Now that you've selected the greatest stress ball for your upcoming event or trade show, it's time to decide what to have printed. If you want your custom stress ball to look its very best, read on for some stress ball-specific tips to help you create a flawless imprint for your next promotion!

Circle Printing / Round Imprint

The imprint area for most stress ball shapes is round (since a lot of stress balls are round!). While round imprints provide more than ample space for you to customize your item, they can make it difficult to print large amounts of information, especially text. The best way to get around that, and get the most out of your imprint area, is to curve the text around the perimeter of the imprint area. The good news? Here at Perkal Corporate Gifts & Promotional Clothing we provide free curved artwork!
Straight-Line Copy

This section only applies to stress balls that are round or have a raised or arched imprint area, like our Earth Stress Reliever, Brain Stress Reliever, or Heart Stress Reliever. When we're printing copy in a straight line or a geometric box on a round surface area, the imprint can become distorted. Our experienced staff will do everything in their power to keep the distortion to a minimum, but it is likely some curvature of the imprint will occur.
Font Selection

There are two main types of fonts: serif and sans serif (no serif). A serif is a feature of the letters in a given typeset. Serifs are small ticks that appear at the end of a line in a letter. An example would be the letter "T" in Times New Roman. At the end of each horizontal line is a little tick that hangs down. That's the serif!

Serif fonts include Times New Roman, Bookman Oldstyle, and Courier. On the flipside, sans serif fonts are pretty straightforward. Put simply, sans serif fonts are fonts that do not have serifs! Examples of sans serif fonts include Ariel, Helvetica, and Verdana.

Why does it matter? Well, when you are printing in a small imprint area (as you are with most stress balls), proper spacing is required to ensure serifs don't fill in or bleed into one another. Another issue you can run into with serif fonts is that the serif may disappear if it is too thin or narrow to "take" while on the press, or it can appear thicker than the original proof. For these reasons, we recommend either using sans serif fonts or spacing out the letters in your artwork to prevent your type from bleeding when printed.
Keep in mind that ink runs about .01 in. to .02 in. depending on thickness.

Please choose sans-serifs or space your lettering to prevent your art from closing up when printed.
Things to Avoid
Large Amounts of Text/Copy

When it comes to printing stress balls, it's best to keep it simple. If your design is too complex, you run the risk of your imprint looking less than amazing. And you deserve the best!

We know it's hard to hear, but it's important to resist the temptation to include a logo, tagline, address, phone number, website, and business hours on your custom stress relievers. Pick and choose the most pertinent information needed on your imprinted stress balls to help you achieve your marketing goals.

We highly recommend avoiding excessive text and/or ad copy. The more information you include, the smaller the contents of your imprint will be, and you'll run the risk of your imprint bleeding. With less information, the contents of your imprint will be larger and more crisp. By keeping it simple, you're guaranteed a quality, eye-catching imprint!
White Ink With Narrow Markings

Most of our stress balls can be ordered in a variety of colors. Most often, a white ink imprint is the best option when it comes to selecting a universal imprint color that will look great on an item of any color. While white ink is usually an ideal imprint color, it should NOT be used if the imprint/design contains very narrow markings, fine detail, or thin type.

If you use white ink in any of those instances, the background color of the stress ball can overpower your imprint, giving it a faded appearance and making it difficult to read. The thicker or heavier your imprint, the better the white ink will appear when printed. If your artwork does contain narrow markings, fine detail, or thin type, we usually recommend a black imprint (except of course on black stress balls).

A little knowledge and flexibility will go a long way toward making your stress ball order a success! If all else fails, having Quality Logo Products on your side will ensure that your design looks incredible!