Cropping Sizes

scrooks

I just spent quite a bit of time getting some images ready with logos to make some buttons, key tags, luggage tags, and a t-shirt. I carefully sized everything to the right ratio according to the sizes that show when you read help about any of those items. Then I loaded everything onto Smugmug and into my shopping cart. So far so good.

But now the crop marks don't appear to match what was stated in the help file.

• Luggage tags are quite a bit different in the crop. I'm wondering if maybe you're not including the area where the hole goes so as to not disappoint anyone? I designed around the hole. The help says 2.5" x 4.5" which is the ratio I used.
• The t-shirt is also shorter in the on-screen crop than the 1500x1100 that the help says.
• The button and key tag are fine because they're square.

So what's up? Maybe the help can be made a little more specific about exact ratios and issues like the hole in the luggage tag (if I'm right about how you're leaving that off the crop). I'd like to get these ordered so I can display them before an upcoming event, but I have to know the correct ratio so that nothing gets cut off.

Baldy

Hi Steve,

I checked the ratio of height to width that EZ Prints gives us in the spec, and it's 2.9 by 4.2.

So I pulled out a luggage tag and found that it measured very close to 2.75 x 4.0 inches (very slightly less), which would be quite close to the ratio EZ Prints had supplied.

I don't know how we got the measurements wrong, but I have corrected them on the catalog and detail pages. However, it may take a few days for the updates to appear on the site.

The fact that EZ Prints gave the ratio as 2.9 by 4.2 instead of 2.75 x 4.0 makes me think there is probably a .1" bleed/trim on these items, but I can't say for sure without ordering another one, which I'll do.

I'm sorry about the error but many thanks for the catch. I can check the t-shirts later tonight.

Thanks,
Chris

scrooks

Okay, thanks for the information.

Having the specs for all the available products, with full bleed information and perhaps even specific corner and hole data (size and placement), would be nice to have available at some point. You know, in all that copious spare time.

scrooks

I just received my order today and thought I'd share the results and my impressions. I put my logo and some text on each of these items, guessing as best I could to allow for trim.

• 4" button -- Very nice. This turned out just as I expected. The colors are also good. The picture wraps around the edge of the button for a nice effect.
• t-shirt -- Good. The image seems smaller than I expected, but that's probably because I'm looking at it on a size large t-shirt. Predictably, the colors aren't nearly as nice as on the other products, but that's to be expected for printing on cloth. It's nice and sharp (for cloth) and I'm happy with the result. There's no "feel" of a picture on it, meaning that if you close your eyes and run your hand over the shirt you can't feel where the picture is. That's good -- I didn't want the feel of a cheap iron-on.
• luggage tags -- Very nice. After our discussion about sizing, I resized and allowed just the right amount of trim space. These look great! They're very heavy duty and don't bend in the least. The colors are spot-on and nicely bright. This is definitely the product I'm most pleased with. The only thing lacking, as a luggage tag, is a slot on the back for a business card or something. As it is you'll have to write your id information with a Sharpie or stick a label on it. Even with that limitation this is a really nice product.
• keytag -- Once again, the colors are nice and bright and the image is sharp. The item is also very stiff and solid. But I did notice a few problems with this one. For one, the hole where the key loop is attached is on the left top, while the item description showed it on the right top. The plastic attaching the key loop to the tag is also supposed to squeeze together and (I presume) snap closed. On my tag the plastic doesn't snap shut and I could see it coming off the tag fairly easily. There's also a small diamond-shaped 2mmx2mm of white on the picture where it looks like whatever process they use to print the picture on the plastic got messed up. There should be color from the picture there, but instead there must have been a glitch. I also underestimated the trim amount by a slight bit. Not enought to be a real problem though. This is a product I want to like, but the cheesy plastic connector for the key ring makes it a little iffy for me. Hopefully the printing glitch is a rare event.
  
  Overall, very nice. It'll be interesting to see what kind of sales these great luggage tags drum up when people spot them on all my bags.

Alan M. Carroll

I just got very annoyed by the T-shirt problem again today. I very carefully made a 1500x1100 image so that I could control the cropping. Yet when I went to print, it was cropped. Is there anyway you could update the help to have the correct image size for T-shirts?

Andy

Alan M. Carroll wrote:

I just got very annoyed by the T-shirt problem again today. I very carefully made a 1500x1100 image so that I could control the cropping. Yet when I went to print, it was cropped. Is there anyway you could update the help to have the correct image size for T-shirts?

Hi Alan, sorry for the trouble! Can you give me a gallery and photo link, so I can look into it right away?