I think we're finally getting past the major ICC Profile issues here at work. It's starting to come into focus and become more understandable and manageable. For awhile there the color just wasn't coming out consistently from the computer file to the printed file. We created a few media files using Onyx and the i1, mainly on our banner and glossy files, as well as a fabric file. But today the prints were looking very nice, both on banner and our glossy calendar vinyl.
I read a tutorial today on Color Adjustment and how to use the profiles. Although the info was pretty basic, it gives a good foundation on profile usage. From my understanding now, the embedded profile in the file should always be used for accurate output on a printer. If you're not sure what profile to use, then just turn all ICC Profiles ON. This should allow for the best possible color output. Again I say it should be, but sometimes it's just a case by case thing. Sometimes the blue, for instance, might be right on, but the yellow comes out more greenish. We've had this problem more than once and are working to correct that. I'm sure after many tests and trials we will have many issues ironed out. =)
As a side note, I can't believe how bad these fires are down here! I've never had to go through so much smoke before on the way to work. The 241 Toll is open, thank God, but you can see all the smoke passing over so it's not over yet. Down South towards Laguna Niguel it looked pretty black, almost like it does when it's ready to rain, but I imagine it's from all the smoke. I just pray everyone gets out okay and that this all ends pretty soon. These fires definitely make it hotter as well. But this is an emergency so I'm not going to sit and complain about the heat. lol =)
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Smoother than gradients
Today was rather smooth regarding work, only a few prints and designs to work on today along with some inhouse work. The colors were coming out very nice, hardly any reprints needed to be done. I think one of our profiles, the 3001 media profile, is working well even for the fabric print! Odd. We need to get those worked out sometime next week.
I sent a logo to Fixbadart.com because it was way too pixelated to use. Well see how good they are! lol Well, if the saying is true that 'you get what you pay for' then maybe I shouldn't expect impressive work, cause this service is pretty cheap. And if they just try to recreate it by using Livetrace or something, then no, I might have to recreate it myself then. Our client gave the logo to us, which was really meant to be used on the web, not for print. This isn't anything new; we get this all the time. If a customer requests a logo or logos on their banner or print, they just download an internet logo they've dug up on Yahoo image search or something. They don't realize that these logos are very small images for the web, small so they can upload faster when you open the page. On screen they look great. But as a print...not. They need to be much larger. Some logos can 'get by'. I think that this is one very misunderstood subject, perhaps something that should be required to know if anyone is in a position to contract work out that needs to be printed. Things would go alot smoother that way. But then again, as they say, that's what were here for. lol
On a side note...I'm tired. Praise God that I've been waking up ealier cause if I hadn't this morning, I would have either been late or just made it to work! Apparently a rig jackknifed on the 71 fwy right by the 91 entrance. Had I not been aware of this, I would have been sitting there, for awhile. So I made a little detour through Carbon Canyon to Imperial, then to the 91 and onto the 241. And I was still a half an hour early and was able to take my time without rushing. That needs to be my motivation too, just knowing the benefits of leaving early and not having to rush like I have for so many years in the past! So now if I get into RSM an hour early or so, I just go to Starbucks and read or do some work on my laptop. It gets my mind going and ready for the day, rather than coming in at the last minute or late and thinking 'I hope I don't get in trouble'. So yeah...it's good.
I also started a small class called Christians at Work last Monday. It's a class focusing on applying workplace ethics from a Christian perspective. I'm not sure exactly what we'll learn so it's hard to really explain what it's going to teach us. On Monday we learned about committment in different areas of work. I have to be honest, I didn't really get alot out of the teaching. Maybe I just need to delve into it and understand it more simply perhaps. Maybe I'm looking for more of a strategy to put into motion, or simple steps to apply at work. It didn't seem real focused for me. Maybe my expectations were too high? Not sure. I like getting feedback, so I could ask others in the class what they got out of it. Maybe I'm missing something so simple here, expecting too much. Well, I'll just hope for the best. It has something like 3 five week sessions so there's plenty to learn still. Ahhh...patience, patience. =)
I sent a logo to Fixbadart.com because it was way too pixelated to use. Well see how good they are! lol Well, if the saying is true that 'you get what you pay for' then maybe I shouldn't expect impressive work, cause this service is pretty cheap. And if they just try to recreate it by using Livetrace or something, then no, I might have to recreate it myself then. Our client gave the logo to us, which was really meant to be used on the web, not for print. This isn't anything new; we get this all the time. If a customer requests a logo or logos on their banner or print, they just download an internet logo they've dug up on Yahoo image search or something. They don't realize that these logos are very small images for the web, small so they can upload faster when you open the page. On screen they look great. But as a print...not. They need to be much larger. Some logos can 'get by'. I think that this is one very misunderstood subject, perhaps something that should be required to know if anyone is in a position to contract work out that needs to be printed. Things would go alot smoother that way. But then again, as they say, that's what were here for. lol
On a side note...I'm tired. Praise God that I've been waking up ealier cause if I hadn't this morning, I would have either been late or just made it to work! Apparently a rig jackknifed on the 71 fwy right by the 91 entrance. Had I not been aware of this, I would have been sitting there, for awhile. So I made a little detour through Carbon Canyon to Imperial, then to the 91 and onto the 241. And I was still a half an hour early and was able to take my time without rushing. That needs to be my motivation too, just knowing the benefits of leaving early and not having to rush like I have for so many years in the past! So now if I get into RSM an hour early or so, I just go to Starbucks and read or do some work on my laptop. It gets my mind going and ready for the day, rather than coming in at the last minute or late and thinking 'I hope I don't get in trouble'. So yeah...it's good.
I also started a small class called Christians at Work last Monday. It's a class focusing on applying workplace ethics from a Christian perspective. I'm not sure exactly what we'll learn so it's hard to really explain what it's going to teach us. On Monday we learned about committment in different areas of work. I have to be honest, I didn't really get alot out of the teaching. Maybe I just need to delve into it and understand it more simply perhaps. Maybe I'm looking for more of a strategy to put into motion, or simple steps to apply at work. It didn't seem real focused for me. Maybe my expectations were too high? Not sure. I like getting feedback, so I could ask others in the class what they got out of it. Maybe I'm missing something so simple here, expecting too much. Well, I'll just hope for the best. It has something like 3 five week sessions so there's plenty to learn still. Ahhh...patience, patience. =)
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Rush Hour 1
The end of my workday was interesting to say the least. It went from bad, to what I thought would be worse, to...everything is okay. lol Seriously, I thought at one point one of my coworker was gonna hear some nasty words from my boss. Basically, we're installing some pretty large graphics on a van tomorrow morning. We needed to laminate the graphics and lately it hasn't been going so well. So we went forward with that this afternoon and sure enough, it wrinkled up! We were all discouraged cause when you print the graphic, you have to give it a day to dry, then you can laminate it. Well, a call came from our client all ready to come down tomorrow and anxious before we could see how the laminate was going to go, so I just told him to stick to the plan and come down. My coworker told my boss what happened, then I talked to him and convinved him to set up the cut vinyl for the van since we had the colors. It wouldn't exactly match the digital graphics but it was getter than nothing! He agreed and I went forward in setting up the design for cutting.
Soon after, my coworker actually called the client himself and told him what was going on, without my boss's consent. This is where it got scary! lol Cause now the client is going to here from both of them and at that point I thought 'he's going to hear from my boss for going behind his back on this.' Suddenly he asks me to talk to the client about what we're planning to do, cause I guess he wasn't understanding my coworker (he has a bit of an accent and tends to stutter a bit when he talks, so when he tries to explain something, 10 words turn into 50, if you get what I'm saying). So I explained it to him and he finally understood. What's funny is, he wanted the cut vinyl in the first place rather than the digital print with all the white space around it. Personally, I agree with him. But...it was my boss's call on that one. But honestly, having white blocks of graphics on your car...can look very tacky! Having clean cut letters on your car is much cleaner, so I've been doing a bit of thinking as to how to resolve this issue, and I have some ideas. I do hope that my boss becomes more open to cut vinyl. It's the franchise that's pushing the digital graphics so much, so that's why he insists on using it, but let's use it on applications where the end result it at least aesthetically nice to look at! Honestly, it just doesn't look good, and I think we need to have a meeting about this soon.
So anyhow, after I hang up with the client, I proceed to finish setting up the graphics. Meanwhile, my coworker is printing another set of the graphics, thinking the cut vinyl isn't a great idea, but I'm working according to boss's orders, not his. lol Well, when I'm about finished, I decided not to print anything until the morning, and thank God cause minutes later my boss called his cell phone and told us to hold off on cutting the vinyl: we're going to apply the graphics WITHOUT laminate. Okaaay. Well, at least this is just a temporary solution until we find out what's wrong with our laminator. Apparently my boss convinced him to stay with the graphics. But see, what's gets me is, why would you convince your customer to stay with an application he doesn't like?! That's just wrong! That same customer told me he actually wanted to cut vinyl in the first place, and that people were making remarks about how bad the graphics looked with all that white space around it. So...I'm wondering what was said, and I'm sure I'll hear it tomorrow. But I do admit one thing: I was actually relieved when he told us that, cause at that moment the pressure was off. We would have had one busy morning weeding and taping all that vinyl, that's for sure. Nevertheless, I was all ready to tackle this! lol I was.
well, one nice reward from all this drama was getting a few hours of OT, which I could definitely use. Overall, today wasn't too busy. At the same time, I was a little grieved cause I feel like the work isn't being done as effiently as it could be. For instance, a few small banners were only half finished when she came in to pick them up. I couldn't help but shake my head knowing it didn't get done, cause we had plenty of time to do it. (When I say 'we' I mean my coworkers. lol This might sound selfish, but we have a system going and that was their responsibility) I think we're going to have to have a end-of-the-week summary of how the sytem has been working. It's been a little sluggish from what I can tell so far. I hate to point any fingers and I even want to say 'we' need to pick up the pace, and sure I can always use a little improvement on my part. But the fact is, that's not the issue, and I or we need to address these issues of inefficiency soon or none of us will be working cause there won't be a business to work at. I know that sounds drastic, and yeah...it's probably not that bad. But this isn't the kind of business where you can sit and talk while you're on the computer. It's run by being productive, and it's hard to be productive when to much talking is going on, especially when it's being directed at you! So...all I can say is, it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the next few months, and to see if this can be a reality. I hope so. I really do.
We're all learning from each other, and that is a huge plus! So I'm confident that this CAN work well if we're willing to work together as a team.
Well...hope all goes well tomorrow. I'm interested in knowing what was said behind the scenes! hehe I'll soon find out.
Nite =)
Soon after, my coworker actually called the client himself and told him what was going on, without my boss's consent. This is where it got scary! lol Cause now the client is going to here from both of them and at that point I thought 'he's going to hear from my boss for going behind his back on this.' Suddenly he asks me to talk to the client about what we're planning to do, cause I guess he wasn't understanding my coworker (he has a bit of an accent and tends to stutter a bit when he talks, so when he tries to explain something, 10 words turn into 50, if you get what I'm saying). So I explained it to him and he finally understood. What's funny is, he wanted the cut vinyl in the first place rather than the digital print with all the white space around it. Personally, I agree with him. But...it was my boss's call on that one. But honestly, having white blocks of graphics on your car...can look very tacky! Having clean cut letters on your car is much cleaner, so I've been doing a bit of thinking as to how to resolve this issue, and I have some ideas. I do hope that my boss becomes more open to cut vinyl. It's the franchise that's pushing the digital graphics so much, so that's why he insists on using it, but let's use it on applications where the end result it at least aesthetically nice to look at! Honestly, it just doesn't look good, and I think we need to have a meeting about this soon.
So anyhow, after I hang up with the client, I proceed to finish setting up the graphics. Meanwhile, my coworker is printing another set of the graphics, thinking the cut vinyl isn't a great idea, but I'm working according to boss's orders, not his. lol Well, when I'm about finished, I decided not to print anything until the morning, and thank God cause minutes later my boss called his cell phone and told us to hold off on cutting the vinyl: we're going to apply the graphics WITHOUT laminate. Okaaay. Well, at least this is just a temporary solution until we find out what's wrong with our laminator. Apparently my boss convinced him to stay with the graphics. But see, what's gets me is, why would you convince your customer to stay with an application he doesn't like?! That's just wrong! That same customer told me he actually wanted to cut vinyl in the first place, and that people were making remarks about how bad the graphics looked with all that white space around it. So...I'm wondering what was said, and I'm sure I'll hear it tomorrow. But I do admit one thing: I was actually relieved when he told us that, cause at that moment the pressure was off. We would have had one busy morning weeding and taping all that vinyl, that's for sure. Nevertheless, I was all ready to tackle this! lol I was.
well, one nice reward from all this drama was getting a few hours of OT, which I could definitely use. Overall, today wasn't too busy. At the same time, I was a little grieved cause I feel like the work isn't being done as effiently as it could be. For instance, a few small banners were only half finished when she came in to pick them up. I couldn't help but shake my head knowing it didn't get done, cause we had plenty of time to do it. (When I say 'we' I mean my coworkers. lol This might sound selfish, but we have a system going and that was their responsibility) I think we're going to have to have a end-of-the-week summary of how the sytem has been working. It's been a little sluggish from what I can tell so far. I hate to point any fingers and I even want to say 'we' need to pick up the pace, and sure I can always use a little improvement on my part. But the fact is, that's not the issue, and I or we need to address these issues of inefficiency soon or none of us will be working cause there won't be a business to work at. I know that sounds drastic, and yeah...it's probably not that bad. But this isn't the kind of business where you can sit and talk while you're on the computer. It's run by being productive, and it's hard to be productive when to much talking is going on, especially when it's being directed at you! So...all I can say is, it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the next few months, and to see if this can be a reality. I hope so. I really do.
We're all learning from each other, and that is a huge plus! So I'm confident that this CAN work well if we're willing to work together as a team.
Well...hope all goes well tomorrow. I'm interested in knowing what was said behind the scenes! hehe I'll soon find out.
Nite =)
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