Welcome to my Frequently Asked Questions!
I am hoping that I can help answer your questions, so you don’t have to either leave frustrated or wait 12-48 hours for me to respond to you if I can potentially predict your questions ahead of time! If you don’t find your answers here, head on over to my contact page!
FREE DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCE ?'s | THE 'CREATIVE JUICE' BOX
Oh no! I am sorry you are having trouble; Please know that I am not purposely trying to make it difficult for you.
To get the password for the Juicebox, you must subscribe to my email list first, then take the second step to confirm your subscription once you receive that email.
The subscription confirmation email is sent out with the password and will be at the bottom of each email I send out from then forward in case you forget!
If you are not getting the email even though you have subscribed, sometimes my emails can find their way to your junk email, promotions, or spam.
Do a search for inspirational zest in your inbox. and If you still can’t find it, please email me at [email protected]ationalzest.com I am happy to try and figure it out with you!
The password for the 'Creative Juice' Box is case sensitive and sometimes, if you are on your iphone or the caps lock gets accidentally clicked on, you will have trouble. I can’t change that, but I have a couple of suggestions for you to try.
- Copy and paste the password from the email I send out, directly into the password box.
- If you can’t copy and paste, take extra precaution when you give it another go, make sure that the password is EXACT, including case.
- Email me at [email protected] so I can help you out!
You can print as many times as you need for your personal use!
If you are printing multiple copies of a printable with the intention to sell something you make with it, host a class, a group or promotion, please know that I DO NOT allow commercial use of my FREE printables, SVG, or graphic files from inspirational zest without a commercial license!
Heck to the No!
You MAY NOT sell OR give-away my coloring pages, printables, clipart or any digital files, even if they are free. I do have commercial use options for selling products created using SVG files, Digital Paper and Clipart, Image transfers but not in a way that competes with my digital distribution model.
Contact me at [email protected] with questions if you need answers!
I really enjoy supporting small businesses and allowing others to use my art as long as they create something new, useful or creative using it following my terms of use!
PRINTING ?'s
That’s okay, we all start from the beginning, once you know, you know, ya know?
BEST PRINTER SETTINGS
When you are sending something to print, it is necessary to make sure you have all of your settings dialed in, every printer has a print settings where you can set the type of paper media you are printing on, quality and whether you want to scale it to fit.
- Choose the quality of the print, often, your printer's default setting will not be set to the highest quality, if your print is something special or you want to keep it around for longer, make sure that you choose to print in the highest quality setting.
- Select what type of paper is in the tray! If you have photo paper in there but copy paper is selected, you aren't going to get as crisp of a result and if you are printing on white copy paper but have the selection of gloss photo quality paper, you are going ot end up with ink-soaked paper!
- Choosing the scale to fit print media option could interfere with the size of your prints if they are cards or images that are size dependent, so you are going to want to be careful and make sure that if this button is checked, it is intentionally to scale to fit your paper.
WHAT PRINTER IS BEST?
For printing my digital art at home, I have an older canon printer that has refillable ink tanks, it works just fine, it's nothing special or fancy, but it prints nicely and doesn't have any issues feeding paper.
Any color laser or inexpensive inkjet will do for printing on copy paper and just getting started, if you need a higher quality photo print, send it out to your local print shop.
PURCHASING A NEW PRINTER?
If you are in the market to purchase a new printer, the most important thing to research before deciding which one you will be going with is whether the ink refills are affordable, readily available and whether the printer will accept cardstock if you want to print on a heavier weight media.
BEST PAPER TO PRINT ON:
Finding the best paper to print on really depends on the application methods and what you will be using the print for! If i am going to use ink to print something, when it comes to paper, i always go with a higher quality material unless i am going to be tearing it up for collage or just using it for testing purposes.
PRINTING COLLAGE SHEETS:
I really like bright white copy paper to print the majority of my art that I will be using to collage with in my art journal & sometimes even a thinner brochure or sketch paper will give a lower profile to the images that get glued down, you just must watch for wrinkles!
PRINTING COLORING SHEETS:
For coloring sheets, again, bright white copy paper or my favorite is ultra-premium photo paper! The colored pencils and even markers get a smooth and even distribution on this type of paper stock and it isn't too thick so any printer should be able to handle it, just fine!
PRINTING WALL ART:
For wall art, what you print on depends on the type of illustration and personal preference. Nothing says you can't print out your wall art on a high-gloss photo stock or a matte ultra-premium presentation or photo paper. If you are just sticking your wall art into a frame and enjoy changing it out often, print on whatever you have available and see how it turns out, otherwise, spending a little more on a higher quality paper should give you a great result.
PRINTING IMAGES FOR DIE CUTS
When you print die cuts, you will need to choose a nice sticker paper or thicker cardstock paper. Your scissors will fussy cut their way through anything you can run through your printer.
FOR USE WITH A CUTTING MACHINE:
Print and cut can be tricky so, i highly recommend going to your cutting machine manufacturers website and reading the documentation they provide and using manufacturer produced paper for the first time so you can get a good idea of what it is supposed to behave like!
I am currently in the process of creating an easy printing guide for beginners that will include more specific tips and helpful tricks on how you can get your desired printing result the first time.
In the meantime, email me your specific printing questions if they are not answered in the provided information above.
I am happy to help you! [email protected]
?'s ABOUT FILE FORMATS
Most of my digital files are provided in a .zip folder. This format will have a little zipper on the folder icon once downloaded. Windows and Mac OSX are able to open and un compress ZIP files without additional software while iPhones and iPads will require an additional app.
WHAT IS A ZIP FILE?
A Zip file, also known as a zip archive, is used for the distribution of files on the internet.
You will encounter zip files often when purchasing digital graphics and files as they are the design industry standard used to keep collections of multiple graphic images and collections of digital files together while also compressing large digital files for a smaller, faster download transfer. This also helps to avoid losing data in the transmission process.
UNZIPPING ON A DESKTOP
The extraction of a .zip format file is simple as a windows PC has the ability to unzip compressed files without any additional software!
- Click to Download the zip file -it will either automatically download to your downloads folder or prompt you to choose a folder location.
- Once your file finishes downloading, find it in the stored location.
- The file will look like a zipper
- Right-click and choose extract to folder -it will create a new open folder.
- Send your zipped file to the recycle bin and use the files from your newly extracted open folder.
The Mac operating system also enables you to open a zip file without any additional software. simply double-click on the zip archive to extract it automatically.
UNZIPPING ON A MOBILE DEVICE
IPAD + iOS 11+ Supports Zip Files in the native files app!
If you have an older iOS version number, you will need to find an app that works on your iPad, like this one.
- Click the download link and choose a location to download your file.
- You'll be prompted to choose a location to download to.
- Go to your file location in the Files app, tap the zip to open it
- Tap "preview content" to see the contents of the zip file.
Android OS
To open Zip files on an android device, head to the play store and download the files app from google. -this is also just a handy app to have to clean up your downloaded files and clear up space!
- Click the download link and choose a location to download your file.
- You'll be prompted to choose a location to download to.
- Go to your file location in the Files app, tap the zip to open it
- A pop-up appears to show the content of that zipped file.
- Tap Extract!
- You will be shown a preview of the extracted files, now select the delete ZIP file checkbox to make sure you don't store duplicate files, taking up unnecessary space on your device.
- Now you can access your unzipped files!
Do I need the WinZip or other third-party software such as 7-zip to use your files on A PC?
For the PC, needing it to unzip is a thing of the past!
A misconception about the Zip File of today is that you need to purchase or download the trial of the WinZip software to open them. This is not true!
Long ago, WinZip used to have to be purchased, but this extraction method is now universal and included on your windows PC. WinZip, great software, but the only reason you would need to purchase WinZip is if you needed some of the other functionality of the software as there are many included compression and encryption options with the extended version or the APP version for your mobile device.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON"T UNZIP A FILE?
Your files will not work properly! 🙂
The purpose of a zip file is to compress data and transport the graphic files. Oftentimes, the result of not uncompressing is garbled files.
By that, I mean PNG files that load with a black background or SVG files that load all junky in Cricut design space or silhouette studio. If you are having trouble with your files, that is the first thing I will ask when I am trouble-shooting your downloads!
Over the last 16 years of selling digital files online any question about files not behaving, 99% of the time the solution has to do with not unzipping!
Vector graphics are made of paths a, they have crisp lines and are incredibly versatile as they can be scaled up or down to any size, recolored or rearranged in a vector editing software.
Raster images are composed of pixels, if you zoom in on a raster image, you will see a lot of tiny little squares of color and shades and the quality depends on the resolution and file size that was exported at the time of saving. Raster clipart can be scaled down but typically not scaled up without the images becoming blurry.
Print standard resolution for a raster image is 300 pixels per inch.
A PNG is a raster based image that supports lossless data and also retains a transparent background which makes it ideal for graphics where you don't want an attached white background. It is the most widely used lossless image compression format in the world. This image format is opened by almost any software.
A JPG is another raster based image format, it does not retain transparency and is not lossless but it is best used for large items such as background papers where transparency is not necessary.
PNG creates an unnecessarily large size digital paper which complicates downloads, so JPG it is typically the best choice.
An EPS is used for Vector based images, an older legacy format that is typically used only in online vector editors, vinyl cutting and older software.
ALL ABOUT SVG's
To make, open or edit an SVG file, you will need software with vector editing capabilities such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Capture, Affinity Designer or Inkscape.
Alternately, software that comes with any of the popular die cutting machines out there, Cricut Design Space, Silhouette Studio designer edition, Sure Cuts a Lot and Make the Cut all can open AND edit SVG files.
SVG stands for scalable vector graphic.
SVG format is an ideal format for cutting machines because it contains properties of a vector image.
A vector is an infinitely scalable image file, created in vector software like illustrator or corel draw.
The benefit of using SVG files for electronic die cutting machines:
SVG's are infinitely scalable the file can retain a crystal-clear line, cutting a detailed, but tiny image for the use on a fingernail, all the way up to an image used on a 12x12 inch Scrapbook Page!
Yes, typically the software that comes with your die cutting machine will have the capability to what many commonly refer to as 'TRACE an image'.
This Raster to Vector tracing method isn't perfect, and doesn't work for all images, especially multicolor ones, it simply offers a basic way to convert a simple 2-4 color image to an SVG cut file and separate it for cutting within your software OR trace the perimeter of an image to get it ready for your print and cut .
NOTE: You should only be tracing images that don't belong to you for personal projects. unless you have purchased the image, it is in the public domain or listed as a creative commons use.
Just because you spot an image on google, doesn't mean it is free to do whatever you want with it. 😉
Still have Questions?
Head on over to my contact page!
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