before choosing the color to use. Every color has their meaning. This is known as color psychology.

Different colors influence the mood and state of the human mind. We might not be fully aware of this but colors really play a vital role in conveying a message to the readers. In today’s post, we will give you some examples of how color psychology is being used in websites. Try to see if the color could help relay their message.

Checkout the rest of this article here…

Think QR codes are monochrome and ugly? Think again. The codes, originally developed in Japan in the 1990′s and now growing in ubiquity everywhere else, are actually highly customizable and, in some cases, quite beautiful.

When Toyota subsidiary Denso originally developed QR codes in their black and white form, they were meant to serve a functional use as a means to track auto parts. But as the codes began being used for marketing — directing smartphone-equipped consumers to websites and interactive advertisements — they started receiving makeovers. Now, brands want to have their codes stand out. Check them out…

Printing Tips for Small Business – Part 1

RGB vs. CMYK
RGB is a color build system used by your computer monitor to display full color. CMYK is the color space that commercial printing presses use to reproduce your printing project. RGB is Red, Green and Blue, while CMYK is Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black. The final printed project that you see on your computer screen will not necessarily be the same exact colors reproduced by a high quality offset printing press. In most cases there won’t be a big difference, but there are some colors produced by an RGB monitor that cannot be reproduced via CMYK on a press.

Get Color Right – Spot Colors
Spot colors are used most frequently for one and two color jobs when an exact color needs to be repeatedly reproduced. Logos are perfect example spot colors. For example, if your logo needs a distinctive blue, tell your commercial printer your the Pantone® PMS color choice. This number is then matched on the press to deliver the exact result you need.

Pantone Matching System (PMS)
PMS is the popular Pantone® color matching system used by the printing industry to print spot colors. Most applications that support color printing allow you to specify colors by indicating the Pantone name or number. This assures that you get the right color when the file is printed, even though the color may not look right when displayed on your monitor. PMS works well for spot colors but not for process colors, which are generally specified using the CMYK color model.

We love summer! It’s a great time of year to stay in touch not only with friends and family, but also our valued customers. In celebration of summer, traditionally known as “postcard season” we’re offering you a special deal for printing 500 full-color postcards for only $49! That’s a $20 savings off our regular pricing. Also, in case you haven’t heard the United States Postal Service is giving a discounted mailing rate of 3% for all mailings that include a “mobile two-dimensional barcode” aka QR Code now through August 31, 2011. For more information about the USPS Promotion click here.

If you haven’t tried out QR Codes yet, we have a quick and easy way to generate a QR Code right here on the Bargain Printing Blog. You can test it out here.

Click here to order yours today!

One of the mistakes we tend to see over and over in the printing industry are files containing low resolution images.

Below is an article written by Steve Patterson at photoshopessentials.com about the differences between high and low resolution images, that should clarify some of the basic questions associated with image resolution and print.

Check out the articlehere.

Recosoft recently introduced ID2Office for InDesign. The plug-in converts your text, paragraph structure, frame links, tables, graphics and other objects, along with document properties, into Office 2007 Word or Power- Point-native files.

You’ll need to check exported documents to make sure there weren’t any issues with the conversion process, but that should take far less time than recreating your layouts in Microsoft’s applications.

ID2Office costs $199 for an annual subscription.

www.recosoft.com

Thanks to Design Tools Monthly for the article