Can I get a sample name
badge?
Yes.
We charge $5.50 for a random sample badge without a back, or
$6.75 if you want a magnetic back. To order, just drop us
an e-mail through the "contact us" form. You can specify a
size if you like.
If you want a specific sample you need to order one at our
regular rate and note in the comment area that this is a sample.
If you order more within 30 days we will credit the difference
(e.g. order a magnetic one today for $12.95 plus shipping, order
10 more within 30 days at $8.00/ea, receive a $4.95 credit
towards your 2nd order. If you don't like the sample and
will not be ordering badges from our company you can return it
and we will refund the price of the badge (less shipping
charges).
How much does your badges
cost?
Please see the right column of our home page at
www.Create-a-Badge.com for our prices.
There is NO Minimum and NO Set-up charges.
How much is
shipping/handling and what do you offer?
Shipping and handling prices can be seen here:
http://www.create-a-badge.com/components/info/shipping.php
Best Way shipping is normally done via US Mail for small
orders (usually arrives in 2-10 working days) and UPS ground for
large orders (usually arrives in 1-5 working days based on
destination.
We do not have FedEx pickup.
We ship from the Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago, Illinois area.
How long does it
take to make my badges?
Average turn around time is 3-4 working days from the time you
give final approval on the layout and we have your payment
information, until your badges are ready to
ship. If you need a faster turn around time please note
that in the comments area of your order.
Shipping methods range from Best Way (2-10 working days and
will be shipped either by US Mail or by UPS ground) to Overnight
shipping depending on your needs.
Rush service is available. If we have your approval for
printing and your payment information by Noon Eastern time, we
can normally get small orders (50 or less) of badges out that
same day (call to verify 678-500-9059). Rush charges of $35 will be added to your order
for this service.
Is there anyway to
see my badge before I place my order?
Currently, in order for us to know what you want on your
badge, you will need to first, place your order. Your
credit card will not be charged until your order is ready to
ship. Once we receive your order, we will set up a
sample name badge (or two if we have alternate suggestions),
post it on a web page and e-mail you a link for you to review
the layout. You can then reply to that e-mail with
any changes you may want or if you decide you don't want to
order, you can cancel your order at that time.
We are working on having an online viewer so that you will be
able to see your badge during the ordering process but it is not
available yet.
Your sample layouts only show one badge in my
order, can I see them all?
Yes. You may request to see all of your badges setup
but we do charge you an extra $ 1.95 per badge ($2.95/per badge for
metallic background). Showing you
a proof of each badge does not guarantee that the final badges
will be correct since we do not use this file for printing
purposes.
You made a mistake in my order, what do I
do?
E-mail
us and tell us which badge is incorrect. If the badge has a magnetic back,
keep the magnet part off the back to put onto the new badge when it arrives.
We will get another out to you ASAP. You normally are not required to
return the badge to us unless there is something wrong other than a typo.
How strong are your magnets?
Strong enough to firmly hold through a thick business suit lapel and summer
jackets. They do not work on some winter overcoats.
What are the badges made out of?
The majority of our badges are made out of high quality white fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP)
with a glossy finish. This is a stiff plastic which is approximately .09" thick
(about the same thickness of 2 U.S. dimes stacked on top of each other) .
Our metallic badges are made out of a 1/16th inch thick (about the thickness of
2 credit cards) ridged acrylic with a brushed metal looking surface.
What are the file specifications?
- Files must be in RGB color model (not CMYK).
- Files must be in PC format.
- Text in the files must be converted to curves.
- Files should be less than 4 MB in size.
- Image resolution should be 300 dpi.
- Jpg and gif images should be saved in their highest quality- uncompressed
300 dpi.
The image size for each badge is listed in the table below. The bleed area extends beyond the size of the badge so that the color will go
all the way to the edge. Most of this area will be cut off during printing.
To save time, please feel free to download our templates. The outer
guideline (black) is for full bleed. The inner guideline (red) is the area for
text. Please remove the red line prior to submission.
| Actual Badge size |
Full bleed area |
Text should fit within |
CorelDraw 8+ template file |
| 1" x 3" rectangle |
1.1" x 3.1" |
.85" x 2.85" |
|
| 1.25" x 3" rectangle |
1.35" x 3.1" |
1.1" x 2.85" |
create-a-badge125x3.cdr |
| 1.5" x 3" rectangle |
1.6" x 3.1" |
1.35" x 2.85" |
|
| 1.5" x 3" oval |
1.6" x 3.1" |
1.35" x 2.85" |
create-a-badgeoval.cdr |
| 2" x 3" rectangle
|
2.1 x 3.1" |
1.85" x 2.85" |
create-a-badge2x3.cdr |
We ask that you upload only the background
of your
badge (you are welcome to put sample text in your vector or layered background
of the badge for us to use as a guideline for layout) and then add the
names/titles, etc. in our our ordering system. If you don't find a text
or color to your liking, ask for a specific font and/or font color and we will
do our very best to accommodate your request. The reason we ask that you
do it this way is that we normally need to convert everything from your file
format to our printing process. This is sometimes a very cumbersome task
depending on your artwork. We much prefer to convert only one badge and
then change the names then to convert each and every badge you submit.
What types of files can you accept?
Although you can not view most vector files in your web
browser, we prefer vector files for printing because they print much
cleaner. Once we receive your vector file we will convert it
to a browser viewable file so that you can preview it before it is
printed.
File types in order of preference:
- Corel Draw - cdr (preferred -v X3 or lower)
- Adobe Illustrator - ai (v CS2 or lower)
- Encapsulated Postscript - EPS
- Windows Meta File - WMF
- Adobe Photoshop - psd (v CS2 or lower)
- JPEG - jpg (uncompressed - 300 dpi)
- Scalable Vector Graphics - svg
- PNG - png
- GIF - gif
- TIFF - tif
- Bitmap - bmp
- TARGA - tga
Color matching is not guaranteed. Why?
There are several reasons for not being able to match
the colors to your monitor. A monitor image is produced using light to illuminate red, green and
blue (RGB) dots so is considered "light additive" or "transmissive". The monitor
is able to display a much wider range of colors than a reflective product. An
image printed onto something is viewed by "reflective light" of the cyan,
magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) colors. It is nearly impossible to make
reflective and transmissive colors match. If your monitor is calibrated correctly the colors will be very close to what
you see on the screen. Most monitors are not calibrated correctly when you
purchase them. Usually when you purchase a monitor you must calibrate it
yourself using a program such as Adobe PhotoShop's gamma utility.
Additional reasons we may not be able to match your
PMS colors exactly. The process we use for the
majority of our badges is a dye. Dyes change from batch to batch and even
change slightly due to things such as humidity or moisture in the paper we use
to print your badges. Also, the color gamut of these
dyes are much more limited than the color gamut of regular printer inks.
Regular CMYK printer inks can print upwards of 14 million colors. Our dyes can
only print a small fraction of that many colors.
Will you do PMS color matching?
To the best of our ability, yes. As we mentioned
under the color matching question, our dyes do not have a complete range of the
color spectrum so there will be certain PMS colors which we can not match
exactly.
If you require your design to be a specific PMS
color, please provide the PMS color number(s) with a fully editable design
(vector format). We will do our best to get as close as possible.
Additional charges may apply.
Do you have any pointers when making our own badge
design?
Most people wear name badges to help
your customer avoid those embarrassing moments when they can't
remember or didn't catch your name. Name badges are not good
as a business cards so we suggest not putting things such as phone
numbers or e-mail addresses on your name badges, that is what your
business card is for, something for them to take home instead of
trying to remember all that information from your name badge.
The names should be large enough for
your customer to read at a distance of at least 4-6 feet.
If you are printing both first and last names with a logo to the
left of the badge, we recommend splitting up the first and last
names onto 2 lines. We also recommend putting any designation
such as RN, CPT, M.D., PhD, etc. on a line of it's own. We recommend you do not use text any smaller than 6
pt. for your smallest text (some fonts should not be smaller than 10-12 point).
Names with fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc. should be around the 24
pt. size.
Unless you are using just a first name
on your badge, we recommend using upper and lower case letters as
they are easier to read from a distance and the names actually can
be larger fonts than when using all upper case letters. If you
like the look of upper case letters we can print most fonts in
"small caps" such as this: LINDA
SMITH please note that
you want small caps in the comments area of your order.
When using thin text or serif text we recommend using bold versions of
these fonts especially if they are used on darker colored backgrounds.
Light
text on dark backgrounds tend to get "swallowed up" by the surrounding dyes
in our printing process. We
recommend after your design is finished to make all text in darker areas at
least 1 point larger and outline the text with the same color to make it more
bold.
Bold colors look better than light,
pastel or gradient colors on the metallic badges. White can
not be printed so anything that may be white in your design will be
the color of the badge (gold, silver or copper).
What do people
say about Create-a-Badge.com?
- -"First of all thank you - I am very impressed with your
service. I belong to a number of organizations and will
definitely pass along the company name and info for their
use."
JHD - Vail, AZ
- -"Thank you so much for our order. We received it
TODAY to my amazement and it looks wonderful! I will refer
you to everyone I know!"
KK - East Peoria, IL
- -"Received the order and we are very pleased with them, thank you so
much for all your help, I will use you in the future
I am sure."
CS - Buckeye, AZ
- -"Regina just received her name tags and they
look great. I would like to get a few myself..."
JL - Everett, MA
- -"The badges look wonderful.
Thank you for the sample pictures and doing a great
job setting everything. I look forward to doing more
business with you in the future."
DM - Carson City, NV
- -"WOW! Your are FAST! Tuesday will be
great. Thx for the speedy service."
WP - Duluth, MN
- -"Many thanks. Your customer service is absolutely
phenomenal!! I'm 1000% satisfied, will definitely
refer others to you."
ES - Charlotte, NC
- -"Forward this to the
owner... unless that person is you.
We had originally called
another company for our name badge order and after a
week and a half and several missed promises we called
Encompass Technologies and talked with Cherie.
Delightful to work with, helpful and within hours had
given us what we were looking for which was a difficult
two color on brushed metal process. I read a quote last
week where someone stated that having the right people
for customer service is not an expense - but an
investment. Your company proves that."
DR - Atlanta, GA
- -"I LOVE my name badge. THANK YOU for
the excellent service and attention you gave me!"
SB - Bowling Green, OH
- -"You are awesome. Thanks!"
TG - Mill Valley, CA
- -"Thank you so much - I received
the name badges and they are wonderful. "
MH - Mechanicsburg, OH
- -"THESE LOOK AWESOME!! Many thanks."
ER - Wellesley, MA
- - "Thank
you so much. It’s been great doing business with you!"
JW - Chester, VA
- -"Hello
Again! My staff is in love with the badges that you have
made for us, and I wanted to order 2 more of the
same..."
JD - Lewis, CO
- -"We
received the badge last week, and it looks FABULOUS!
We'd like to order for the other agents..."
KL - Yonkers, NY
- -"Thank you very much for your help. Your service has been
excellent. I really appreciate your going out of your way to
make up for this UPS delay. "
IZ - Atlanta, GA
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