PRINT PROJECT PACK
When printing, you need consider a tremendous amount of variables. Variables which will change the look, feel and quality of your product, when sent to print. To do your utmost to ensure your product achieves the desired quality, you will need to select the correct variables. This print manual which, you’re holding within your grasp this very instance will guide you through a large amount of the variations, which you can use to create your product.
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WHAT’S INCLUDED COLOUR SYSTEMS STOCK* CONSIDERATIONS PRINT PROCESSES FINISHES COMMERCIAL COSTINGS
*Stock: the medium to which you print onto. “I’m not sure which stock to use, I’m tempted to use newsprint”.
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COLOUR SYSTEMS When designing for print, you must always assure that you are working in the appropriate colour system for the job in hand. There are two main colour modes. The first is RGB, which stands for red green and blue. These colours are screen only, when working with images for a website, a digital application, for example, you must assure you’re working in RGB. The RGB colour mode works with light, the light emitted from your screens are created using these three colours - almost like mixing the primary colours when working with paint. When all R, G and B are mixed together they create the colour white. This means RGB is an Additive Colour Mode. The other main colour mode is known as CMYK. Cyan, magenta, yellow and key. The letter ‘K’ is used as the letter ‘B’ is already in use by the colour blue. CMYK is the colour mode associated with print, rather than digital. The CMYK colour range is created by mixing C, M, Y, and K together, physically, in 6
the form of inks. When these colours are mixed together they create black. This means that CMYK is a subjective colour mode. These colours absorb and reflect light, rather than creating it. Additionally, the six-colour Hexachrome colour system has two more colours: orange and green. This produces a larger gamut of colours than the basic fourcolour CMYK printing process. Special process colours can also be used to provide precise colour control and intense graphic effects, for example, through the use of fluorescent and metallic colours. Special colours may be applied via a separate printing plate or by replacing one of the standard process colours. While ensuring accuracy of a given colour, the incorporation of special colour changes the overall gamut of colours that can be produced. The Colour system you wish to use can be selected when setting up a document in software you’re using.
Above are the four colours which make up CMYK. From left to right, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Key (Black). These four colours mixed create all the colours within the CMYK
colour range. If you spilt a CMYK image into it’s four channels you can see how the image’s colours are created.
CMYK
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RGB
RGB is the colour mode used when working digitally; working and designing for the screen. RGB is not suitable for printing, the inks in standard printers are composed of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Inks act as light filters. So when you cover paper with an ink, the ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. Inks are subtractive because they “subtract� brightness from the white of the paper. I can make Green appear by mixing Yellow and Cyan inks I can make Red appear by mixing Yellow and Magenta
inks. You can make Blue appear by mixing Magenta and Cyan inks However, with Red, Green and Blue inks you cannot make a Yellow, Cyan, or Magenta colour. Therefore I cannot make any of the colours that can be made with combinations of Yellow, Cyan, or Magenta inks. Printing combinations of RGB inks would therefore just result in a limited palette/ gamut of dark muddy colours. On the left you can see an example of a CMYK image, and on the right, RGB.
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METALLICS Metallic inks are another way making print more interesting, you can use them to add a more decorative style to your work - using it’s reflective qualities to make your work stand out. Metallic printing inks are used the same way you would use normal inks. However colours such as bronze, silver and gold cannot be reproduced with the standard process inks; CMYK. Metallic inks are made with copper, zinc and aluminium pigments, which produce the shine. The Metallic colour range is very limited, and it requires you to add a fifth printing plate, which will increase the cost of your print.
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FLUORESCENTS The use of fluorescents in printing allows you to add an interesting quality to your prints, something more eye-catching, something which if used correctly and separate your prints from the rest. However, if you overuse fluorescents, they can become tiresome on the eye. Fluorescents could be used to highlight specific information, which could otherwise be lost. Fluorescents can be applied normally, by adding an additional plate when printing, as fluorescents cannot be created using the standard CMYK colours. If you’re creating an additional plate, as well as the CMYK, it’s not going to be cheap, especially if you’re creating a one off project, or even a small quantity. A way around this is to reduce the number of printing plate, perhaps only using a spot colour as well as the fluorescent, as each plate costs money. If you’re working on a larger scale project, perhaps printing 10,000 business cards, adding a fluorescent colour might be worth the extra money - as you pay for the plates once, and after that you’re only paying for inks. If you were to work with fluorescents, for a one-off project, I would recommend screen printing.
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HEXACHROME Additionally, the six-colour hexachrome colour system has two more colours: orange and green. This produces a larger gamut of colours than be basic four-colour CMYK printing process. Using Hexachrome allows the production of more accurate skin tones and pastel colours. Check with your printers if they provide a hexachrome service, as some do not.
GAMUT The gamut is the colour range, the spectrum of each colour system. They’re all slightly different. For this reason, when converting one colour system to another, for example, converting an RGB photograph to CMYK you must check the Gamut Warning. The Gamut warning, in Photoshop, shows you the areas of colour which do not exist in a colour mode, shown in the grey. You can make alterations to the image, with the gamut warning on, until all the grey disappears, which means that the colours are all in the CMYK range, printable colours. The adjustments can be easily made by adjusting the levels of the image. View > Gamut Warning
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CMYK Gamut
A diagram to show gamuts. 15
SPOT COLOURS Spot colours are ready mixed inks. Inks which aren’t created from any process colours during printing, they’re created before printing. Spot colours can be used to save money. When printing, to create the emerald green used in the headers of this publication, it is created using Cyan, Yellow and Key. To print this colour using lithography I’d need to pay for three printing plates and three sets of inks. However, if I were to use a spot colour, I would ready mix one ink, and pay for one plate to create the green. 1/3 of the cost - which gives you more money to spend on other areas of your project.
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THINKING
FORMAT
Know which size is right for you and your print. This part of the publication will talk about the variations of stock sizes, their names and their purposes. 17
WHAT IS FORMAT? Format is the size, the dimensions of the stock you want to use, typically, in a normal everyday environment, such as an office space, you would associate format with A sizes, such as A3, A4 and A5. However, there’s such a larger variety of formats you can decide to use before you begin designing your print. This guide will inform you all the size conversions available to you.
{ISO 216) A SERIES ISO sizes are the most widely used sizes, internationally, with Canada and The United States being the most notable exceptions. An example of a ISO size paper range is the A-Series, (ISO 216) such as A5, A4 and A3. In the ISO paper size system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of two (1.4142 : 1). To increase the size of ISO paper, simply put, in ISO sizes double the short edge and the long edge becomes the new short edge. So, A5 is 210x148mm in size. To create an A4 size, you double the short edge, and the long edge becomes the short edge. So A4 comes 297x210.
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ISO A0
A8
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(ISO 216) B SERIES B Series sizes are the sizes in between the A series sizes. So, B4 is in between A3 and A4. They’re not often used in the work environment, such as for office documents, or magazines. However, they are often used for books and international documents, such as the passport. If you’re looking to set your print apart from the rest in size, the B size series could be for you. The B series sizes increase in the same manner as the A series sizes. The longer side becomes the shorter side, and the original shorter side doubles, and becomes the new longer side.
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B Series Sizes B0 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9
(ISO 269) C SERIES C Series Sizes C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
The C Series, another subcategory of the ISO paper sizes, and the least used of the three. Typically only used for envelope sizes. The C Series is the average of the A and the B Series, in between the two sizes. For example, A0 is smaller than C0. C0 is smaller than B0. The C Series increases and decreases their size in the same manner as the A and B Series. Due to the unused nature of the C series, it’s an incredibly interesting size format to use. Breaking the conventions of normal size formats of the A Series. Which may set you apart from the other prints.
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US & CANADIAN SIZES The U.S., Canada and Mexico use a different system of paper sizes compared to the rest of the world. They used an inch based paper size system, commonly used in offices, with the typical function of the paper format as the name of the size.
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US & Candian Sizes
Letter Legal Jr. Legal Ledger Tabloid
PRINT PROCESSES
You’ve got your colours, you’ve got your format, now it’s time to decide how you wish to create your print.
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DIGITAL PRINTING Digital printing is the most modern and cost effective method of printing. You can print directly from a computer with minimal effort. It works using CMYK ink cartridges. You can use spot colours, metallics and fluorescents, however, most printers aren’t equipt with these, so it can be a hassle getting hold of them. Due to their convience and cost effectiveness you have to sacrifice some quality in the process. Ink Jet and Laser printers range in quality from good to awful, all depending on the printer - in most printing establishments they will have high quality, expensive printers avalible. Whereas a printer in a family home might not be as good. The two types of digital printing are ink jet and digital printers. Ink Jet printers works with wet inks which are applied in various amounts whilst the paper is being rolled through the printer. With the Ink Jet tracking from side to side, giving Ink Jet printers their terrible noise. Laser Jet printers use toner, which is applied to the paper using static electrisity, allowing the toner to
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LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING (OFFSET)
Lithographic printing is the most used alternative to digital printing, commercially. Seperations are exposed to seperate metal plates, and then transfered in an offset manner to your stock, using a rubber blanket. Lithography is prints in seperate plates, so depending how you work, it can be very cost effective. If you’re working with the green used as the header colour in this publication, you would need three plates; cyan, yellow and black (there is no magenta). However, if I were to create a spot colour, I would only need one plate. However, if you wish to create a full colour print, it is very easy to do that with lithography. It prints each colour in a series of half tones, dots, typically at 300DPI, once these are layered the dots are invisable
to the naked eye, and you see a full colour image. It’s sort of an illusion, tricking the eye, like you would with stop motion; created as a still images, but when played together at high speed, it looks like a moving image. You can also print in one colour, monotone, using one colour, which cuts cost, rather than printing a full colour image. You can use two, a duotone image. Three; a tritone image. Four; a quadtone image. To the left is an example of a monotone image, using one colour.
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SCREEN PRINTING Screen printing is one of the more traditional methods of printing, yet is still very popular to use for projects. With screen printing facitities at most art-based educational establishments across the country. Due to their traditional nature, screen printed pieces often sell for high value. The process is similar to lithography, you expose the channels you desire to print onto silk screens. Before doing this the screen must be striped, you can usually do this with a pressure washer and some special detergent, all of which should be supplied. You the
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mount the screen onto a printing bed, with your stock underneath. Generously, you apply your ink to the top of the screen, then using a squeegee, you pull the ink back towards yourself, spreading it across the screen. Like you would jam onto toast. Following this, you lift the screen, and push the excess ink back to the top of the screen, and remove your print. You can work with as many colours as you want, CMYK, spot, metallics and fluorescents. You can also change the thickness of the ink, by altering the amount of binder you mix with the ink.
LINO-CUT Lino-cutting is another traditional method of printing. It involves chiseling away at a sheet of lino to create an image. You remove the negatives to create a positive - a relief of your image. An advantage of using lino-cutting is that they’re extremely durable, you’re able to use them fr years and produce the same print without loosinf any of the orginal quality. To print using lino-cut, you would ink the sheet and then use a printing press to apply the ink to your stock.
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