Week One
At the printers
At the printers
Commercial printing is practical, technical and economical
There are 3 main stages: design; reprographics; and printer
Reprographics is checking the imposition before the piece is printed
Types of printing
- You have to make sure the design is right before it gets to the plate, as setting up this plate is the most expensive part.
- The quantity of how many prints is a factor to consider when deciding which type of printer to use
* Litho - metallic plates, prints sheets in large quantities
* Web offset - print on a roll, for newspapers etc
* Rotogravure - sturdy plate made from copper, allows for a bigger print run. (Not offset)
* Flexography - similar to litho, but the plate is not metallic but silicon, and the quality isn't as good as litho. It is used for printing onto crisp packets etc
* Digital - direct to paper, from code to raster image processor (RIP), to paper. Useful for small quantities
* Mechanical screen print - many colours printed at once
* Pad printing - transfer a 2d image onto a 3d object
- Linen testers magnify the image so you can see the half tone dots that make the image up. In the workshop we used the testers to look at designs with different colours, finishes and materials
- Finishing touches such as duplex printing, varnish spot colour, foil, embossing and die cut can be used
- 6 colour printing can be used to get a better colour range than with cmyk
Colour systems for the print process
- Print is subtractive where colour for screen is additive
- What you get on screen is not what is printed due to these differences
- You can't print all the colours you can see on screen with an ordinary printing process
- Gamut is the limitations of colour; this is different for RGB, CMYK, the visible eye...
Definitions
-
CMYK DEFINITION: Stands for "Cyan Magenta Yellow Key Black." These are the four basic colors used for printing color images. Unlike RGB (red, green, blue), which is used for creating images on your computer screen,
-
• CMYK colors are "subtractive." This means the colors get darker as you blend them together. Since RGB colors are used for light, not pigments, the colors grow brighter as you blend them or increase their intensity.
-
• SPOT COLOUR Print technicians around the world use the term spot colour to mean any colour generated by a non-standard offset ink; such as metallic, fluorescent, spot varnish, or custom hand-mixed inks. (as opposed to obtaining a colour by via mix of cmyk)
-
• GREYSCALE One colour black and all the shades of grey through to white (black and white photography is grey scale)
-
• MONOCHROME (mono)Monochromatic colours are all the colours of a single hue derived from one colour and extended using the shades,tones and tints of that colour.
-
• HALFTONE This is a mechanical process (as opposed to chemical) for converting tonal values into a series of dots that although solid dots, when printed give the impression of continuous tone
Week Two
This week we brought in different examples of print and then looked at them with the linen tester, to see the dots that make up the image. It is interesting to see how the dots differ due to the quality of printing. For example, on plastic wrappers and newspapers its much more obvious than leaflets.
We also separated our printed materials in to different piles, working out what has been printed with CMYK colours, what has been printed with spot colours, what finishing touches have been added, whether the images are monochrome, duotone etc...
Notes
- Flood print - flooding the background with a solid colour because you can't get paper in that colour
- Half tones are percentages of solid colours (a bit like changing the opacity of a colour)
- Just because you have every colour at your disposal you don't have to use all of them
- Too many finishing touches on one piece can look too much
- Look at swatch samples of stock before deciding what to print, and be careful, as there are many different shades of white
- Ask the printers to make a dummy book so you can get a feel of how the book will feel
- Paper is measured in gsm - grams per square metre
Week Three
7 Things to know about print
(Based on a model for lithographic printing)
1. Colour modes
The way colour is generated in print is completely different to screen models
- You should never sell a job based on what is on screen as it won't come out like that, and colours vary on different screens
2. Formats
Understanding format options and limitations will help you to be more creative and economical
- It is easier to send one large print through than lots of small individual ones
- SRA sizes are slightly bigger to allow for bleed and chopping
- Consider different paper sizes (A sizes, envelope, newspaper etc...) and different measuring systems (USA- imperial, rest of the world- metric)
3. Stock
The correct weight and finish of a paper is crucial
- Finishes - gloss/silk/matt, coated or uncoated
- Different weights (gsm)
- Plastics and acetates
4. Artwork
Prepare artwork correctly for print
- Always get the client to sign off the proof
- Can make an accurate mock-up to show printers how it should look
- Be careful as fonts may be copyrighted
- Contact artists about using their imagery
- Get someone else to look over for mistakes
- Make sure you include printer marks
- The digital proof from the printers is the last chance to check it
- The final responsibility lies with the client if they have signed off the proof
5. Processes
You should know which print process is appropriate early on in the job
6. Finishing
There are different types of binding, might need to factor in folding and creasing, or die stamping and drilling
7. Costing
Get 3 quotes to see who is providing the best deal, but all need to be given exactly the same specification
- Get a quote early on, before you start the job if possible to give the client a rough idea of how much it will cost
- Things like finished add greatly to the cost
- Learn what each unit (singular item) would cost. There are different stages in print, such as preparation, setting up the machine costs, labour and stock costs and more... So if you were only printing 5,000 copies, a unit would probably be more than it would cost if printing 10,000, as it is the setting up which is the most expensive part
- Extras cost more, such as if the client changes their mind about something, or if something needs correcting
- Delivery costs
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We looked again at the pantone matching system, and at different types of binding. I found these little downloadable mini guides on printhandbook.com
