Three dimensional, unusual, uneven and round promotional items or giveaway or those made out of special materials can present particular difficulties when it comes to printing them with colour or high-quality advertisements. Pad printing has established itself as one of the solutions in this application fpor this kind of promotional products.
Pad printing is an indirect gravure printing process for different kinds of promotional items and giveaway which distinguishes itself with its efficiency and relatively low costs. First, the metal or plastic printing plate is covered in ink and then the superfluous ink is wiped off. The ink is transferred to a highly elastic pad (silicon rubber) which is then used to transfer it to the three-dimensional promotional products. This process allows good printing quality on the promotional items and giveaway, especially for small fonts.
This makes it the ideal printing process for promotional products which only have a small advertising surface, such as key rings, writing implements or vehicles, as well as promotional items and giveaway with uneven surfaces. Pad printing is the most important process for printing advertising materials and all kind of promotional products; an advertising industry without it would be unthinkable.

The Pantone Matching System is based on 14 colours which are mixed with each other in specific proportions to produce the rest of the system’s colours. They are presented in a fan format (Pantone Formula Guides) and a ring book (Pantone Solid Chips Books).

The Pantone Matching System is printed on three different types of paper:
- coated,
- uncoated
- matte

Apart from the colours, the sections include further colour information e.g. the mixing proportions of basic colours (colour formula). The same colour formula is used for all paper types, meaning that the appearance of a specific colour may vary according to different paper qualities used.

The goal when developing the Pantone Matching System was not to establish a uniform appearance of the colours irrespective of the substrate, but rather to use a standard colour formula on the various types of paper. It is for this reason that pantone special colours are not only labelled with a code, but also with the respective paper abbreviation (C for coated, U for uncoated and M for matte).

By the production of promotional products, giveaway and promotional items mostly the customers provide with their logo the print colours in Pantone numbers. The advantage for the manufacturer of promotional products is, that he know exactly in which kind of printing colour he must print the logo on the giveaway and promotional items.

Normally by the production for the print of the logos on promotional products there will be choose the U numbers. For the production of promotional items and giveaway, the Pantone numbers are a worldwide standard for the print colours.

The Pantone Matching System has established itself as the international standard in the design and printing industry. Pantone is a registered trademark of Pantone Europe GmbH.

A technical innovation – an object or a process – can be protected by means of a PATENT, as long as it is new inventive. "New" means that the technical innovation has not yet become public anywhere.  Whether or not an invention is "inventive" can be determined by reference to the current state of technology.

The requirements for regular users who are not familiar with commercial legal practice are not all that strict. The competent patent office will assess whether an invention is eligible for a patent as part of the registration process.

There is also a more cost-effective method of protection of objects, namely design protection. Under specific circumstances, protection can be applied for within six months of making an invention public. In addition to this, the restrictions on detrimental pre-releases are somewhat stricter than for patents. The maximum protection duration is also short, at 10 years. Utility designs are registered on application without a check on whether the design actually constitutes an invention. As a result, registration of design protection does not necessarily mean that the object in question is an invention.

By the production of promotional products, patents are als very important. Mostly the promotional items or giveaway are patented products and can't produced from other manufacturer.

Piqué is a light fabric with waffle-like or grainy texture. It feels particularly light and pleasant on the skin. Piqué’s structure also makes it very absorbent.
These positive characteristics make woven piqué a favourite for use this fabrics for textile promotional products in sports shirts and blouses, in home textiles and for towels and sauna towels. Knitted piqué is typically used in classic polo shirts as promotional items or giveaway.

The smallest constituent (matrix dot) of a digital display is referred to as a pixel (abbr. = picture element). Resolution in pixels is carried out by the computerised coding of all the data detected beforehand by a scanner.

Advertising material and promotional products which are used at the place of transaction: Display windows, displays, banners, posters, audio-visual product demonstrations, promotional items, giveaway etc.

Point-of-Sale (POS), place where a sale is carried out. The POS is a very popular place for the distribution of promotional products on potential customers. Interested customer receive promotional items and giveaways which make a longterm promotional effect for the promoted products on the POS.

Polar fleece (or microfleece) is a knitted fibre fleece fabric with a breathable character. It is exceptionally light, windproof and water-repellent. It also absorbs body moisture and channels it to the outside, keeping the skin warm and dry.
Polar fleece is used in the clothing industry or also for textile promotional products.
Outerwear with a breathable membrane is a perfect supplement to polar fleece underwear in the winter months and very popular as promotional items and giveaway. Polar fleece is often used as a lining in jackets.

Polyester is a fully synthetic chemical fibre. It is produced in widely varying structures and thicknesses and is often mixed with other fibres. Polyester dries especially quickly and is resistant against shrinkage and stretching.
It is therefore ideal for the manufacture of textile promotional products of sportswear, swimwear, dresses, costumes and underwear, as well as for ties and scarves which are used as promotional items and giveaway.

Polypropylene (PP) is a fascinating material: it keeps its shape, is non-slip and versatile for a lot of effective and expressive promotional products and advertising materials.
A lot of promotional items and giveaway are manufactured with the Polypropylene (PP) material. Plastic pens, radio cases, keychains etc. and a lot of other different products are produced with this material for nice promotional items and giveaway and are useful and immediately serviceable promotional products.

Popeline is a particularly thick material made from the yarn of fine cotton, wool or synthetic fibre. Preferable for popeline is the manufacture of textile promotional items and giveaway as sports shirts, blouses and coats. Popeline is characterised by its finely ribbed structure and delicate sheen and very popular for different kinds of textile promotional products.

A pressure sample is a sample print on promotional items or on a giveaway on a piece of material to verify the quality of your promotional products. A pressure sample from promotional products is processed to compare tone and color shade of the sample with your original item. This way you can control the quality of the promotional items and giveaway before the final production process.

For the printing of the customer logos on the promotional items and giveaway, it needs a picture carrier (cliché), made of metal (mostly zinc) or synthetic materials and used for the reproduction of a template in the process of pad printing on the promotional products, is referred to as a "printing plate". The pad printing method will be used for the printing of the logos on the most regular promotional items and giveaway.
For the printing of the logo on the promotional products, it needs one printing plate is required for each printing colour.

The screen width or printing screen describes the number of grid lines within a certain measure, e.g., per centimetre or inch. A 54 screen has, therefore, 54 grid lines per centimetre or inch, depending on the measure used.
For offset printing, values between 54 and 80 grid lines per centimetre are common.
This information is very helpful for printing of promotional products. With the screen the customer can fix the print quality on the printed promotional items and giveaway.

Printing templates are logos, fonts or graphics designed according to the customer’s wishes, which will be used for the print on the promotional items and giveaway.

Printing templates for promotional products are easiest processed in a vector-based file format (*.eps or *.ai) in programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

These files have also the advantage that no loss of quality occurs with an enlargement of the logo or the writing for the customers logo on the promotional items and giveaway. Most manufacturers of promotional products can open these files and directly process them.

The most current graphics-programs and their file formats on the promotional products market for the manufacturing of promotional items and give aways are:
- Adobe illustrator (*.ai, *.eps)
- Corel Draw (*.cdr)
- Photoshop (*.psd, *.jpg, *.gif, *.png, *.tif, *.bmp)
 - Adobe InDesign (*.indd)
- Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf)

 To properly create printing templates for the promotional items and giveaway, one must consider the following:
- clarify which program in which version the producers of promotional products uses
- if using special fonts, to send the fonts with the template for the promotional items and giveaway
- transform the fonts within the program into curves
- use an adequate dpi for the picture to ensure quality (if possible, 300 DPI) for the print logos of promotional items and giveaway
- create additional pdf-version and send it with the template.

Cf. ai file format (*.ai)

Promotion is a marketing term which refers to "merchandising" or "advertising tactics", used to achieve an immediate boost in sales.
In many cases, this involves spectacular advertising and/or sales campaigns, sales shows, POS activities, distribution of promotional items or giveaway, manufacturing of different kinds of promotional products and other advertising material etc.

Promotional gifts or corporate gifts are a slightly more expensive form of promotional products, fitting into a price range of up to € 20. Promotional gifts are distinguishable from other promotional items (such as give-aways, giveaway, giveaways) in that they are not distributed in large quantities across the market, but rather (due to the price) to a more selected target group.

Promotional items are also called advertisement items or giveaway (give away, give-away, giveaways), and are normally understood to be promotional products, which are used for the introduction or general propagation of a new product, brand, company or manufacturer.
Promotional items or giveaway are advertising articles and promotional products which are in a price range of up to approx. € 5 which, due to their low value, can be widely distributed.
These promotional items should boost the interest of the end-consumer or dealer and often also allow the possibility to test a product. Promotional items or giveaway are distributed for free promotional products. In most cases, this is done personally by the business partner, in businesses such as supermarkets, but can also occur on the street, as well as in restaurants or bars. Promotional items are an important component of the so-called "Promotion" and are also called giveaway (other spellings give-aways, giveaways, give away etc.).
Promotional items and giveaway (give away, give-away, giveaways) are generally aimed at a company's potential customers and interested individuals. The company aims to stick in the potential customers' memories through the promotional items and giveaway campaign. Promotional products are highly effective as slogan or logo carriers.

Promotional presents are a more exclusive category of promotional products. Promotional presents include all promotional products which are worth more than € 20 and do not including the normal promotional items and giveaway. Promotional presents are often aimed at people in customers' circles of personal acquaintance. These generally include long-standing or business partners or ones who make large orders. Attractive wristwatches, golf sets or exclusive stationary sets are all examples of this kind of promotional products for exclusive promotional presents.

Promotional items which are used as promotional gifts are generally high-quality and of fine design and are intended to express the customer's appreciation of the business partner. This kind of promotional items usually only bears a subtle advertisement, as promotional presents are not usually used to attract new customers. They are intended to reassure the owner that he is a valued customer of the company.

Promotional items or giveaway are three-dimensional promotional products, which is offered as corporate gifts to customers. Most common are "classic" types of promotional items like textiles, pens and lighters. The range of promotional products is enormous from inexpensive standard promotional items and giveaway in the lower price range to high quality branded promotional  products. Giveways are often labelled with the claim or logo, dependant on the material used: on plastics via tab or screen printing, on metal via laser engraving or chemical etched.

Part of the Corporate Identity is usually to determine the colors of the logo on the respective promotional items and giveaway exactly, which is not possible through engraving or etching. Printing is usually done with special colors (Pantone, HKS), or through offset printing (CMYK). The best way to bring the logo on the promotional products is via vector based printing files.

The production time of normal off-the-shelf promotional items and giveaway is usually 4-6 weeks. Special requests of promotional products, e.g. tailor-made textiles with own labels and custom-colors require a delivery time between 10-12 weeks.

The individual production of promotional items and giveaway, which meet the requirements of the Corporate Identity/Corporate Design (CI/CD) of a company – commonly developed for a special campaign, are an important element for respective creative agencies and producers.

The most widely used/classic promotional products and promotional gifts are:
- Promotional items as writing implements (ballpoint pens)
- Giveaway caps (baseball caps)
- Corporate gifts in form of bath items (towels)
- Textiles promotional products (T-shirts, polo shirts)
- Folders, writing pads as promotional items
- Calendarsas corporate gifts
- Giveaway key rings
- Give away lanyards
- Give-aways USB sticks
- Giveaway Cigarette lighters
- Promotional items advertising umbrellas (folding or golfing umbrellas)
And many more...

The market is enormous and ranges from cheap promotional items and giveaway at the bottom end of the price range right up to valuable brand-name products.

A proof is a colour-proof test-print of digital printing data (e.g., logos, pictures, etc.) for printing as example promotional products.
The proof is done on special high-gloss paper and calibrated printers, so that a very high colour-proofing is produced (approx. 98%). With a proof you can check before the final production of the promotional items and giveaway the recommended print colours and you can use the proof to compare the printed promotional items and giveaway during and after the production process with the proof, so that the printed promotional products are matching with the proof.

Household elector-appliances can obtain the GS-certificate "proven security”. This certificate is granted by government agencies for 5 years.
On the purchasing of promotional products, it’s important to give attention on this point.
Mostly are the promotional items and giveaway with a proven security certificate in much better quality.