What is Bonded Leather?
Bonded Leather is a man-made material. It is a composite of natural leather.
A surface texture is embossed to simulate natural leather and the back surface is sprayed to closely match the textured outer surface.
We have adapted
it to our Survivor Spiral™ style menu cover, using thickness weights
comparable to 5-7 oz. of natural rawhide.
Can Bonded Leahter colors be mixed to gain a quantity discount?
Yes, as long as they
are the same size. The number of pouches or sizes can vary
for each color also. For example, several of our customers use two colors of Lexide
to differentiate a Dinner and Lunch menu.
What is Survivor Spiral™ binding?
It is the name for our patented plastic wire spiral
used to bind our
menu covers. The plastic is chemically adhered to wire, unlike electrical wire.
It is stiff and the ends are crimped giving a permanent binding. It was developed when it was found that plastic spirals were inadequate for restaurant menus.
After I receive my menu covers can I add a vinyl pouch later?
No, our patented
Survivor Spiral™ binding has been crimped to prevent it
from unwinding. If it were uncrimped and removed it cannot be put back in
and a new spiral would be required.
If you think you may need another pouch during the life of your menu cover,
we recommend adding it at the time
of your order and
fill it with a marketing page, community events
or a historical account of your restaurant, etc.
How long will my menu covers last?
Our survey has determined it is dependent on
how well they are taken care of.
Which lasts longer, Bonded Leather or Printed covers?
Again, it depends on how well they
are taken care of.
Can a chemical cleaner be used on my menu covers?
No, we recommend
cleaning with a mildly damp soft cloth then dry immediately.
Clip Art
Purchased royalty free art or photos that can be used on any of our products.
Custom Art
Art that we create for a specific job for an additional fee.
Custom Design
A general term meaning a design made for a specific customer which
applies to everything we do. More specifically we mean a design created from scratch for one customer as opposed to a stock design with part of it already printed. It may incorporate clip art, custom art, stock photos or custom photos.
Stock Design
The color work is already printed by us and we only add your logo or copy.
Stock Food Photos
Our proprietary food photos used on Photo Style menus & covers.
Graphic Style Menu
In order to reproduce a color, the printed color is the same as the
ink color.
This method allows tints to be made using the same ink.
For example, a green 1-color menu can have light green on it.
In graphic style menus, as colors are added the design and production expense increases.
So a 6-color menu would cost more than a 1-color menu.
Photo Style Menu
In order to reproduce a color photo on a printing press, a method
was created to do it with just four ink colors. They are Black, Cyan (bluish), Magenta (reddish) and yellow. A printed photo is composed of very tiny dots of these four inks, similar to the dots on your TV screen. This method in combination with computer programs allows us to create spectacular backgrounds, fonts
and graphic effects to create your menu.
What is Resolution?
It refers to the size of the dots on a printed page that create an
image. The smaller the dot (high resolution) the better an image looks. But you can’t start with a few big dots and convert them to lots of small dots
without losing quality. Don’t worry, we have a shop standard
to ensure
good-looking photo images.
What is “The Blanks Program”?
Since the work in designing, preparation for printing
and getting the first menu off the press is so costly, minimum order quantities have been established for laminated menus. However, all of the minimum quantity may not be needed at one time so the ‘Blanks Program” was developed.
It is best explained by an example:
For a Photo Style Laminated menu the minimum order is 300. The restaurateur only needs 100 for his customers. So we would run 300 with the color work
and put copy and prices on 100, then store the other 200 ‘Blanks’ for future completion
with copy and prices. Six months or a year later when
price changes are required
we make the changes in our files
and
print the copy on another 100 of the 'Blanks.'
There is a nominal charge
for making the price changes and putting them on
the press again,
but it keeps the unit price much lower than running
all the
color work 100 at a time. The restaurateur remains
the owner of the blanks throughout the program.
Mini Menus
A small version of a full size menu. They are usually printed in one color,
2 sides on a light weight paper. Your customers will take them back to the office
and home. It also helps reduce the loss of your large laminated menus.