1. 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!

    free image uplaod

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  2. 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!

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  3. 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!

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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!

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  7. 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.

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  8. Pixxlz Calendar Sale!
     

    October 1st, 2009

    Prices begin at just $6.95.

    Now that summer has ended (sigh…), people need something else to look forward to. Enter: the holiday season! I know I know, it’s only the first day of October. And while I definitely disapprove of putting your decorations up before Thanksgiving, that doesn’t mean you can’t plan your gifts ahead of time; especially if the price is right. That’s why we’re starting our calendar promotion early this year. We’ve cut our prices for annual wall calendars! Starting at just $6.95 for 5 calendars, these calendars are a steal!

    Personalized monthly and annual calendars are super easy to make at Pixxlz.com, where our templates guide you through the editing process. Use our templates as they come or edit them to get a truly unique calendar. Our calendars are a great gift for your family, friends, or co-workers. Order duplicates and spread the love. That’s not in the realm of re-gifting is it?

    What’s so great about our calendars? Well, by now you already know that they are eco-friendly. Printed digitally using chemical-free toner on recycled paper, the printing process we use to create your calendars is reason enough to feel good about your holiday present.

    Need help? Pixxlz customer service is easy to reach and happy to help you with any of your design problems.

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  9. Pixxlz New Design Feature!
     

    September 30th, 2009

    There’s a new design feature at Pixxlz.com that makes creating your eco-friendly printed products even easier! A lot of times, people want to use our business card or flyer templates, but would prefer to customize the background while maintaining the pre-designed text layout. Well we heard your requests people! Customizing the background of a template is now a reality. Here’s how you do it: When you click on one of our product templates and start designing, there is the option to “Add an Image” on the upper right corner of the design toolbar. Click here! With the new feature, after you have browsed for an image, you can choose to “Check to Replace Design Background,” which replaces the entire background image with your own. You no longer have to decide between uploading your own file and creating a design on a blank template to customize a design. And this, my friends, makes creating custom eco-friendly printed products at Pixxlz.com as easy as ever.

    What’s so helpful about this feature, you may ask? Now you can use the text layouts of a template that you like and replace the background image with your own. The best part is that you don’t lose the text box that went with the original template, so no need to worry about sizing or centering a new one: it’s already done for you. Check out the two templates below; the left one is unedited and the right template has had an image added into the background using the new feature.

    Want to get paid for templates you design? Pixxlz.com features collections from graphic designers and photographers who want to share their work with our customers. Each time someone selects and buys one of your designs, you earn commission. It’s a great way to gain exposure as a designer and earn some extra money for designs you have already created. Interested? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us for info!

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  10. Eco-Friendly Posters With A New Perspective
     

    September 29th, 2009

    Decorating a new apartment isn’t easy… I know from experience. You want to personalize your space with meaningful pieces while staying within your budget. Prints of your own photographs are often a perfect solution. I love taking and printing pictures, but lately I’ve been looking for creative new ways to capture a shot. That’s why I thought this concept from photojojo.com was so clever! They suggest taking a picture frame off the wall and incorporating it into the actual shot. Any size, any shape or color, this is a really interesting way to create varying perspectives into your photograph and really get creative with the process. Frame the subject of your photograph or something in the foreground of the shot; it’s completely up to you!

    Get creative with editing!

    And not only is it fun to stage the pictures; you can also get artistic with the editing process. I love changing the tone from color to sepia or black and white. What about changing only the framed part of the picture?

    Why not take your creativity the extra mile… at Pixxlz.com; you can turn your picture into an 11″ x 17″ poster. We can even mount it for you! Posters from Pixxlz are easy to create and super inexpensive. But don’t give all our secrets away…

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