LaserSharpSignDesign

Laser Sharp Sign Design is a full service custom sign company in Tampa Fl.

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Road Signs

When your driving down the street every which way you look there are signs. Grocery stores, fast food, gas station, and resturaunts are seen every where. But what about the small business located between all those places? Sometimes those are the signs that are over looked. There have been times where I knew the place I was looking for but still drive past it because their sign doesnt stick out like the rest. This is your road sign, the sign people can use to locate your business, also the sign that people can recognize your business by.

Driving through the streets of Tampa I have seen some really bad signs by the road. Beat, torn, faded and more. How am I suppose to call a company if the signs so faded I cant read it. Business owners dont realize that this is a vital piece of business, this sign is thier identity and without an identity your business is nothings besides a building. 

These are the problems that we want to fix at Laser Sharp Sign Design. Get the small businesses out from underneath these large corporations signs that are hiding thiers. Does this mean get a sign that is bigger than any other out there? Well that might work, but no. This means come to Laser Sharp Sign Design where we can create an eye popping laser sharp product that will grab the attention of every person who drives by. Size does not always win the fight, quality plays a large role and with high quality signs from Laser Sharp Sign Design your signage will be getting all the attention of those big corporations and some.

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Laser Sharp Sign Design

Live in Tampa Fl and need a sign of any sort? Come check us out at Laser Sharp Sign Design, located right in Tampa at 301 and Causeway, we are always ready to take any project you may have in store. With great customer service and state of the art technology and printers we will get you in and out quickly and have your sign completed within the week. Our number one goal is to satisfy the customer that starts with kind and friendly service and ends with a laser sharp final product on time.

Even if your not sure exactly what you want, come through our doors to see what the show room has to offer. This might help make your decision or you can sit down with an employee and we will help you to come out with the best finished product possible. We have plenty to offer and you have plenty to express, so bring your ideas to us and we will express them with the most laser sharp products possible. Out moto, "A business with no sign, is a sign of no business."

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Vector Images

Instead of using dots or pixels like a raster image, a vector image consist of connected line and curves to produce an object. In the process of creating a vector image, you must start with a vector illustration program, node or drawing points are inserted and connected together by lines or curves. All aspects of a vector image are defined by math including node position, node location, line length and down the line. Text objects are produced by connecting nodes, lines and curves. Unlike the pixel oriented raster images, vector images are object oriented. Every letter in a font starts as a vector image. A vector image will have a "wireframe" underneath the colors in the object. Vector images are like putting the body over the frame of a car.

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Raster File Size and Format

The only way for you to accuratly reproduce a raster image file is to have graphics software to keep track of the exact location and color of each pixel in the whole collection of pixels, thats a lot of information. File size becomes a big issue when scanning and creating raster images. When the file sizes star to get bigger it becomes an issue because big files make your computer processor and hard drive work overtime. Your typical 2" by 3" 150 dpi black and white raster logo is about .07 megabytes or less then 70k in file size. That same file saved as a 300 dpi 24 bit raster image logo might be 100 times larger, over 7 megabytes. In order to transfer big files (over 1 megabyte) you must have high speed internet connection on both ends for timely uploads and downloads.

Common raster image formats are JPEG (Joint Photographics Expert Group), PCX (Paintbrush), TIFF (Tag Interleave Format), BMP (Windows Bitmap), PNG (Portable Network Graphics), CPT (Corel PhotoPaint), and PSD (Adobe PhotoShop).

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Raster Images

A raster image forms pixels, a collection of a tiny colored square. 

When an image gets scanned, it becomes converted into a collection of pixels called a raster image. The most common form of a raster image are scanned graphics and web graphics (JPEG and GIF files).

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Halftoning/Screen Angle

Halftoning is what gives the eye perception of more colors when printing. Without halftoning the three primary process colors would be printed only as solid blocks of color, which would only allow us to produce seven colors total: the three primaries, plus three secondary colors produced by layering two of the primaries: cyan and yellow produce green, yellow and magenta produce red, cyan and magenta produce a purplish blue, finally you can layer all three of them producing a black. Halftoning allows for less than full saturation of the primary colors. There are tiny dots of each primary color that are small enough so the human eye perceive a solid color. Magenta printed at a 20% halftone will create a pink color because the eye picks up the tiny dots of magenta on the large white paper and this creates a lighter, less saturated color then just pure magenta would.

Moiré patterns can be created when printing is done with the wrong screen angle, each color has a different screen angle. The angle used depends on each color independently and the choice of the press operator. You will see typical CMYK printing used in any of the below screen angles.

C-15°-15°-105°-165°

M-75°-45°-75°-45°

Y-0°-0°-90°-90°

K-45-°75°-15°-105°

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CMYK Color Model

CMYK are the four inks used in some color printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key. This is a subtractive color model. The ink is usually applied in the order of the abbreviation but depending on different operators some may do it different. The CMYK model is subtractive because it "subtracts" brightness from the white substrate it's being printed on. In otherwords the model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, mainly white, background and the ink reduces the light rather then reflecting it.

Some people suggest that the "K" in CMYK is from the last letter in black because the letter B is already used for blue. Although this is useful for memory it is incorrect. In four-color printing there are plates that are carefully keyed or aligned with the key of the black key plate. The "K" stands for the key that locks these colors together and allows for a wider array of colors.

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If you dont have signage on and around your company building then how are customers ever suppose to find you? Its incredible the amount of companies that refuse to renew their signs whether theirs are just old or even non existing. As a matter of fact I challenge you to look around more the next time you go for a drive and see how many business you can spot that could use an upgrade on their signs that identify them. Without an identity you are nothing, no one will recognize you, so no one will come. "A business with no sign, is a sign of no business" is what we always say. Don't let the signage that represents you look old and beat up, that's where people get their first impression on your company from. When you go to publics the first thing you see is their giant green letters. Right away you know where you are. Its the same for all other companies big or small, customers want to be able to identify you. Make sure that your identity will impress them and give them a good first impression.

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You don' always have to wrap your whole vehicle to get the best advertisement on the streets. Cut vinyl is also a great way to go about it as long as its for a smaller piece such as this one. This trailer used to be plane white, with some re tuning we made it a business build board. Being pulled behind a truck for work everyday, thousands of people will see this company name and information a year. At Laser Sharps Sign Design we use a Graphtec cutter and wax paper in order to install and make sure that all the lettering and imaging are lined up and centered. Spending less money then you would on a full wrap we were still able to design something that has a cool look and gave this business a new advertising tool. When you wanna expand your advertisement you give us a call, were ready to make your signs do the advertising for you!

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Choosing your Banner

Every now and then people need a banner, whether its to promote, advertise, represent, or be used for personal use. Don't get me wrong, some places need banners all the time, they use them for a wide variety of advertisement and showing off sales. But no matter what your use is I am going to give you tips on how to choose your banner. Believe it or not there are many different banner materials, some stronger then others, so depending how long you want this banner to last will determine which type of material you will start with. Now its time for the printing, there are two ways to apply the lettering/image on your banner. Those are cut vinyl and direct printing. Here are the advantages and disadvantages, Direct printing may take a little more out of the wallet but it creates a nicer image strait to the banner material. Also here at Laser Sharp Sign Design your limits to what you put on the banner when you direct print are endless with no extra charge. With the cut vinyl it takes time to manually install all lettering an images, so the more you want on the poster the pricier it gets. Now lets talk about the durability of the print vs. cut vinyl. If you want a banner to last about 5 years and stay in good condition I suggest you directly print it and get it laminated. This will give you a longer life span with better quality and the lamination will also serve as extra protection from scratches and weather. If you want a banner that you only need for a short while like 6-18 months and you know its going to get beat up a little, I would recommend the cut vinyl. This will still give you a nice image and get any point across while helping save a little money. If you ever have any questions give us a call at Laser Sharp Sign Design, we love helping our customers and our goal is to give you a great sign producing experience with a Laser Sharp ending result!

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Matte colors are no longer just for primer, they are becoming a new style that is taking the creativity of colors to new levels. This green VW Jetta got wrapped in a matte black followed up by carbon fiber on the hood, roof, mirrors, and gas tank to give it more character. A color in which most people look at as a "primer" or unfinished paint job is now a new style that is starting to get some second looks while driving down the streets. Almost every car on the road has a gloss finish, and the ones that don't are unfinished paint jobs or cars with replacement parts from junk yards. Obviously when half your car is gloss and half is matte it is not going to look good, but instead of going all gloss you can change the style and go all matte. Now you have a new style that gets people to look your way. But don't think going out and painting your car matte will solve your problems and there's a few reasons for that. One being that a primer paint will not hold up for very long, after the weather beats on it, it will start to fade and even have spots where your gloss color sneaks out from underneath. Now you have a matte color with spots of gloss color shining on it. Another reason being why mess up the initial factory color of your car? Once you paint it your stuck with that color until you paint it again. With a vinyl wrap you can put on this color, which will last 5-7 years, then when you decide to sell the vehicle or that you are sick of the color you can remove the wrap and you are back to your original factory color. No damage done to the paint, as a matter of fact the vinyl acts as a protector to your paint underneath.

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Vinyl wraps are not just for cars. This is a Yamaha R6 wrapped in a negative vapor w/ skull. Motorcycles give the ability to be more creative and express your style every time you go for a ride.

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This is an example of a printed image paired with a carbon fiber material. With the ability to use the cutter, we were able to cut the material from half of the spider which allowed us to lay it over the carbon fiber and give it the half and half look. 

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Turned the green jetta into matte black and silver. 3M is awesome vinyl to use for a car wrap! The silver will be replaced with carbon fiber. let me know your thoughts!

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Full body vehicle wraps. This is the greatest form of advertisement, and one of the least expensive. Prices depending on the size and dimensions of the vehicle your looking at a couple thousand for your average size car. Some people say why not just get it painted? Well your average paint job can start to fade within 4-6 years and in the end just does damage to your vehicle. With a vehicle wrap, a removable vinyl material placed over your paint, you have a life span of 5-7 years and the durability that protects the paint job underneath. This is the biggest form of advertisement because as you drive your vehicle every week, thousands of people see your car. With the abilities to design and print anything we can turn your car into a billboard on wheels.

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Large Format Printing

Large format printing is one of the best ways to get attention from the audience. Although it only works if you go about the right ways of creating a large format object. What kind of camera do you have? Or what size is the image you found? Images used for this type of printing need to be large from the start. The bigger you are able to make you image the more crisp and clear it will be throughout the printing process. The link below gets into more detail about large format printing.

http://businesslocallistings.newsvine.com/_news/2012/07/09/12648379-catching-the-consumers-eyes-with-large-format-prints

With new cameras or even I-phones and Droids you can adjust the settings on your camera in order to take a picture at a high enough resolution where large format printing can be done. As an example many people send us images they want blown up and printed in a larger scale in a small jpeg file, the problem with this is that this file does not give the clearest image after being enhanced and blown up through Photoshop. The best formats to use are TIFF, talked about in the link above, and the vector format which correlates very well with Photoshop and provides a great, very clear image. In addition to the image format the type and size of the printer being used plays another big role. The 60'' hp DesignJet L26500 is what we use at our company and it provides for a Laser Sharp image!