Create beautiful custom printed webbing with your own art! Whether you want to design it yourself or have us help, here's what you need to get your graphics set up with Strapworks Custom.
Graphics Glossary
Some of the terms we use can be a little confusing, so here's a handy glossary to help you understand how we discuss your graphics!
Templates
A "template" is our term for the compiled graphics that make up your design, sized to fit a certain width of webbing.
Template Quantity
Because the front and back of the webbing are printed independently, is possible to have up to two graphics for one length of webbing. In addition, each template is designed to be printed on a specific size of webbing, so you need graphics created for each width of webbing you are looking to print on. For example, if we are creating graphics templates for a strap that has a different for the front and back side of the webbing and we want to setup that graphic for 1½” and 2” webbing, we would create a total of 4 graphics templates.
Template Allowances
To make things easier, we provide template files for each of our webbing widths.
The image below is an example of our setup template for sublimated webbing. On this 1” example, the “safe zone” is ¾” tall with 1/8” of waver zone each on the top and bottom. The bleed zone is ¼” each at the top and bottom, so each template is ½” taller than the finished webbing width.
Waver
During sublimation, webbing or other components used in the process can move out of alignment, causing waver. Waver is side-to-side movement of the webbing as it passes through the sublimation machine. It can occur over a small section or across the length of the full roll of webbing. Design elements such as straight horizontal lines, blocky text, vertically centered logos, or anything that can act as a point of reference to the edges of the webbing will make waver more noticeable. Our waver tolerance allows for any variation up to 1/8 of an inch.
Ghosting
When a design contains high-contrast elements, including but not limited to black and white, there is a risk that it will appear double-printed due to shrinkage of the webbing during the sublimation process. We will often preheat the raw webbing to mitigate the ghosting effect through a process we call heat-setting.
Ink Dust
Designs with large areas of white or light colors can show some small specks from stray ink particles that deposit during the sublimation process. To avoid this, we recommend using darker colors for large portions of the design.
Color Tolerances
Display colors vary between different screens and devices, so your print will not be color-accurate to your monitor.
Color shades can and do vary slightly between different production runs and sometimes even within the same run. This is due to numerous factors including atmospheric variables and differences between individual units of equipment.
Foreground
Foreground images are the portion of the graphics template that needs to be displayed in full on the webbing. For example, this is typically a logo and or text that should be displayed clearly and legibly on the webbing without being cut off. Foreground components can be applied to most polyester webbing types with a minimum width of 3/4".
Background
Most of our stock patterns are background images only.
Backgrounds are repeated images or solid colors where placement on the webbing is not important. Any text logo or other important portion of your graphics that need to be fully seen on the printed webbing is considered the foreground of the image.
Repeat
A repeat is a unique span of artwork that is duplicated seamlessly from end-to-end to create a full length or roll of webbing. Placement of the foreground and Background elements should be done on our standard 12” repeatable templates. For example, set your logo or text to repeat centered every 4” to meet our template size.