General / Company

What is your phone number and operating hours?
You can call us at 310-521-0099 or Fax 310-521-0091 from 8am to 6pm PST Monday through Friday. You can send an email at any time.

What about privacy and security?
No information we collect for order processing or from inquiries is shared with any other company or website. Your information is only used to contact you when necessary. Credit Card information is only used to bill you for products and services ordered.

Products/Ordering

Can I order 2-color printing from you?
Yes, but we suggest you get the best value for your dollar and go for full color, instead of two-color!

Can you print jobs that are different than the standard formats that you offer?
Yes. Custom size pieces are available but you must request a quote on any job that doesn't fit our standard formats.

Is there an extra charge for bleeds?
No. Unlike many other companies, all our prices include full bleeds free of charge. See our Design Hints page for an explanation of bleeds.

How do I order multiple pieces?
To keep things simple, please place a separate order for each different printed piece you want produced. For example, if you want 3 different 11x17 brochures, please place 3 orders. Obviously, the price for 3,000 of one brochure is not the same as the price for 1,000 each of 3 different brochures.

What kind of paper will my job be printed on?
We have several paper types available, depending on what you are ordering. The individual pricing pages show available options.

How well will my job match what I see on my monitor?
Most people are surprised at how well their job matches what they see. But because of wide differences in monitor calibration and the different technologies used, some printed colors may not exactly match the colors on your specific monitor. Please see our RGB - CMYK Information page for important instructions on getting the results you want. Our Design Hints page has additional information and illustrations.

Will you match a sample I print out on my own printer, or a previously printed sample?
At Press Graphix, part of the way we offer fast turnaround and low pricing is by printing to a "pleasing color" standard, using standard ink densities. Therefore, there is no guarantee that your finished piece will approximate your printed sample. This is due in part to the widely varying results from different output devices including inkjet and laser printers, continuous tone proofing devices, high-resolution film-based proofs, and different than true offset lithography. Even from one commercial printing firm to another, there can be significant differences in results. In particular, inkjet and laser prints are known to look substantially different than true offset lithography.

If you require precise color match, please contact us to arrange for a digital color proof.
There may be additional charges for precise color match service. Also, if you request color correction or other changes after you see your proof, there will be a minimum $40+ charged for color correction time and a new proof.
Bottom line: the final product we produce for you is unlikely to match the output from your inkjet -- it will look more professional!

Is there a discount if I re-order my job?
Yes, exact reprints will be charged $50 less, but notice how little additional copies cost. It's way cheaper to print a few extra the first time.

How do I place an order and have my graphic designer upload my files separately?
Need text here...

How long does it take for me to get the proof of my job?
Once you have placed your order, you should get it within 1-2 business days after we receive your electronic files.

How long will it take to get my order?
Most jobs will be printed within 2-5 business days after you approve your proof. Also the job specification also play a role in determining the turn-around time.

How can I get my order even faster?
Our standard service is quite fast, however If you want to receive your order faster, arrangements can usually be made. Ask about details.

Do we ship jobs?
Yes! We are also happy to ship to you anywhere around the world. Please provide us the exact shipping address (street address if available), along with the quantity and product type you want to order, and we will let you know the shipping costs.

Will I always receive exactly the quantity I order?
Most of the time, we print slightly more than you ordered, free of charge. Printing industry trade standards allow for underages of up to 5%. If you plan to send your print order to a mailing list or need a guaranteed quantity, we recommend that you order 5% over the minimum quantity you need.

What if I want to change something on my order after I've placed it or approved the proof?
Call us immediately. Jobs are normally put on press within a day after the proof is approved.

File Preparation

What file formats can you take?
We can take any Mac or PC version of Quark, Pagemaker, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, Word. Please see the ‘downloads’ section for file preparation for addtional information.

What types of storage media do you accept?
We can take your files on a CD, DVD or Zip disk. Where to send it.

How well will my job match what I see on my monitor?
Most people are surprised at how well their job matches what they see. But because of wide differences in monitor calibration and the different technologies used, some printed colors may not exactly match the colors on a your specific monitor. We do our best to make your job look good. See our design hints page for a more technical description.

What is the difference between the RGB and CMYK color space and why does it matter?
RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue, that are used in monitors, television screens, digital cameras and scanners. CMYK refers to the primary colors of pigment: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These are the inks used on the press in "4-color process printing", commonly referred to as "full color printing".

The combination of RGB light creates white, while the combination of CMYK inks creates black. Therefore, it is physically impossible for the printing press to exactly reproduce colors as we see them on our monitors.

Many programs have the capability to convert the layout/images from the RGB color space to the CMYK color space. We request that you convert your colors from RGB to CMYK if your tools allow you to. By doing it yourself, you have maximum control over the results.You may notice a shift in color when converting from RGB to CMYK. If you do not like the appearance in CMYK, we recommend that you make adjustments while working in CMYK (usually lightening). Generally, you should specify CMYK color builds that look a little lighter than you want, since the dots of ink "fatten up" on press, giving you more pigment on paper than you see on your monitor. Be especially careful to keep backgrounds light if there is black or dark colored text over it, so that the text remains readable.

How can I know what a particular CMYK color combination will look like?
Visit our location to see a swatch guide or to purchase a color guide with over 3,000 process colors with their CMYK screen percentages, please visit Pantone at: www.pantone.com.

How do I check for proper imposition or backup?
"Imposition" and "backup" refer to how the front of a printed piece is oriented to the back. In the case of a brochure, you normally turn it over right-to-left (like you turn the page of a book) in order to have the back side read correctly -- not upside down. Seems simple, until you get to a postcard where one side is layed out in landscape (horizontal) orientation, and the other side in portrait (vertical) orientation. We use our best judgement when imposing a job, so that it backs up in the most natural or normal manner. Some designs, however, contain both portrait and landscape elements on both sides, making it difficult to make a clear call. When reviewing your proof online, we will always post the front and the back in the orientation that they will print in relation to each other. So, if page 2 appears upside down, that is how it will be printed on the back of page 1. (Some people want it that way, so that the recipient of the piece must turn it over topto- bottom in order to read it correctly.)

How should I take pictures with my digital camera?
Digital cameras are wonderful tools that allow us to capture our images in many different ways. The camera is designed to actually take three pictures; one in red, one in green and the other in blue (similar to the way a projection TV works). It then combines the colors together and saves the image onto the picture card. It is very important to make sure that the camera is set to the highest quality setting possible. This means that if you can only save one image on the picture card instead of 12, 64 or 128 images, then this is good! You want to create the best quality picture that the camera can make. This will mean large file sizes and slow downloads from the camera itself, but it will get you the best possible results from your camera. Remember, images should be at 300dpi in their final size in the layout!

More often than not, we notice that images that come from digital cameras print darker than expected on the printing press. Check to see if you have a brightness option in your image editing program to lighten the entire piece. If you have the opportunity to change the color space from RGB (red, green, blue) to the printing press colors of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), then do so! It is always better to have you change the color space if you can, than for us to do it. Remember, not all colors that you can see that are created by elements of light (RGB) can be created by the elements of ink (CMYK) on press. If you do not have this capability with your software, do not worry about it, we will change it for you for free! Finally, we recommend that you apply a little sharpening to the image. This will make the image a little crisper and will print better on press.

How can I tell what resolution the image from my digital camera is?
Some digital cameras will let you know what the image resolution is, while others will tell you what the pixel dimensions of your image are. If you know what the pixel dimensions of your images are either from the camera itself or through the image editing software, you can do a little math to determine the resolution, and the size you can print the image at for clear and crisp printing.

Simply write down the pixel dimensions of your image and divide those numbers by 300 if the image does not include text and 400 if the image does include text. For example: An image without any text has a pixel dimension of 600 x 900 pixels. Once each dimension is divided by 300 the result is 2 x 3 inches. This means that you can use this image at 2 x 3 inches or smaller in your layout for quality printing results.

If your image editing software does not tell you what the pixel dimensions are, but it does tell you what the resolution is, then you know the maximum size you can use that image in your layout. We recommend that images be at 300dpi in their final size in the layout and 400dpi if the images include text. Please keep in mind that resolution and physical dimensions are in direct proportion to each other. If you have an image that is 2x2 at 300dpi and increase its size in the layout to 4x4 the new resolution is now 150dpi. So remember, when you bring an image in to your layout you can shrink it down in size (because the resolution will increase) but you will be limited as to how far you can increase it in size. See our Resolution page for more information on image resolution.

Where can I get more information on file and image resolution?
Call us for technical support

Do you have templates to help me correctly design my project??
Look for this in the near future.

Any other quesions, you can call us at 310-521-0099 or Fax 310-521-0091 from 8am to 6pm PST Monday through Friday. You can send an email at any time.