Last week to place your order and use the code FREE4 and get 4 whole units extra free with your order; just add FREE4 in the special code box as you check out.
It doesnt matter what size you order, you can apply this code for any quantity!
Posts Tagged ‘Helpful HInts’
FREE 4 OFFER: 22nd June 2023
Thursday, June 22nd, 2023Flyers & Posters: 6th June 2023
Tuesday, June 6th, 2023Just to let you know that we print flyers, leaflets and posters on both silk finish normal printed paper and on waterproof paper!
So if you need any for concerts, gigs or for any other advertising give us a call on 01702 530354 or email :
una@duplicationcentre.co.uk
If it is waterproof you are after check out our Website that is dedicated to this!
https://www.waterproofprint.com/
Back in Full Production: 30th May 2023
Tuesday, May 30th, 2023Our offices and production rooms are back in full production after the Bank Holiday Weekend.
You can place orders online, just go to the Instant Prices Tab & Ordering Tab from the Home Page.
If you need any help with your order or have any questions you can also call and speak to us on 01702 530354.
Or you can email me :
una@duplicationcentre.co.uk and i will be very happy to help.
Bank Holiday Opening Hours: 25th May 2023
Thursday, May 25th, 2023Our offices are closed from 4pm on Friday 26th May until Tuesday 30th May at 8am.
You can however, still place orders online and upload to during this time.
If there is anything important that we need to now about your order there is a “notes” section as you check out , and you can tell us what we need to know there.
Many of the questions you may have, are answered in the FAQ and you can find this from the home page of the website.
Alternativley you can email and we will reply to you as quickly as we can:
una@duplicationcentre.co.uk
Back in Production: 9th May 2023
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023Our Offices are open and we are in full production, after the Coronation Bank Holiday.
We are here to answer your calls and live chat.
Business As Usual: 12th April 2023
Wednesday, April 12th, 2023Hope you all had a Peaceful Easter.
We are back to business as usual and ready to personally take your calls or live chat.
If we can be of any help with your order we will be very happy to advise or assist you.
Call on 01702 530354
Live Chat from the Home Page
or Email: una@duplicationcentre.co.uk
Artwork files: 27th March 2023
Monday, March 27th, 2023This is the third article in our series to help you unlock some of the technical gargon, associated with the Duplciation process.
Artwork Files:
Beware, we are now moving into the area of artwork and the word image no longer relates to a disc image! When talking about artwork, and image is simply a picture, a graphic or photograph
PDF stands for “portable document format.” Adobe Systems designed this format, which has become the standard for exchanging electronic documents. Its a very complex and powerful format used extensively in artwork design and printing, perfect for supplying your artwork supporting the other artwork formats below, as well as special print formats, colours and vector graphics.
JPEG, TIFF, and PNG
These image formats are ideal for photos and similar images containing many colours offering good quality and acceptable sizes are possible. The quality / file size of a jpeg can be altered through the use of compression.
The three formats all vary slightly in the way they apply compression to the images, each with its own advantages. For printing its best to keep the compression at a minimum so the files are larger and better quality.
PSD
This format is only used by the graphics programs Photoshop. The files are generally large and contain lots of additional information and layers which are not needed for print. The complexity of the files make them perfect for editing and designing, BUT not ideal for printing. You should save your artwork to PDF or JPEG when ready to submit for printing.
To learn more about artwork formats this article is a good place to start, offering beginner guides to the various types: Further information on artwork formats.
Understanding the Terminology in Duplication: Part 2: Audio & Video Files:20th March 2023
Monday, March 20th, 2023This is the second part of our terminilogy articles, which are explaining some of the commonly used terms in the duplication process, and relate specifically to Audio and Video files.
Audio Files:
Unlike the disc image formats above, these are just individual audio files used by computers. They require ‘Authoring’ to a disc. Authoring a CD means taking the audio (in any of the formats) and writing it into a format and structure a simple CD player can understand and play
WAV
These are high quality audio files, very similar to standard CD-Audio. This is a very common format used in recording studios .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV
AIFF
AIFF is practically identical to WAV, but this format was developed by Apple in the late 80’s. Another very common format in recording studios.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Interchange_File_Format
MP3
This is a digital music format created for sending audio over the internet. The great attraction of the MP3 format is its ability to compress files, allowing them to use much less space. Technically lower quality than the above audio formats, but not really in any noticeable way
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3
FLAC
The Free Lossless Audio Codec. This is a newer format which is able to compress audio to take up space just like an MP3, but does so in a ‘lossless’ way. This means the audio quality should not be degraded in any way, but the file size will be noticeably smaller. A useful format that has only seen uptake in technical and audiophile community.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC
Video Files:
This section may appear a bit short, but I had to draw the line somewhere. There are a very large number of video formats that have existed over the years, far too many to discuss here. In practice there are 2 very common ones.
All video formats will require ‘Authoring’ to make a standard DVD-Video disc (OR a Blu-Ray-Video disc) to be player in a standard player. Simply burning a video file on a disc will not necessarily allow it to play in a standard player.
MP4
A modern high quality video format widely used in consumer and professional markets.
MOV
Another modern high quality video format widely used in consumer and professional markets. Developed by Apple.
Understanding the Terminology in Duplication: Part 1: The Master: 13th March 2023
Monday, March 13th, 2023As in most Industries there are many terms and abbreviations which are used in duplication, which have become part of our ordinary language. For the uninitiated these terms can sometimes appear complicated and a bit daunting. This is especially true of file formats for the “master”or content for your duplication order.
I am republishing, over the next 3 weeks a series of explanations of some of the most used terms, in relation the optical media (CD, DVD and Blu-Ray) market. With links for more detailed explanations:
Physical Masters:
This simply means a hard copy CD or DVD which we can use to duplicate from.
Disc Image Formats:
The type of images here are not photographic images. The term relates to a ‘snapshot’ of the contents of a disc, the format and the exact layout.
The most important thing when working with disc images is you are sure you have formatted them correctly. Failing to do this will result in any discs made from them to be faulty. If there is any doubt, or you are new to this area, ask for help and advice. We have a team here who are available for email, phone or online chat and will be very happy to help and advise you.
ISOnrg
An .iso image is a computer file that is an exact copy of an existing file system. ISO files are typically created through a software application that will extract the contents of a CD or DVD, and then write then as an exact electronic copy of the original disc to a file (a .iso file). This allows us to burn to burn an exact copy of the original onto CD or DVD.
Iso files are perfectly acceptable for CD-Rom and DVD-Video, but should not be used for CD-Audio due to technical restrictions
IMG
This format is very similar to a .ISO image with a few subtle changes and features which are beyond the scope of this article. For our purpose they can be used the same as an ISO, but more in depth information can be found in this article should you wish to learn more.
Like ISO files, .img should not be used for CD-Audio discs.
NRG
These files are a relatively new proprietary optical disc image file format. NRG files are used in the same way as other image formats, but are a more advanced and very versatile.
NRG files can be used for any type and format of disc, CD-ROM, CD-Audio, DVD-Video, Blu-Ray, etc.
DDP
This stands for Disc Description Protocol and is commonly used for delivery of disc pre-masters for commercial Glass Master Replication. The DDP format is compatible with all CD and DVD discs and is the industry professional format used in mass manufacture of discs. Although becoming more common, its a relatively unknown format used mainly within the optical media industry for transporting discs electronically between production facility’s and mastering houses.
DDP files can be accepted the same as all other listed image formats for duplication, but are not a specific requirement in any way. Further more detailed information on this format is available here.
Bin/Cue
This is a versatile image file format particularly useful for CD-Audio. The consist of two files,
- a binary data file (.bin file), This is the raw data of a disc, a solid block of information with no organisation.
- a Cue sheet (.cue file). This is a descriptive file, used to give structure and organisation to the raw binary (.bin) file.
Each of the Bin & Cue files are meaningless on their own, and must be provided together with their specific and matchingpartner, never mixed or edited. Further information of this file type can be found here.
Next week we will look at Audio files …….
Make Money with Merchandise : 2nd March 2023
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023What better way to give your fans something to remember a special gig, than to sell them an EP or Full Album of your songs.
Our single card wallets are a really good option for the packaging, as they are professional quality but very inexpensive for you to buy from us.
You can easily sell these on for £5 …or £10 and get a great margin.
Even if your fans don’t have a cd player, they will love to buy a signed cd, to support you and have the memory of a great night.
With bespoke artwork that you design, our single card wallets are printed on 350gsm FSC Certified and sustainable silk finish card.
We have an artwork creation tool you can download to help you.
Everything you need is in our artwork section:
https://www.duplicationcentre.co.uk/artwork.html
If you have any questions please email una@duplicationcentre.co.uk, and i’ll be very happy to help you .