Press and marketing material

On this page we are collecting high quality files to help promote copyleft hardware. Unless otherwise noted, all content is CC-BY-SA licensed.

Colors

Sharism.cc and NanoNote.cc

• Gray, #282828
• Yellow, #B9AB2D
• Font is Dustismo (a public domain / GPL licensed font)
  • http://www.dafont.com/dustismo.font

Pictures

with background, low-res (1000x669 pixels, 40 KB, jpeg) with background, high-res (3872x2592 pixels, 2.68 MB, jpeg) transparent, high-res (3872x2592 pixels, 2.24 MB, png)	with background, low-res (1000x669 pixels, 67 KB, jpeg) with background, high-res (3284x2197 pixels, 2.34 MB, jpeg) transparent, high-res (3284x2197 pixels, 3.21 MB, png)
with background, low-res (1000x843 pixels, 87 KB, jpeg) with background, high-res (3751x2511 pixels, 4.5 MB, jpeg) transparent, high-res (2629x2217 pixels, 2.6 MB, png)	with background, low-res (1000x669 pixels, 67 KB, jpeg) with background, high-res (3872x2592 pixels, 2.35 MB, jpeg) transparent, high-res (3872x2592 pixels, 3.97 MB, png)

Stickers

Available sticker designs

We are printing stickers on 90mm x 54mm white paper (tbd: where, which paper exactly, MOQ, cost, lead time).

• 

  Logo, name, URL
  high-res png, svg

• 

  Logo, name
  high-res png, svg

• 

  Logo only
  high-res png, svg

download in PNG format, 794x855 pixels	dowload in SVG format
download in SVG format (needs Dustismo font)	download in SVG format (needs Dustismo font)

Making stickers

• Summary
  • File Format: In China, the most favorable file format for printing is .ai (AdobeIllustrator) format. Next is .cdr (CorelDRAW). The printing shop also accepts files in PS (PostScript) and PDF format. However the PS and PDF files will be converted to AI format first thing when the shop gets the files.
  • Color: The color mix used in the printing factory is mostly CMYK color system. Pantone color matching system is also accepted.
• Processes of making our stickers
  • PNG file to PS file.
    • The original Milkymist sticker design is in PNG format, which cannot be used at printing shop. I used Inkscape to prepare PS file for the printing shop.
    • Open the original PNG file in Inkscape.
    • Select the whole object.
    • Go to menu Path->Trace Bitmap...
    • In Trace Bitmap window , check off "Colors", leave everything else unchecked. Then hit Update button, then OK button. After the tracing is done, the bitmap is now converted to a vector graphic.
    • Close Trace Bitmap window.
    • In the main window, I dragged the converted object aside (whole picture), and noticed the bitmap is still there, underneath the converted file, I deleted the bitmap underneath.
    • Go to menu File->Save As... to save the file to PS format, and this file is ready to send to printing shop.
    • Note: The problem with tracing a bitmap is that some areas may get slightly erased, especially with text. So I ended up creating a new SVG file from scratch and saved that file to PS format and send it to the printing shop. So for printing shop, the best is to create files in SVG format instead of PNG or alike file formats. There are also something need to watch when saving a SVG file to PS file. They are described in the following section.
  • SVG file to PS file.
    • Before saving a SVG file as a PS file, we need to convert text, represented with font, if there's any, to graph/curves. We also use Inkscape as a tool to achieve this goal.
    • Open SVG file in Inkscape.
    • Select the text. (Group them when needed with menu Object->Group)
    • Select menu Path->Object to Path.
    • Convert all text to path/curves/lines.
    • File->Save As.... Choose PS file format.
    • In Postscript Output window, make sure "Convert text to paths" is checked.
    • Now we have a PS format file ready to send to printing shops.
  • Specify colors
    • The printing shops use CMYK Color System or Pantone Matching System for printing. Whereas the colors in our SVG and PNG files are specified in RGB color system, which is mainly used with monitors.
    • The first step at printing shop, after they received our files, is to import the files and to convert them to AI format. In this process, color got converted and messed up. Even though we tried to convert original RGB to CMYK values, but the result came out totally unexpected.
    • At this point, we have to specify colors on our own. We could use either CMYK color table booklet or Pantone Formula Guide. Since I have Pantone Formula Guide handy, so I based on what I saw on my monitor and picked the color from the Guide. The colors I picked are:
      • Mikymist: dark blue uses Pantone 285C, medium blue Pantone 292C, light blue Pantone 2707C, and black uses Black.
      • Sharism and NanoNote: dark gray uses Pantone 447C, and yellow Pantone 128C.
    • I was told, the color came out could be up to 10% off from what I saw in the Pantone Formula Guide. This is what it is in the printing industry. I guess it is similar to the tolerance in mechanical or electronic fields.
  • Specify sizes: In order to ensure the content of our design/artworks not to be cut off, we need to understand some concepts in printing such as Bleeds, Cut Line, and Safety Zone. When we design artworks, which will be sent to printing shops or factories, we need to leave enough space for bleeds and cut line, so that no content will be cut off. Here are some useful tips.

Fliers

A4 flyer, black & white, single sided, English download in SVG format (needs Dustismo font) download in PDF format

upright flier (10.5 cm wide, 22.3 cm high), color, double sided, Spanish (Colombia) download in SVG format (needs Dustismo font) download in PDF format

Posters

no posters yet...

Style Updates

nanonote.cc

SVG

SVG

SVG

sharism.cc

SVG

Qi Hardware

SVG

SVG

SVG