At Gilson, we believe that progress and sustainability go hand in hand. As a marketing solutions provider and commercial printer, we’ve evolved over the years to meet our clients’ challenges while staying true to our commitment to the environment.
The PrintReleaf Exchange [PRX] is a patented software platform that empowers businesses to sustain and grow our global forestry system…one print job at a time.
Gilson partnered with PrintReleaf in June 2023 as part of an ongoing need for sustainability options for our customers. All applicable print jobs (paper/corrugate based) can now be estimated via PrintReleaf, allowing customers to choose to offset their paper usage through reforestation.
Gilson customers who have sustainability goals will be pleased to know they now have an avenue to be connected with a network of reforestation projects, which allows them to reduce their organization’s environmental impact by automatically planting trees where the planet needs them most–all through PrintReleaf’s robust online dashboard.
Measurement
Through PrintReleaf, paper consumption is measured and trees are automatically reforested across our global network of certified reforestation projects to continually offset a customer’s environmental impact.
PrintReleaf guarantees every sheet of paper a customer consumes will be reforested at a rate of 8,333 sheets of standard letter (8.5 × 11″ 20lb paper) or 37.16kg per tree (40ft height × 7in width or 12.192m × 0.1778m).
This open-source formula is widely and generally accepted as the industry standard as established by the Environmental Paper Network. The Environmental Paper Network is a coalition of over one hundred global organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Certification
PrintReleaf certifies the reforestation of each customer’s forest footprint according to the measurement and calculations defined in the PrintReleaf Standard.
When their forest footprint is reforested, customers are issued certificates for trees planted at reforestation projects of their choice.
These certificates serve as living documents which are automatically updated when the trees are planted, audited, and verified survived over an eight year timeline.
How to get started?
Gilson Graphics is an Authorized Reforestation Partner of PrintReleaf. Contact your Account Executive to quote your next project using PrintReleaf and set up your own organization-specific dashboard.
For more informations on PrintReleaf, please visit PrintReleaf.com
We believe in keeping you informed about developments that could impact your experience with Gilson, and we want to make sure you’re aware of a potential situation involving UPS.
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 1, 2023
—
Due to a change in Pantone’s 2023 licensing agreement with Adobe, customers will need to purchase Pantone Connect licenses to access Pantone colors in Adobe Creative Cloud products.
What does this mean for Gilson customers?
According to their website, “Pantone Connect is sold as an online subscription that includes a Web portal, mobile app, and integration into Adobe Creative Cloud apps via a plugin extension. Pantone Connect is available in a free or premium version. The premium version is required to use the Pantone Libraries in Adobe Creative Cloud apps.” Gilson recommends the premium version to ensure continuity of your brand’s colors, and to maximize the functionality of your Adobe Creative Cloud license.
RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2023
—
Adobe no longer supports document authoring with Type 1 fonts. Type 1 fonts, also known as PostScript, PS1, T1, Adobe Type 1, Multiple Master, or MM are a format within the font industry that has been replaced by larger glyph sets.
What does this mean for Gilson customers?
If your print file is built using Type 1 fonts, Adobe software no longer recognizes the fonts. Print-ready PDFs will still function, but if any edits need to be made to the native files, it may take significant rework to replace the fonts and adjust the document due to small differences in the fonts and ligatures, which can result in reflow of text blocks, pages, and tables.
According to the Adobe website, “Type 1 data embedded in file types such as EPS and PDF will be unaffected by this change, as long as they are placed for display or printing as graphic elements. If those files are opened for editing in applications such as Illustrator or Photoshop, they will trigger a “Missing fonts” error.”
Gilson strongly encourages all customers using Adobe Creative Suite to check their files for the use of Type 1 fonts and ensure that all files are built using TrueType or OpenType fonts going forward to avoid delays in production and avoid costs related to rebuilding customer-supplied files.
During a webinar on navigating the current pandemic crisis, our team watched a clip from the iconic movie Forrest Gump. If you’ve seen the movie, you certainly remember the scene: Lieutenant Dan is out in the middle of a hurricane, whooping and hollering right in the thick of the storm, while others are hunkered down on the shore.
When the storm finally cleared, all those who sat idle on the shore were dashed to bits. Forrest and Lieutenant Dan had survived by leaning into the storm and navigating the rough waters with courage.
The COVID-19 crisis is the storm of the century. We could have sat idle, waiting for the storm to pass. Instead, we leaned right in.
Early on in the pandemic, Gilson was labeled an essential service by several of our customers as a critical component in their supply chain. We have risen to the challenge and continue to evolve, adapt, and adjust while keeping our employees and their families safe and healthy. While challenges abound, we are encouraged by the positivity that surrounds us:
- We are thankful for the flexibility of our employees. For those who have volunteered to continue to work on-site supporting the essential businesses for which we provide critical materials, as well as those who stay diligent in working from home while balancing closures in schools and child care centers and co-working with their spouses, kids, and pets.
- We are thankful that we are able to continue to provide services for many of our customers who are providing necessary services for our society. We are producing critical information and materials related to preventing the spread of the virus in our communities. We were even able to assist with the manufacturing of critical safety components for use in the medical field this past week, with more opportunities to do so in the pipeline. The ingenuity of our customers never ceases to astound us, and we are thankful for that.
- We are thankful for the advent of video conferencing, and for our fantastic IT department for keeping us up and running and ‘virtually’ face-to-face with each other and our customers.
- We are thankful that our business has evolved over the years to include services that we can provide remotely, such as agency/design services and document composition. We are in a better position than ever to weather a storm of this nature, and we are thankful for the decisions we made years ago that have led us to this place.
- We are thankful for the stable financial position of our company due to conservative fiscal policies over the years, and the security it affords us as we all face uncertain and difficult times ahead.
- We are thankful for the ability to collaborate with our peers and colleagues, many of whom we are often ‘too busy’ to engage with on a strategic level. Having this time to think critically and generate new ideas in the face of adversity will undoubtedly lead to new opportunities once the clouds have parted and the waters have calmed.
- We are thankful for the opportunity to take a fresh look at how we approach customer outreach, as trade shows and in-person events are no longer a viable option for connecting with industry peers. We’ve been able to have more specific and personal conversations with customers that we wouldn’t have had in a community environment.
As this unprecedented storm rages on, rest assured that Gilson will continue to batten down the hatches and ride the waves right alongside our customers.
We’re all in the same boat, and we could not be more thankful for that.
For more on Gilson’s response to the global health crisis, please visit: gilsongraphics.com/covid-19-prevention
