FAQ's

Our main office is located at 130 South 5th Street, Klamath Falls, OR 97601-6189. Our phone number is 541-884-3714 or you can call us toll free at 800-303-3714. We are open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. Use the our Contact Us form to send us an e-mail.

All of our client's information is kept strictly confidential. No information we collect for your order is shared with any other company or website. Your information is only used by our offices to contact you when necessary. Credit Card information is only used to bill you for products and services ordered. Learn More >

Yes, we have templates to help our customers design projects quickly and easily, however we can create custom designs for any print job. Visit our Creative Design Services page for more information on how to create custom designs for all of your business needs.

Most people are surprised at how well their job matches what they see. But because of wide differences in monitor calibration and the different technologies used, some printed colors may not exactly match the colors on your specific monitor. There are color shifts from monitor to monitor and printer to printer. Monitors use RGB colors in the form of light for its color system while printing uses CYMK in the form of inks. Monitors create images using combinations of just three colors: Red, Green and Blue (called "RGB"). These are the primary colors of light, which computers use to display images on your screen. Printing presses print full color pictures using a different set of colors, the primary colors of pigment: Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black (called "CMYK"). This is "4-color process" or "full-color" printing that comprises the majority of magazines and marketing materials you see every day. At some stage your RGB file must be translated to CMYK in order to print it on a printing press.

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At SmithBates we pride ourselves on producing high quality products often on very tight deadlines. Once we know what your needs are we will strive to meet them. Our clients rave about our service and quality, visit our Success Stories page to learn about how we have helped a variety of businesses.

Most of the time, we ship you slightly more than you ordered, free of charge. On occasion, we ship slightly fewer pieces than you ordered. Printing industry trade standards allow for underages of up to 5%. If you plan to send your print order to a mailing list or need a guaranteed quantity, we recommend that you order 5% over the minimum quantity you need.

We require a "paper trail" for all changes made after your initial order is placed. You may make changes to such things as quantity, shipping method, or shipping address. Please note that some changes cannot be made after certain stages in the production process — for instance, the quantity cannot be changed once your job has been printed.

Absolutely! Let us handle the mailing. We can customize your project and mail it directly to your customers or we can create a mailing for you. We can find lists, targeting specific areas or neighborhoods, exactly where your customers or businesses reside. We specialize in 4-color postcards, letters and variable data.

If you are a local customer (Klamath Falls, OR) we can mail your materials from our location using your permit number otherwise we are able to mail from our offices using our mail permit only. Mailing permits are tied to local USPS offices and may only be used in the locality where they are issued. If you you'd like us to address your material and ship it to you, you could use your own permit and mail it from your location.

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Sure, if you have created documents in Word or PowerPoint that contain photos, clip-art, or other color images, you can provide them to us. It is important to know before you give us files in these formats that they are designed for desktop publishing and not viable programs that print the same on every printer. Therefore, when we print your Word document, we might have difficulty with your fonts and graphics. Additionally, we operate primarily on Macintosh machines and keyboards, which use different character sets than PCs, so crossing platforms can result in font substitutions. Screen paths and printer paths will view and/or print incorrectly. This also includes fonts used in logos and embedded artwork. So when sending fonts, it is imperative to include both the screen and printer fonts.

We prefer to have files sent to us in formats from any Mac or PC version of Quark, Pagemaker, InDesign, CorelDRAW!, Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, or any file output as a PDF.

RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue that are used in monitors, television screens, digital cameras and scanners. CMYK refers to the primary colors of pigment: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These are the inks used on the press in "4-color process printing", commonly referred to as "full color printing". The combination of RGB light creates white, while the combination of CMYK inks creates black. Therefore, it is physically impossible for the printing press to exactly reproduce colors as we see them on our monitors. Many programs have the capability to convert the layout/images from the RGB color space to the CMYK color space. We request that you convert your colors from RGB to CMYK if your tools allow you to. By doing it yourself, you have maximum control over the results. You may notice a shift in color when converting from RGB to CMYK. If you do not like the appearance in CMYK, we recommend that you make adjustments while working in CMYK (usually lightening). Generally, you should specify CMYK color builds that look a little lighter than you want, since the dots of ink "fatten up" on press, giving you more pigment on paper than you see on your monitor. Be especially careful to keep backgrounds light if there is black or dark colored text over it, so that the text remains readable.

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Yes! One of our benefits to our customers is our easy to use Online Ordering process. We feature customizable templates for a wide range of products from business cards to stationary to postcards and brochures. Use the online center to create the perfect marketing materials for your company.

We can take your files on a CD, DVD or Zip disk. Or you can e-mail us your files in the following formats: Quark, Pagemaker, InDesign, CorelDRAW!, Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, or any file output as a PDF.

It will vary depending upon your file size, the speed of your Internet connection and the volume of Internet traffic at the time you send it.

If you use America Online (AOL) for your internet connection, you should be aware that AOL can limit your inactivity on the web and disconnect you from the internet if you are not a current, active user. Uploading files appears to be inactivity to AOL. It is recommended that you keep your AOL email account open at the same time you are uploading your files. This can trick AOL programming into thinking you are still active on the internet, thereby preventing the possibility of getting disconnected during your file upload.