Creating your Clear Acrylic Standee using Photoshop This tutorial contains all of the information needed to create your very own clear acrylic Standee using Adobe Photoshop. 1. Download our templates To start submitting your custom printed, clear acrylic Standee designs, you will need to download our design templates. Templates are available in a range of sizes, from 1.5in right up to 6in. You can download our templates by visiting www.zapcreatives.com/templates An example of our clear acrylic Standees Each template comes with a working area where you will import or create your designs. 2. Understanding our layers Once open, you will notice that there are 6 layers in your Layers palette. If you can't see the Layers palette, hit F7 to make it appear. Please don't rename existing layers or create additional layers as this will confuse our systems when processing your designs. If you have used any effects / layer styles on any of your layers you MUST flatten them before saving. To do this simply right click on the applicable layer and select 'Rasterize Layer Style' from the menu in Photoshop. If you use any text elements please make sure that these are also rasterized. Page 1 of 8
'Office Use Only Layer This layer contains information about the template you are using. This layer is locked and should not be used. 'White Layer Adding a base layer of white to your Standee s will make your colours crisper and more vivid. Use this layer to tell us exactly where you would like this layer to go. Artwork A Layer Single Sided Printing - If you are creating single sided Standee then you should place your artwork on this layer. We print your designs onto the 'back' of the clear acrylic and then add a layer of white ink followed by a layer of varnish. ALL ARTWORK ON THIS LAYER SHOULD BE FLIPPED HORIZONTALLY SO THAT IT IS A MIRROR IMAGE OF ITSELF. PLEASE SEE STEP 3 FOR MORE INFORMATION. When you turn the printed Standee, your design will be the correct way round and visible via the 'front' of the acrylic, giving your Standee a super crisp look, with the added depth of our 3mm clear acrylic. Artwork B Layer Double Sided Printing - If you are creating a double sided Standee this is where you'll place the artwork for the back of your Standee. We'll print this directly onto the top of your 'Artwork A layer and then add a layer of varnish for added protection. DO NOT FLIP/MIRROR THE ARTWORK ON THIS LAYER. THE ARTWORK ON THIS LAYER SHOULD SIT ON TOP AND LINE UP PERFECTLY WITH THE ARTWORK ON YOUR 'ARTWORK A' LAYER SO THAT IT FULLY MASKS ARTWORK A. PLEASE SEE STEP 3 FOR MORE INFORMATION. Cut Layer Use this layer to show us EXACTLY where you want your Standees to be cut. We'll use this information to create a path which will then be used to create a cut line for our laser cutters. Stand Tab Layer (on Stand Template only) Use this layer to show us EXACTLY where you want your Standee tab to be placed. This is what will slot into the base to keep your Standee upright. We'll use this information to create a path which will then be used to create a cut line. Base Hole Layer (on Base Template only) Use this layer to show us EXACTLY where you want your hole tab to be placed. This is what the top of the Standee will slot into. We'll use this information to create a path which will then be used to create a cut line. Page 2 of 8
3. Importing your Design Select the 'Artwork' layer in your layers palette and either draw your design directly into this layer or, simply copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) previously saved artwork. 'Artwork A' Create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear on the 'front' of your Standee here. Once you are happy with it FLIP IT HORIZONTALLY so that it is a mirror image of itself. We will print this onto the 'back' of the clear acrylic before adding a layer of white. Your design will then be visible, the correct way around, via the 'front' of the acrylic. 'Artwork B' This is where you will create or paste the artwork that you would like to appear on the 'back' of your Standee for our 'B-Side' printing option. DO NOT FLIP THIS LAYER! Artwork A - Flipped horizontally We print your B-Side ('back') design directly on top of the A-Side ('front') design to create an awesome looking double sided Standee. 4. Check your Alignment If you're producing a double sided Standee it's important that your A-Side and B-Side artwork lines up correctly. A simple way of checking this is to select your 'Artwork B' layer and lower the opacity to 50% Now view your artwork and check that both A & B are the same size and nicely aligned... Here is an example of how it should look. Artwork B - 50% opacity to check alignment Page 3 of 8
5a. Adding a layer of white To guarantee bright and crisp colours for your artwork, you will need to add a white base layer to your designs. This white layer will sit behind your artwork and will ensure that the colours of your standee s are consistent, regardless of what colour acrylic you choose. An additional benefit of creating your own white base layer is that you can let us know EXACTLY where you d like us to print your white areas. This allows customers to add additional features to their designs, such as transparencies on our clear acrylics, as well as reducing any areas of white creeping around the edges of your artwork. To create your white base layer simply hold down the 'CTRL' key and click on the thumbnail of your 'Artwork' layer. This will select all of the elements of your artwork layer. Inset your selection by 2 pixels using SELECT > MODIFY > CONTRACT and enter the value of 2 in the pop up 'Contract Selection' window. Insetting your white layer by 2 pixels will prevent any areas of white from showing around the edge of your charms. Page 4 of 8
Now go to EDIT > FILL (Shift & F5) and select the 'Color' option from the first drop down menu. Choose 100% Cyan as your colour (C:100 M:0 Y:0 K:0) Click 'OK' and 'OK' again. You should now have a Cyan silhouette of your original artwork, placed on the 'White' layer. Be aware that contracting your selection in this manner can have an effect on the pixels selected. Always zoom in on areas with fine details such as strands of hair or small point text and check that you are happy with the results. You may decide to only contract your selection by 1 pixel if you have a lot of fine or intricate areas in your designs. Please remember that we always recommend ordering samples before commiting to large print runs, so that you can check that you are happy with the result. mistakes can not be rectified once your charms have been printed. Page 5 of 8
6. Add a border / cutline - IMPORTANT! You can now decide on the thickness of your border, which will be used as a cut line. It is ESSENTIAL that you make this border AT LEAST 1mm wider than your artwork. Failure to do so can cause your printed design to lift along the cut edge as a result of the heat generated by the laser. A 1mm border will prevent this from happening. It is essential that you have a border between your artwork and the cut line of your charm to ensure the printed charms durability. Please use the 'Cut Line' layer to show us EXACTLY how wide you would like this border as we WILL use this information to create your cut line and cut out your charm. Failure to create a 1mm border between your artwork and cut line will result in your printed design lifting along the cut edge due to the heat of the laser and is done so entirely at your own risk. Remember that our lasers will remove approximately 0.15mm of acrylic from all sides of your charms when cutting. This is called kerf (the thickness of the laser beam). To do this go to SELECT > MODIFY > EXPAND and enter your chosen width. You will see that your selected area has grown by the amount of pixels you chose. Use the 'Fill' command (SHIFT+F5) or EDIT > FILL and fill this area black. This colour will not be printed, it's simply for our designers to use as a guide when creating your cut line. TIP - Use the paintbrush to cover any areas missed by the 'fill' command! Now you need to follow the last 6 steps for the base of your stand. Please note that the bases are single sided only! Page 6 of 8
7. Add your Stand Tab (or base hole) You need to have one tab on your Stand design and one hole on your Base design, and you need to let us know where you would like these by dragging and dropping the tab/hole template from the 'Stand Tab or Base Hole Layer, into position on your design. Please don't merge these templates with your design as we ll need to remove this before printing so that it's not visible on your finished Standees. Please bear in mind the position of your hole on your base. It might not necessarily work in the centre of your base. As you can see we have moved the hole to the left to compensate for the leaning rocket design. We wouldn t want our Standee toppling over! If you are planning on ordering more than one Standee design, we would advise on getting a sample first. Page 7 of 8
8. Submission Checklist Congratulations, you've finished creating your custom Standee! All you have to do now is check the following before submission... - The artwork on your 'Artwork A layer has been flipped / mirrored - The artwork on your 'Artwork B' layer has NOT been flipped & lines up perfectly with your 'ARTWORK A' layer - You have created a 100% Cyan silhouette on the 'White' layer to show us where you would like white ink - The tab/hole layers have NOT been grouped or merged with the rest of your design. - Your acrylic cutting border is AT LEAST 1mm thick. - Any layer styles or text has been rasterized. - Your template contains 1 Standee design only. Additional designs will be sent separately. 10. Saving your work To save your design follow these simple steps... File > Save As > Photoshop (*Psd). Please make sure your file name includes your name, order number & Standee number ie. - JoeBloggs_123456_standee1.Psd Please send your finished artwork to info@zapcreatives.com along with your order number. Page 8 of 8