Tigstick USB FAQs
Tigstick USBs have lots of options and not everyone knows what they all mean. That’s where we like to step in and give you a bit of extra help.
- How Much Memory?
- What Type of Branding?
- What About Packaging?
- Can USBs be Colour Matched?
- What Are The Artwork Guidelines?
- What does USB 3.0 mean?
How Much Memory?
One of the first things you need to decide is how much memory to include. But what is a megabyte? How does it compare to a gigabyte? And does it even matter?
Computers store information as a series of 1s and 0s. To represent a single character (a letter or a digit), it takes a number made of eight 1s and 0s. That’s a byte. It’s the smallest piece of information a computer can store and that makes it the basic unit of computer memory.
Of course, 1 character (or byte) isn’t a very useful thing to store on its own. But collect enough together and you have an email. Use them to describe different colour squares and you can make a photo. Add lots of photos together and you have a video. And then you can work out how useful a 1GB memory stick is!
| Capacity | Photos | HD Video |
|---|---|---|
| 256mb | 80 | 2 mins |
| 512mb | 165 | 4 mins |
| 1GB | 330 | 8 mins |
| 2GB | 660 | 16 mins |
| 4GB | 1,330 | 32 mins |
| 8GB | 2,660 | 1 hour |
| 16GB | 5,300 | 2 hours |
| 32GB | 10,600 | 4 hours |
What Type of Branding?
There are several ways to get your client’s logo onto their chosen USB. Screen print, CMYK print, resin dome and laser engraving. But which should you use? This quick guide will help you work it out!
Screen Print
Screen printing uses inks mixed to a specific Pantone colour. That makes it ideal for getting a good colour match. And because the inks are opaque, you can print on any colour, including black! You do need a generally flat area for screen print to work properly, but the inks are tough and stay put on any material.
Laser Engraving
It’s just as high-tech as it sounds! A powerful laser burns into the glossy surface of a metal USB which changes the colour and makes gives a matt finish. Its only one colour and can’t represent shadows or gradients, but it is very hard wearing. Laser engraving is only suitable for metal USBs.
CMYK Print
CMYK works in the same way as a desktop printer. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks are sprayed on in varying amounts to give a full range of colours. This makes it great for designs with shadows and gradients. However, because the inks are translucent, the colour of the USB body can show though. That’s fine on silver metal or white plastic, but you won’t see anything if you print on black! Because the inks are sprayed on, curves and small bumps can be covered, which can give a larger print area on some USBs.
Resin Dome
Resin domes are made from several parts. A paper label is printed and applied to the reverse of the clear resin dome. Then an adhesive pad is applied to the back and the whole thing sticks to the USB. Printing on paper means you can achieve all the detail and colours you could need. The resin itself forms a shield over the print, which keeps it looking great for a long time. The dome is tough and not very flexible, so it does need to be stuck to a perfectly flat surface. This means that not all USBs are suitable for resin domes.
What about Packaging?
Our job isn’t over until your client recieves their USBs, undamaged and in good working order. Which means that how they are packaged is an important part of our service.
Standard Packaging
Our USBs ship as standard individually wrapped in PP bags, bundled in 5s and bulk packed. Of course we are careful to make sure that this is a completely white label service. There will be no mention of Kan on any packaging.
Presentation Packaging
Sometimes your client may want to use their USBs as more of an exclusive gift rather than a giveaway item. We can help there too. Our range of presentation boxes can be used to upgrade from simple to special!
White Card Box
The simplest of our extra packaging options. A simple white card box which gives extra protection to the USB. It can also be used to keep extra accessories safely with the USB. We can also print to the box if required.
Magnetic Plastic Box
The translucent plastic box with magnetic catch makes your USB feel like they something a bit more than a cheap freebie! The padded interior is cut to fit the exact style of USB and can also leave room for extra accessories.
Magnetic Card Box
Being able to print the whole surface of the magentic card box just adds to the high quality feeling of this premium box.
Metal Tin
The metal tin is definitely the hardest wearing of all our premium packaging. It could well be the best looking too!
Can USBs be Colour Matched?
Most of our USBs and their component parts can be colour matched. There is often a range of standard colours and Pantone matching is also available. Please note: There is a minimum order of 50 units for Pantone Matching. For orders of more than 1,000 units there is no charge for Pantone matching.
What are the Artwork Guidelines?
Vector artwork in PDF format is often the best choice for branded USBs. It is important to bear in mind the small size of USBs, especially for text. We reccomend a minimum point size of 4pt for text to remain readable, but this can vary depending on the exact font and colour used.
Spot colour printing requires vector artwork. Due to the small printing area, gradients and shading cannot be printed in spot colours. CMYK printing should be used instead for these effects.
CMYK colour prints should be vector files where possible. Images at 300dpi at final print size are also acceptable. Any white shown in your artwork will not be printed.
Our minimum line thickness is approx. 0.12mm (0.34pt). When printing lines slightly thinner than this, ink spread will make the line appear thicker, roughly at minimum line thickness. Much thinner lines may fail to print at all. Negative spaces (i.e. gaps between two printed areas) will need to be approximately 0.15mm (0.42pt) or ink spread may cause them to be filled in.
What does USB 3.0 mean?
When the USB standard was first launched, in the 1990’s, Apple had never made a phone and floppy disks were still a thing. But of course, like the rest of technology, USB has not stood still.
The latest update is called Superspeed! Or the slightly less dramatic USB 3.0. As you can probably guess from the name, this allows much faster communication between devices and much faster copying of files. Of course USB is clever enough that it will still work in good old-fashoined USB 2.0 plugs, you just don’t get the speed boost.
As standard, our USBs are supplied with USB 2.0 connectors. For an extra cost, we can change them to USB 3.0 connectors and you can get all the benefit of that extra speed. Just look for the tell-tale blue plugs to see if you could benefit.
Need to show your clients this info? Send them to our unbranded, Custom-Gadgets site, all the information they need and no mention of us!