877.678.6537
GROWLL’s customer support center is open from 8:30am-5:30 PM EST, Monday through Friday. You may call us toll-free at 877.678.6537 or contact us by chat (upper right banner on any page) or via email at info@GROWLL.com. If you reach us outside of staffed support hours, simply leave a brief, detailed message, and a customer support rep will respond as soon as the office opens the following day.
To maximize your time with customer support, please refer to the documentation under our Resources and FAQ tabs before calling. Our reps have extensive knowledge about printing and about GROWLL’s particular products, services, and capabilities.
While we welcome calls, messages, and emails, we do not provide direct links to our email addresses in an effort to prevent spam. We thank you for understanding.
While our website is accessible around the clock for job orders and file submissions, our turnaround times are based on standard business days – weekends and federal holidays excepted. All online print orders, art, and proof approvals received on weekends or holidays will be processed on the next standard business day before 9:00am EST.
Typically, our turnaround times are one business day for proofs and 3-5 business days for standard printing. Longer turnarounds apply to booklets, certain stocks and orders over 50,000 pieces. Add an additional 1-2 business days for mailing projects. As you’re putting together your order, the built-in calculator will generate a more specific turnaround time based on your chosen products.
All products printed by Growll ship via FedEx. When large orders are processed, more economical shipping options may be explored. Expedited services are also available if you need quicker turnaround times. Please call 1.877.678.6537 for more information.
Our guaranteed program is offered on brochures, business cards, postcards, and rack cards when using only 100# gloss text or 14-point C2S for quantities under 50,000 and with an aqueous coating. All guaranteed products are based on proof approval. Please allow one business day for all PDF proofs. Our production day ends at 9:00am EST.
All orders approved on Saturday or Sunday will process as if approved on Monday before 9:00am EST. All orders approved on holidays will process as if approved the following business day before 9:00am EST.
If time is tight or you’re certain of the quality of your file and would like to expedite the approval process, GROWLL offers Fast Track proofing.
Largely automated, this method of quick proofing invites you to upload your final file and check over the print-ready PDF proof that we return to you within minutes. Once you’ve approved your proof online, your order is routed immediately to production.
Fast Track proofing is a great time-saver. However, it is intended only for high-quality PDF files and is best used by members who have a strong familiarity with printing standards or who are reasonably sure that their files have been carefully vetted. It has been our experience that programs like Adobe InDesign® are well suited to producing files intended for Fast Track proofing.
Should you choose this proofing option, please realize that once you have approved the PDF proof, no changes are possible, and any errors that result are your responsibility. Reprints will incur additional charges.
Since GROWLL is a gang run print facility, we do not guarantee critical color matching. If such an assessment is a priority, we recommend that you purchase a hard copy proof, which allows you to view colors as accurately as possible before your project is printed. If you’re not satisfied with the representation on the proof, you can then make appropriate adjustments. Hard copy proofs do come at an additional cost, but they also have the potential to save you time and money in the long run. Pricing for hard copy proofs is available online as you’re placing an order, or you may contact a customer service rep at 877.678.6537 during regular business hours for details.
In a word, no. Colors appearing on a monitor are produced very differently from printed colors, and variations in color calibration on monitors and printers can complicate visual perception, along with the light (artificial or natural) in your immediate environment. If color accuracy is critical for your project, we recommend that you order a hard copy proof.
While color perception can vary for many reasons, the major difference is due to the way the human eye views transmitted light vs. reflected light. The transmitted images you see on a computer monitor are displayed in RGB format, where the base colors of Red, Green, and Blue compose all other colors and combine to form white light. Printed materials, on the other hand, are produced using CMYK inks, where the base colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black compose all other colors. They also combine to form black ink and are viewed as light reflected from a surface.
CMYK images are the truest colors, exhibiting great richness and depth. When you hold them up to the images on your monitor, the color variance is noticeable. It’s made more distinct given issues with calibration, which also factors into color perception. Wide differences in monitor and printer calibration make it impossible to match colors precisely, further complicating the visual perception. For this added reason, it’s important to order a hard copy proof if you want to see how the colors you’ve specified appear on a print piece.
To promote the color components of your print job, we suggest that customers create documents from the beginning using CMYK color mode.
To thoroughly evaluate your proof and identify potential errors, please observe the following guidelines. They’ll help make sure that your job is exactly as you want it to be prior to printing:
Orientation can be a difficult concept to convey with so many options available. Jobs processed by GROWLL will always back up head-to-head. This means that the top of the first and second pages, as seen on-screen in your PDF, will align when backed up to each other.
To check your job for proper backup, we recommend printing your PDF proof and aligning the pieces of paper back-to-back, making sure that the “Top of Sheet” mark on both sheets points in the same direction.
Below is an example of a fold-over business card. In all cases – no matter the product – your PDF pages will back each other up by flipping side to side. The illustration shows how the pages in your PDF should be oriented in order to produce the correct outcome. (See Fig. 1.3)
Fig. 1.3
If you are still unsure if your job is oriented correctly, please contact one of our customer service reps to help you understand your proof.
Our Fast Track proofing system adds a dashed red line to your PDF proof to ensure that your file prints as intended. The dashed red line represents the trim of your product according to your submitted file's trim box setting. Anything outside of the red dashed line will be cut off of the finished product.
If your submitted file has no defined trim box, we will center your art in a page of the same size as the order placed. For example, if you submit a PDF file with a document size of 11" wide by 8.5" tall with artwork for a business card 3.5" wide by 2" tall, we will center the 11"x 8.5" document in a 3.5" x 2" area.
In addition, GROWLL maintains standard preflight settings for Acrobat in a downloadable KFP file. It provides important information on the various components we check before printing. By downloading this file and applying it to your own PDFs, you will receive alerts if inconsistencies appear, and you can correct the problems before submitting files to us.
GROWLL's internal printing procedures are based on multi-page PDF files, and we request that customers use this format when they send us documents. For expediency, it is only necessary for you to submit one (1) PDF file for each product we print. For example, if you are ordering a 2-sided product, you should provide us with a single file that includes one (1) page for the front artwork and one (1) page for the back artwork, i.e., a 2-page (multi-page) PDF file.
If you’re using layout software such as Indesign or Quark, creating multiple pages in the same document and exporting everything as a PDF yields the desired results. Other software packages are also capable of generating multiple pages in a document and producing a multi-page PDF file. Please consult your software manual for more specific instructions. If you need assistance, our customer service reps are happy to help answer your questions.
Fast Track proofing is designed to speed up the wait time between submitting your files and having them routed to the press. If you’re confident in the files you submit, Fast Track proofing is a great alternative to our customary procedure. To simplify the process, GROWLL offers downloadable PDF presets with predetermined settings to help you format and design your print pieces according to GROWLL’s production standards. While these settings won’t affect the appearance of your finished product, they can help keep it moving through GROWLL’s print pipeline
Utilizing our PDF Presets also prevents you from having to generate your own crop marks and figure out other GROWLL-appropriate settings. That means less of a hassle, less time, and less opportunity for problems.
Your submitted materials must meet the following requirements to be processed as a Fast Track proof:
Artwork must be uploaded as a single PDF for each product. If, for example, you order three business cards, you should have three files. Fast-track proofing only permitsONE PDF to be uploaded per product. For products that have artwork on the front and the back, we ask that you submit 1 PDF containing 2 pages within the PDF- the first page being the front artwork and the second page being the back artwork. If you upload more than 1 file into our Fast-track proofing system- it will pull the most recently uploaded file- overriding what has previously been uploaded. Growll is not responsible for errors or delays caused by incorrect submissions All security settings on your PDF must be removed prior to submission.
Artwork for each page of your product needs to be centered on its own corresponding page within the trim box of the PDF. The size of the entire PDF page, including any bleeds, marks, or white space, does not matter as long as the artwork is the correct size and centered within the trim box. Do not put the front and back of a single product on the same PDF page, and do not set up more than one copy of your product on a single page.
Your crop marks should match the finished size of the product you’re ordering. If a variation exists between your file’s crop marks and the finished size of the template, GROWLL will center your artwork based on the file’s crop marks.
Your product will be centered based on the trim box instead of the crop marks of the PDF. In most cases, crop marks and trim boxes are set to be the same. Trim boxes are helpful in interpreting the size of a custom order.
If your file contains unsuitable crop marks (e.g., ones that are manually “drawn” or rasterized), our system may fail to recognize the trim and orientation of your art. This discrepancy could result in a finished product that does not meet your expectations. Please contact a customer service rep if you need details about the guidelines.
If you’re uncertain how to define the page boxes when creating a PDF, or if your layout software does not support them, just ensure that your artwork is centered in your PDF page as mentioned above. In rare cases, an undefined trim box could result in the system failing to correctly recognize the orientation of the file, as indicated by the red trim box overlay on your proof. Please contact customer service if you have any questions.
PDF – art is centered based on the size of the product ordered and on crop marks
Fast Track – art is centered based on trim box, not crop marks
To find out what your trim box is, go to Acrobat, Preferences, General, and check the box labeled “show trim” [show screen capture]
Please have artwork oriented correctly in native files before outputting to PDF, or the rotations may not stay selected.
Photoshop will only let you have a trim box, not a bleed box. This trim box will always be the size of your Photoshop canvas.
Trim box issues occur with Fast Track jobs more than with the 19-point checklist. Prepress will reset the trim box if there’s a problem associated with it, but only when a PDF 19-point proof is ordered. Fast Track proofs utilize whatever is already there. With a 19-point checklist, just make sure the trim boxes are the same throughout the file
If you rotate pages in a PDF file, the trim box will not rotate, which will change the orientation of your file when ordering a Fast Track proof. Rotations need to be “normalized” in Acrobat in order for them to take effect.
GROWLL accepts PDF or PS files from the following applications for both Macintosh and Windows:
Adobe Illustrator (.ai, .eps, .pdf)
Adobe InDesign (.indd, .pdf)
Adobe Photoshop (.psd, .tiff, .eps, .jpg, .pdf)
QuarkXPress (.qxd, .pdf)
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Publisher (Windows Only)
Microsoft Word
PDF/Acrobat
Scanned images should be saved in a .tiff or .eps format to ensure the best color and sharpness possible.
File formats such as .gif or .jpg compress the picture and can cause it to look blurry and off-color when printed.
At GROWLL, we understand that, on occasion, changes to original orders are necessary. To ensure that the appropriate alterations are made, all revisions must be communicated to a customer service representative via email or phone call.
Please realize that a change made to any order is subject to a $20 charge following approval. While we will make every effort to accommodate your request, if the change is unable to be implemented, GROWLL will not be held responsible as long as the job is produced as originally ordered. In the event that such a situation occurs, we will refund your $20 change fee.
If your order is placed incorrectly and it is vital that it be corrected, we recommend that you cancel your order prior to approval and reorder. Please refer to the Terms & Conditions for an explanation of charges. If the order is cancelled after art files have been uploaded, additional cancellation fees will apply. A minimum cancellation fee of 5% of your order total will be deducted from your refund. Please call us if cancelling and re-placing an order.
Once a job is approved, the only changes that will be honored are those made to shipping. However, if your job has been approved for more than one business day, even shipping changes cannot be guaranteed.
To ensure that every order is given a proper level of attention, we request that you create a separate order for each name.
Yes, we offer rounded corners featuring 1/8", 1/4", or 3/8" radii. These corners are not die cut. Please call a customer service rep at 877.678.6537 for a quick quote on specifying round corners for your job.
We try to place all options that carry additional charges, like hard copy proofs, up front in the ordering process. That way, customers know exactly what the final price will be before any order is placed. However, it’s impossible to plan for every contingency, especially if changes become necessary, so we recommend that customers contact a customer service representative to inquire about any possible fees when making changes.
NCOA stands for National Change of Address. It is a database provided by USPS to help update addresses for people who have moved or are about to move and have notified USPS of a forwarding address. It can help you be more successful in your mailings by finding your customers at the correct address.
PAF stands for Processing Acknowledgement Form. The USPS requires this acknowledgement in order to use NCOA.
The PAF is not required to do mailing in growll.com. You only need to sign a PAF if you want to NCOA your lists. We recommend using NCOA to help your mailings be more successful.
If you already have a non-profit mail owner set up in the system, the only change will be that we will require you to now sign the NCOA PAF Form to enable you to use NCOA.
In certain cases this can be done. However, if your customer requires NCOA, then your customer would need to sign the NCOA PAF Form, which does have growll.com’s name on it.
We would prefer it for growll.com to generate a new mailer id for you to avoid having duplicate bar codes which could lead to fines from the USPS.
All products printed by GROWLL ship via FedEx, and details depend largely on the shipping method you’ve selected. You may choose from FedEx Ground, FedEx Saver (3 Day), 2 Day, and Overnight Standard (Next Day) on most products. Posters and some orders with larger quantities ship via FedEx Freight.
When large orders are processed, more economical shipping options may be explored. Expedited services are also available if you need quicker turnaround times. Please call 877.678.6537 for more information.
If we fail to ship your order by the guaranteed delivery date, we will – upon request – refund the amount of your expedited charges for the current order and issue a coupon valid for the same amount for your future use on an expedited order. The coupon is valid for 90 days.
Certain other restrictions also apply, so please note GROWLL’s Terms & Conditions.
A major component of GROWLL’s ability to offer its members low prices is the automation of our printing capabilities. All procedures are coordinated for maximum output and efficiency, and integration of third-party shippers is not currently included as an element of this carefully regulated production flow.
We understand that some local customers prefer to pick up their jobs rather than ship them and we are happy to provide this option. However, because these orders do not have the same time constraints as an order being shipped via FedEx, we sometimes process these orders after hours. Due to this fact,orders are not guaranteed to be ready to be picked up until the morning after their given ship date. Customers will receive an email from us when their order is ready to be picked up. Please note there is a pick up fee, which is based on a percentage of your project’s weight.
