Most great inventions come from necessity. I’m not saying our web app SuperLame is anywhere near as important as say, the microwave or I don’t know, energy drinks, but it has it’s place. About a year ago I thought to myself, self, there’s not anywhere on the internet to go to quickly and easily add comic word balloons to photos. Yeah, it’s not a revolutionary idea, but if you search the tubes for an app like I’ve just described you’d be hard pressed to find anything as fast, easy, or quality as Superlame.com.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?

OK, so SuperLame was an internal project done by us, BeOriginal. We funded and created the site and continue to support it. What is it? Well, I was about to tell you. SuperLame is simply an online web tool/app for anyone to upload a photo, add comic balloons, then save that photo to use for whatever. That’s it, simple right? When did all this nonsense start? Well, I was hanging a picture above my toilet when I fell and hit my head, the next thing I remember was waking up and building the flux capacitor, wait… no, sorry, different story. So, from idea to working beta, because it’s not web 2.0 if it’s not beta, the app and site took around eight (8) days to develop. Since then we’ve continued to update and improve the site, adding such features as comic style sound effects “Whoopa!”. As for the where… well that’s kind of stupid, I’ll just say, the internet. Why? I kind of already covered that in the first paragraph. Basically, whether there was a need or not, I saw one and wanted to do something about it, if for no other reason than to just do it. Now we get to the meaty stuff, the how. Simple answer, computers.

More On How We Did It

Yeah computers were involved, but computers don’t do squat without fingers to mash keys and a brain to tell those fingers what keys to mash. I forgot what I was saying. Anyway, the main SuperLame application was built in Adobe Flash using Actionscript 3. If you know what that is great, if not, it’s basically the tech on the web that let’s you watch all those stupid lip syncing videos on YouTube. Flash allows the creation of very feature rich and interactive web applications and web sites, and that’s why we used it. With that said, while Flash played a large role in the user experience and front end of the application, PHP, another very popular and useful web language played a pivotal role behind the scenes. PHP stands for… well, I’m not exactly sure, in fact I don’t think the first P stands for anything. Hold on, let me “wiki” it… OK, yep the first P is stupid, but the rest supposedly stands for Hypertext PreProcessor. Guess it should technically be HPP, but that just doesn’t roll of the tongue the same way. <sarcasm>Anyway, I’m sure that helps you understand it better.</sarcasm> Oh, and if you didn’t get that last joke, the one with the <tag> stuff, it’s just stupid web developer “humor”, I’m sorry. And on that note, I think I’ll wrap this up before I go even farther off course.

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Should I use a “Gang Printer”?

We would first like to state that there is a place in the market for all levels of print quality and delivery. This article is going to focus primarily on “Gang Printers”. So, what is a gang printer and what should be considered in balancing the cost of such a printer?

What is a “Gang Printer”?

A “Gang Printer” is a printer that has a large printing press that handles a large sheet size of paper, possibly 22″ x 26″ or larger. The printer will take on print projects from as many as 20 different customers, all with the same print project – such as post card. Then once he has enough to fill the print sheet he will run 1,000 sheets or more of paper with all 20 customers on the same sheet. This makes economical since, however it doesn’t leave the press operator with much leeway to make corrections in color density to any one of the post cards.Decide Before You DesignWhether you are the marketing director or the designer, a few basic decisions need to be made before ANY concepts or designs are put to paper.

Consider Your Time

First is, how long of a lead time do you have. This is critical due to the fact that “gang printers” wait until they have enough projects to put on press to make it profitable. Thus their lead times are usually longer. So if you are not pressed for time you can consider saving money.

Consider Your Content

Second, is color a critical criteria on this particular project. There are a few inherent pitfall that should be considered in the concept and design process that will either improve or reduce the quality of the finish piece if you choose to use a gang printer. If possible do not use models or show people in the deice, as skin tones are more difficult to reproduce accurately if the press mans hands are tied. Very small tones and hues in skin color can make a big difference in the final quality of the printing.

Consider Your Layout

An additional pitfall you should be aware of is where you place large areas of solid colors on the final design. This can lead to a ghosting of a color across an area that should have no ink on it at all.

There are additional factors you should keep in mind before considering using a “gang printer”. Gang printing can make good economical sense if you approach it with all the facts. If not you could get burned.