What type of custom printed mouse pads can CSI provide?

CSI has a complete line of mouse pads. We can provide silk screen pads (soft surface), dye sublimation pads (soft surface) and Lexan pads (hard surface).

Silk screen mouse pads are our most popular and least expensive type of mouse pad. They have the colored fabric top with one or more ink colors that you see everywhere. The minimum order is 100 pads. Silk screen pads come in eight different colors: black, royal blue, navy blue, burgundy, forest green, gray, red and white. They come in only one size: 9-1/4"x 7-3/4" x 1/4".

Silk screened mouse pads are printed using "spot colors." They cannot be printed using "four-color process" (photographic quality), with a "gradient" (blend) or with a "full bleed" (printing all the way to the edge). There must be at least 1/4" margin around the edge and 1/2" or larger usually looks better.

Hard surface (Lexan and glossy) and dye sublimation pads can be printed using either spot color or four-color process (photographic quality). They can also be printed with gradients and a full bleed. Anything that can be printed on paper can be printed on Lexan and dye sublimation mouse pads.

Hard surface and dye sublimation muse pads come in three sizes and three thicknesses:"Large" pads are 8" x 9-1/2". "Small" pads are 7-1/2" x 8". Our "Round" pads have an 8" diameter. All three sizes are available in 1/4", 1/8" and 1/16" thicknesses. Custom sizes and shapes are available. Please call. The minimum order for hard surfcae and dye sublimation mouse pads is 250 pieces.

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What is "spot color" and "four-color process" printing?

Spot color and four-color process are two different ways to print on anything - mouse pads, paper, etc. For both processes there must be a separate plate or screen (called a color separation) for each ink color to be printed. As you might expect, the more colors to be printed, the more plates are needed and the more expensive the job is.

In spot color printing the inks are mixed by the manufacturer and are applied one color to a plate. If "exact" color matching is required, exact colors can be specified using PMS (Pantone Matching System) number codes.

In four-color processing, four ink colors are mixed together on the printing press to make essentially all the colors of the rainbow. These four-colors are usually called "CYMK" for cyan (a light blue), magenta (a pinkish red), yellow and black inks.

If the job has only a few colors, spot color is an economical way to print. However, if the job has a lot of colors it can be less expensive to print using four-color process. Photographs must be printed using four-color process because of the large number of colors they have.

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What are the sizes and thicknesses of the various types of mouse pads?

Silk screened pads only come in one size: 7-3/4" x 9-1/4" x 1/4".

Lexan and dye sublimation pads come in three sizes and three thicknesses: "Large" pads are 8" x 9-1/2" . "Small" pads are 7-1/2" x 8". Our "Round" pad has an 8" diameter. All sizes are available in 1/4", 1/8" and 1/16" thicknesses.

Custom sizes and shapes in all three thicknesses are available for Lexan and dye sublimation pads. Please call.

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Some thoughts on different pad thickness. Or, why would anyone buy 1/16" thick mouse pads?

Historically, people have felt that a "thicker mouse pad is a better mouse pad." However, the only difference between a 1/4" thick mouse pad and thinner mouse pads is the thickness of the rubber backing and this has no effect on pad quality or durability. All it effects is the cost and the weight.

So why would anyone buy a 1/16" mouse pad? There are several reasons: They are less expensive to buy and much less expensive to ship.

A 1/16" pad literally weights about 25% of the weight of the same size and type
1/4" thick mouse pad. That's a 75% savings on shipping costs. This huge freight savings is particularly important to overseas customers where shipping costs are much higher than shipping within the United States.

Some users, including several of CSI's artists, actually prefer 1/16" thick mouse pads because the mouse can be run off and on the pad without having to lift it up to clear the edge of the pad. Other users think they are "neat" because 1/16" pads are still rather rare.

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How can I get my artwork to CSI?

The easiest and fastest way for most customers is to e-mail it to us as an attachment. Our e-mail address is sales@mouse-pads.com. If the file size is over 900 KB, please call us for instructions on how to access our FTP site.

You can use Federal Express or the U.S. Postal Service to send us a computer disk or a hard copy for us to scan.

A color print, in addition to a computer file, is very desirable because it tells us what colors you expect the image to have. This is especially true for "four-color process" (photographic quality) jobs. Our e-mail address and the street address are listed at the bottom of every page on this site.

You can fax us your artwork if you are only trying to convey your ideas and want us to do the design and/or set the type, redraw the logo, etc. However, a fax is too low a resolution to use as "actual" artwork. CSI has a complete art department and can assist you in your artwork implementation and/or design.

Important: Please put your full name, telephone number and fax number on any
e-mail, faxes or letters you send us. You would be amazed at how many people neglect to do this.

We get a lot of requests for information. If we need clarification on something, it is much easier for us to pick up the phone and call you while we are working on your request, rather than have to type an e-mail message and wait for an answer.

Your cooperation in providing your full name, telephone number and fax number on all correspondence will be greatly appreciated.

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What type of graphic formats do you support?

Our art department uses Macintosh computers, but we also have IBM compatibles on our network. We can accept tif, eps, Corel Draw, Freehand, Illustrator, Microsoft Publisher, Pagemaker, Photoshop, Powerpoint, QuarkEXpress, and Microsoft Word files from either platform.

Please note that Microsoft Publisher and Word cannot output "color separations" and can therefore only be used for "one ink color" jobs. Please see above discussion on spot color and four-color process printing if you do not know what a color separation is.

A 300 ppi resolution image is needed to print a mouse pad (or anything else for that matter.) This means that gif, bmp, jpg and jpeg file formats are unacceptable formats because they are "screen" graphics files and are only 72 or 96 ppi. That is not a high enough resolution to print well.

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Why can't CSI use gif, bmp, jpg or jpeg graphic files to print mouse pads?

Gif, bmp, jpg and jpeg graphic files are "screen" graphics files and are only 72 or 96 ppi. They look beautiful on a computer monitor, but are not high enough resolution to print on a mouse pad (or on paper, for that matter). Try printing your 72 ppi artwork to a 300 ppi or higher resolution laser printer and you will see what we mean.

Digital cameras generally use jpg images. The reason they can be printed is that their jpg images have very large dimensions and making the dimensions smaller increased the resolution. For instance, a 2 mega pixel camera creates a 72 ppi jpg image that measure about 16" x 24". When the resolution is increased to 300 ppi, the size decreases to a little less than 4" x 6".

Some graphics programs, such as Photoshop, will let you increase the resolution of an image by merely typing a bigger number into a dialog box. This does not work. Here's why. Resolution is actually measured in "pixels per square inch." 72 squared is 5,184 and 300 squared is 90,000. 5,184 divided by 90,000 is .0565 (a little less than 6%).

When you tell the computer to increase the resolution from 72 ppi to 300 ppi, you are asking it to "guess" what 94% of the image looks like when it knows what less than 6% of it looks like. No wonder it doesn't work.

The reason these programs let you change the resolution is that it is possible to "reduce" the resolution by "throwing away" parts of the image. In this case the computer knows what the entire image looks like and can make a good guess as to which parts to eliminate. The main use for this capability is to take a high resolution image and turn it into a screen graphic.

The only solution to the "screen graphics problem" is to have somewhere a higher resolution image, to have a "good" hard copy that can be scanned in, or to have an artist redraw the artwork using the low resolution graphics file as a pattern.

It's a good idea to design web graphics at 300 ppi and then lower the resolution to 72 ppi to use on the web while saving it under a different name. That way, if you need one of your web graphics for a mouse pad, brochure, stationary or any other "hard copy," need you will still have a high resolution image to use.

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What is an appropriate file name for my artwork? Or, why shouldn't I call my artwork "mouse pad."

Please do not call your artwork "mouse pad", "mousepad", etc. We get many pieces of artwork each day, and most of them are called "mouse pad" or some variation of the term.

As you might expect, keeping track of all these files with similar names is a nuisance. Please use your organization's name as the file name. (We already know the artwork is for a mouse pad.) We can accept long character names from either IBM compatible or Macintosh computers.

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How will I know "exactly" what my order will cost and that the order information is correct?

Before a job is begun, CSI faxes all customers an "Order Confirmation and Proof Sheet." The document provides the following information:

• Complete customer contact and shipping information.
• An itemized list of all costs.
• Method of payment.
• Complete description of the mouse pads ordered including type of pad, quantities, colors, etc.
• A black and white paper proof of the artwork.

For silk screen jobs a black and white paper proof will be provided that includes a composite and color separations if the job has more than one ink color.

For dye sublimation and Lexan jobs a black and white paper composite proof will be provided for approval and a full color pre-production proof will be provided before the job is actually printed.

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What are typical delivery times for the different types of mouse pads?

Typical deliver times are:

• Silk Screen pads: 7 to 10 working days after customer approval of a paper proof.

• Dye Sublimation and Lexan pads: 10 working days for delivery of a full-color "proof pad", and 5 additional days after customer approval of the proof pad to ship the job.

The above delivery times are "typical" delivery times. They may vary by a few days more or less depending upon current production workload. Please tell us if your mouse pads are needed for a seminar, trade show or other event that has a specific date. We will make every effort to accommodate your schedule. Rush service is available for a slight additional cost.

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Does CSI "drop ship" mouse pads?

Yes, CSI will be happy to drop ship any of our products to your customer. There will be no reference to CSI either in or on the boxes. We can even use your shipping labels and/or packing slips and invoices. Please call us if you have any concerns in this area.

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Does CSI ship mouse pads outside of the United States?

Yes we do. We have shipped pads to many different countries around the world.

We can ship directly to an overseas address or to a shipping agent anywhere in the United States. We will ship via any carrier the customer prefers and either charge the shipping to the customer's account or add the shipping costs to our invoice.

We have had excellent results shipping overseas via "Express Mail International Service (EMS)." EMS delivers in two to three business days to major business centers and a few days later in outlying areas. That is not as quick as the overnight delivery offered by Federal Express and other carriers, but their rates are generally much lower. The actual rates are set by the Post Office of the receiving country.

You may want to see the section on 1/16" thick mouse pads. These pads can save you up to 75% of your shipping costs.

All of our prices are in United States dollars, and are exclusive of any shipping charges, duty or customs charges, sales or use tax or any other charges that may applicable in the customer's country. Because of the custom nature of our products, prepayment is required on all international orders.