Pixxlz [Eco-Blog] | Environmentally Safe Online Printing

Design Tip of the Week: Saving Your Work

January 29th, 2010
We get a lot of questions about saving work on our site, and whether or not customers need to save their work in order to successfully place an order. The simple answer is no; you can visit our site, design or upload a file, and checkout in just a few short minutes without ever creating an account. But a great option that our site offers is the ability for customers to create an account and save their work to be edited or ordered in the future. So here’s how:

When you are in the design tool and have finished designing your template, click the “Save My Work” button on the left side of the page. (Only the current page that you are designing and future pages that you create will be saved, so if you are designing a two-sided business card, make sure that you initiate this step on the first side of the card so that your first side is saved!) This prompts you to navigate away from the page to set up an account. If you already have an account, enter your information and the page you are currently working on will be saved. Otherwise, you can create a new account. Fill in your information and once you click “Register,” you will receive confirmation on the screen with your login information, as well as a confirmation email to keep for future use. Enter your email and password, click Login, and your saved works are available to be managed!

Having trouble with this feature? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Have suggestions for how to make your experience better? Let us know! We’re always trying to improve the user experience.
Category: Keeping It Green, Pixxlz Comments (0)
Design Tip of the Week

January 4th, 2010
The design tip of the week took a short hiatus, but it’s back this week to help you make the most of designing your eco friendly products. This week’s tip is about uploading images to your business cards, and an additional feature that few people have discovered.

Adding an image to your business card, or any of our eco-friendly products for that matter, adds a unique touch to your design. Position a portrait of yourself in the upper left corner so clients and business associates can remember your face. One of the coolest aspects of the image upload feature is that you can replace your entire background with your image. No need to worry about centering your image or bringing your text to the foreground; it’s all formatted for you.

Here’s how: While in your selected template, click “Add an Image.” Choose your file and agree to the “Rights Reserved” terms. Once your image is uploaded, check to replace your background image. The image replaces the entire background of the template, while leaving the text boxes in their original place.

Play around with this feature, and try adding images to different design templates until you find the one you like the best! And let us know what you think… we’re always looking for ways to improve our site and the user experience. Happy printing!
Category: Green PrintingTags: business cards, eco-friendly printing, eco-friendly products, Pixxlz | Comments (0)
Design Tip of the Week

November 17th, 2009
Today begins a new feature at the Pixxlz blog; the Design Tip of the Week. It’s a new way for us to help our customers by offering fun tips and ideas for designing on our site. It will also help you use our design tool better, so that together we create the best printed products.

Designing With the Bleed ::

All of our templates incorporate crop marks to indicate the final trim size of your document. When an image or text goes over the border, this is called the bleed. The term bleed is used for all objects overlapping the trim lines of your document. Therefore, a document slightly larger than the finished size is printed to accommodate the bleed and to make sure all important content is contained within the trim lines and not cut during finishing.

When designing with our templates, you will notice that all four corners have crop marks which indicate where the cutter will slice the paper to the finished size. Even though the cut should be accurate, it is best to leave an additional 1/8″ between the crop marks and foreground objects to ensure that nothing gets cut off. Documents also look a lot better when you leave a slight margin.

So when you go to design your next eco friendly printed product, make sure you consider the bleed and crop marks. You’ll be calling yourself a graphic designer in no time!
Category: Green PrintingTags: design tip of the week, eco-friendly printed products, eco-friendly printing, Pixxlz | Comments (1)
NEW:: Square Eco Friendly Business Cards

November 12th, 2009
We’re mixing it up at Pixxlz by adding a new size and shape to our line of business cards. In addition to our standard size and mini business cards, now we offer square, 2.5″ X 2.5″ cards. Square business cards are a great way for you to distinguish yourself. People always comment on my square card and I know that they’ll remember me later when they see my card peeking out behind the others in their Rolodex. The shape alone makes the card stand out so it’s ok to keep the graphic design simple and sleek.

The price of square business cards is the same as our other cards, so there’s no reason to choose one over the other because of price. If you can’t decide between mini and square, why not get both? It’s fun to choose which people to give your favorite card to.

Design Tip::

Get creative with our templates. One of our customers introduced me to a clever idea when he ordered “Save the Date” cards for his upcoming wedding. Using a blank business card template and centering the text, he created a wallet-size card that he could give to his wedding guests. Not only was it a creative way to announce his upcoming nuptials, but he also got to take advantage of our low prices for eco friendly printing.

So check out our new square business cards, and whether you’re creating something for business or pleasure, we know you’ll be pleased with your results!
Category: Keeping It GreenTags: business cards, eco friendly business card, eco-friendly business cards, eco-friendly printer, Pixxlz, square business card, templates | Comments (0)
Pixxlz New Homepage Is Live!

November 9th, 2009
These are exciting times over here at Pixxlz, your eco friendly printer. We launched our brand new, redesigned homepage this weekend! Our goal was to make it easier for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for when they visit our site. So let’s take a look at the features on our homepage, shall we?

First, you will notice we provide a list of products and services down the left side. Now, you can find and link to the exact product that you are interested in buying right away. We also label any ongoing sales with red sales tags for those of you who are looking for a great deal. Also listed are additional services that Pixxlz is offering to customers. These link to a description and encourage customers to contact us directly if interested. Like we’ve always said, we offer more than what you see on our site!

Another great aspect of our new homepage is the slideshow of featured products and important notes about Pixxlz. Here, we highlight products that we think customers might be interested in, depending on the season and upcoming holidays or events, as well as brief information about our printing process and philosophy. It’s a helpful way to guide our customers towards products they might need or might not have considered before.

In the upper right corner of the slideshow, you’ll notice an offer for a free sample kit. This is a helpful new option for our customers that are interested in eco friendly printing, but would prefer to see examples of our printed products before ordering. Who knows, you may even find a deal or two when you request the sample kit.

Below the banner slideshow are two pictures of featured products. This provides a great visual of two of our finished products to give customers an idea of how their designs could look. These images are static, but will change routinely to showcase new products and designs. Right now, this space contains a picture of one of our new square business cards and a second picture of a holiday photo cards. Plus, we’re so proud of our low prices that we have them on display for everyone to see.

So visit the new Pixxlz homepage and tell us what you think! We’re always open to comments and suggestions and would love to hear your feedback.
Category: Green Printing, PixxlzTags: eco-friendly printer, eco-friendly printing, Pixxlz | Comments (0)
Online Print-on-Demand:: myprintdocs.com

November 6th, 2009
Ever get tired of re-submitting documents for printing? Or have you lost documents that you meant to save for future use? Myprintdocs.com may just be the solution for you. We are proud to introduce our newest site, an online print-on-demand service that offers the simplest way to store and print your business documents for free.

Myprintdocs.com is the perfect solution for customers who frequently reorder jobs. We upload your documents to a user-friendly, password protected storefront and you control the content; whether documents are static or customizable is up to you. Log in to order any quantity of any document at any time. Your Copy Cop or Pixxlz sales representative will help you manage your myprintdocs.com site, working together to determine the best documents for us to upload for you. Just login, add the items you would like to purchase to your shopping cart, submit your order and we’re ready to print.

Myprintdocs.com also allows you to maintain brand integrity. What you order from myprintdocs.com should always reflect your company’s true brand identity, and we will work with you to make sure all of your documents are consistent to your brand.

In addition to being easy to use, myprintdocs.com is environmentally conscious. Print only what you need at any point in time, and come back to reorder when your product runs out. This eliminates a tremendous amount of waste as well as the need for warehousing. Let myprintdocs.com help reduce your business’ carbon footprint.

To test out myprintdocs.com yourself, check out our demo site. (User Id: testuser; Password: welcome)

To get started using myprintdocs.com, please contact us at Daniels@dpcboston.com.
Category: Keeping It GreenTags: copy cop, myprintdocs.com, Pixxlz, print on demand | Comments (1)
Eco Friendly Business Cards:: Sale Ends Today!!

October 27th, 2009
Attention: Deal-seekers and eco-friendly consumers!! Today, Tuesday, October 27th marks the last day of our fall business card sale. Act fast to enjoy our crazy-low prices. But for all our friends who don’t get a chance to capitalize on our blowout sale - have no fear. We enjoyed our sale so much that we decided to permanently reduce our prices! Starting at just $5.95, you can have fun designing your eco friendly business cards! And don’t worry; unlike some of our competitors, there are NO additional charges and definitely no hidden fees. It’s nice to buy things at their actual, advertised price sometimes, huh?

What’s so fabulous about our new reduced prices? Not only are our prices among the lowest, but our products are eco friendly, meaning you can spend the same amount of green to go green! Eco friendly shouldn’t mean more expensive, and we do all that we can to be your eco friendly printer at affordable prices.

Our standard stock is 30% PCW, with a coated, gloss finish. For an even more sustainable business card, upgrade to our 100% PCW paper, with a matte finish. Printed on our digital presses with chemical-free toner, either stock option is still a great way to print green. And if you’re looking to go super-eco, request a quote for larger quantities printed offset using soy-based inks.

So if you’ve got some business cards ready to print, or if you’re in the market for a new design, check out our business card templates and create your cards today before the sale ends. And if you don’t get a chance, no need to stress. Our eco friendly business card prices will continue to blow you away.
Category: Green PrintingTags: business card, business cards, eco friendly business card, eco-friendly, eco-friendly business cards, green printer, Green Printing, sustainable business card | Comments (0)
Introducing:: Eco Friendly Holiday Cards

October 23rd, 2009
Introducing eco friendly holiday cards from Pixxlz! Whether you’re planning ahead or waiting until the last minute, our green holiday cards are the way to go this year. Upload your favorite family portrait to create photo cards or customize one of our templates for holiday greeting cards. Eco friendly printing is a great way to combat the paper waste experienced during the holidays.

Did you know:: According to The ULS Report, annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons.

Printed on your choice of 30% or 100% PCW recycled paper, it’s up to you how green you want your holiday cards to be. Not sure how our paper will look? Click here to request a free sample kit of our standard and upgrade paper stock. But just because you’re minimizing waste doesn’t mean you have to be conservative with design. Get creative with our easy-to-use templates that help you customize your greeting cards, or upload your own file to truly control the creative process.

Want to print with soy-based inks? Get a quote for an offset print job on our presses, where we print with “edible” ink. Whichever process you choose to print, the job will always be printed green.

Have your own design for holiday templates? Contact us, and we will promote your templates as one of our designer collections. You’ll receive a percent commission on any sale that uses your design!

So get in the holiday spirit with your eco friendly printer. Happy holidays and happy printing!
Category: PixxlzTags: eco friendly holiday cards, eco-friendly printer, eco-friendly printing, green holiday cards, holiday cards, Pixxlz, print green, printed green | Comments (0)
A Greener Apple

October 15th, 2009
I’m a Mac girl, always have been - always will be. From the first Macintosh desktop that I had in my room in elementary school, to the Mac Classic that I learned to type on, there has been no shortage of Apple influence in my life. So as a die-hard Mac follower and an eco-friendly printer , I was sad to hear that Apple’s environmental awareness was rather lacking in the past few years while competitors like Dell and HP came out ahead of the curve.

Apple has been criticized by groups like Greenpeace for advertising green practices when, in actuality, they weren’t as eco-conscious as they claimed. Citing the lack of disposal options for customers with outdated Apple products and chemicals used in the manufacturing of their products, Apple was called upon to do more than just talk the talk. After touting their line of MacBooks as the most environmentally friendly laptop family in the industry, Apple is now doing more than just advertising their supposed green initiative.

Enter: Apple and the Environment, a new page on Apple.com aimed at breaking down the environmental impact of Apple’s products, from design and production through their product life cycle. Not only does the site breakdown where exactly Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions come from, it also explains the steps they have taken in the past few years to reduce their impact. For one, the size of their products has decreased. They have also taken measures to rid their products of harmful chemicals that they were once criticized for, even taking it a step further to rid their products of bromine and chlorine, an industry first.

So thank you, Apple. I knew I loved you for a reason.
Category: Green Friends, Keeping It GreenTags: apple, eco-friendly printer, green business | Comments (0)
Go Green - Get on a Bike!

October 6th, 2009
Now that I’m a city resident, my means of transportation have changed. My car isn’t always readily available, and while Boston is a small city, it’s not always possible to walk. So after a month of paying way too much for cabs, taking the T in the wrong direction (what the heck does inbound/outbound mean?), and being late to work after sweating it out on a 2 ½ mile trek along the waterfront, I decided to finally take my own advice and get a bike.

During a trip to Amsterdam this summer, I really fell in love with biking. From the Van Gogh Museum and Rembrandt Square to the Heineken Brewery and Anne Frank’s House, there is so much to see in this amazing city. Amsterdam’s public transportation is enviable, but the true way to experience the city is by bike. Plus, there was something about seeing a businessman in a suit riding a bike to work that made me really want to hop on and pedal around. So after renting a bike for the day and seeing the entire city, I decided I was going to bring the biking spirit back home with me.

Not only do I enjoy biking now, but I’ve realized that biking is a great way to go green. Bikes don’t use gas, so the only thing you’re burning are calories. They are also much smaller than cars and take up less space, which is a great thing in crowded urban settings. It’s a really leisurely way to see the sights without contributing to city pollution with car traffic or the structured schedule of a tour bus. Plus, who doesn’t remember when they first learned to ride without training wheels? A day on a bike will bring you back, and what’s more fun than that?

Biking around Boston? Mayor Menino is a supporter. As an avid biker, the mayor supports local business initiatives aimed at promoting biking for customers and employees alike. Click here for a link to the 2009 Bike Friendly Award Winners for the annual Boston Green Awards.
Category: Keeping It GreenTags: bike friendly award winners, Boston, boston green awards, eco-friendly, go green, green activities, green businesses, Pixxlz, www.pixxlz.com | Comments (1)

« Previous Entries

Pixxlz [Eco-Blog] We Print Green