The Print Manual
The most common paper sizes are based on a sheet called A0 which measures at 851 x 1189mm. This sheet can be cut in half or folded to produce a sheet called A1 which is half the size, you can keep cutting it in half and produce A2, A3, A4‌ ect. This is a standardized system with measurements widely used within the UK.
paper sizes
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Paper Systems
Paper Weights Paper weight is another consideration for print as depending on the thickness of your paper will influence how much ink is needed from the printer to produce your print. Thicker paper needs more ink then thin paper, if the printer isnĘźt set to the correct settings you will end up with a cracked or bleeding print. Paper is weighed in gsm (grams per square metre) your standard A4 sheet will weight about 90gsm.
Types of Stock Stock comes in various types being Coated, uncoated, laid and wove. Each of these types of stocks have different characteristics. The two most common are coated and uncoated careful consideration should be taken which each as depending on what colours you are using in your artwork they can come out as entirely different shades of the color depending on what stock they are printed on.
Coated papers are available in a gloss, silk (sometimes called satin) or matt finish and are used for projects requiring a fine finish, which is why coated paper is sometimes referred to as 'art' paper. Coated paper generally produces sharper, brighter images and has better reflectivity than uncoated paper. Coated paper is used to print brochures, leaflets & posters and a wide range of design for print formats, especially high volume print runs.
Uncoated
Stock Consideration
Coated
Through not having a coating this stock is not as smooth as a coated page. Uncoated paper is available in many different finishes, colours, and weights and is generally more absorbent than coated paper. Commonly used in laser printers.
3. Pantone is a universal colour system; these are colours which printers can mix using the formula written under each sample in the swatch book. The formula is designed to give the same result every time. Pantone can be mixed from a range of several standard colours which come straight out of the
can, these include CMYK but can also include colours like Pantone green, pantone purple, pantone, orange, rubine red, reflex blue and others. Therefore, the range of colours it is possible to mix goes way beyond a range limited to combinations of just CMYK.
Pan Mat Sys
ntone tching stem Pantone is very helpful especially when working on screen if you select a specific pantone you know it will print out like it should, this is helpful when sending your work to a printers as you know you will get back the colour you want. You can also pantone match colours with the pantone books and then apply them onscreen.
CMYK RGB Monitors emit light and produce colours in the RGB range (red, green, blue). Paper absorbs ink and are produced by ink colours Cyan, Magenta, yellow and Key (black). CMYK works in a subtractive manor, where to more colours you add the Darker the colour will eventually become, RGB works in a additive manor where the more colours you add the lighter colour you will eventually end up with RGB is a far greater range of colours available on screen, but the problem is a lot of these colours aren't able to be printed in CMYK as it lacks a large part of the colour spectrum.
When producing art work on Photoshop you should always check what mode its set in, if you are producing something for print then it should always be in CMYK because the RGB range can not in a lot of cases be printed out, if you do not select the RGB colours before print, your artwork will come out much different then what it looks like on screen. If you manually check your artwork with the gamut reader on Photoshop you can replace the RGB colours with the closest corresponding CMYK colour, this will allow you to control your print out a bit better then just letting the software replace colours.
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Print Finishing There are various types of print finishes each giving your work a different characteristic. Print finishes are what make your work stand out or apart from all the other design work. The most common are embossing, foil blocking and UV varnish.
Embossing Embossing will push your work up from the page giving it a different characteristic then normal ink prints. It can be used to raise subtle artwork or text to make it stand out more. The material you want to emboss is pushed into the die using a male counterforce. Embossing can be used to raise a printed or foiled image. It is also used to “Blind Emboss� images, this raises the image on plain paper.
Ultra-violet cured coatings can be applied over ink printed on paper and dried by UV exposure. UV coatings can come in a variety of gloss ranges. UV varnish can be applied as a spot varnish making specific areas of your design show up more with a glossy shine and finish.
Foil blocking The block is heated on a press and a metallic or coloured foil is branded on the material. Foil blocking is a very simple process and can be used a variety of ways one is that you can print a black foil on black stock which will give your logo a shine to it and make it stick off the page. Foil blocking on your design will stand out with a shine, you can use it to emphasize text or image.
Rotary In this process the Image printing plates are wrapped around a cylinder. This is an automated print process and material to be printed can be sheet fed or on a roll.
Rotogravure Copper plates (with mirror image) transfer ink directly to print surface, usually on rolls. Advantage, plates are more durable and so are good for long print runs.
Flexography A postive, mirror image rubber polymer plate, on a cylinder, transfers "sticky" ink directly to print surface. Usually roll feed. This printing process is mainly used for low quality printing for products, which will be thrown away like crisp packets or sweet wrappers. It始s cheap and can be run in long print runs.
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PRODU METH
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UCTION HODS
Lithography Etched aluminum plates wrapped around a cylinder transfer ink to an "offset" rubber blanket roller then to a print surface. Sheet fed or Web fed. This process is mainly used for high-speed prints, it gives a good finish.
Spot Colour Duotone Tints
Spot Colour
Spot colours are usually much brighter and will stand out more on your page then a result of mixing a CMYK colour. A spot colour can be used to emphases specific things on your design or to make text stand out.
Duotone
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When a continuous tone image is printed in 2 spot colours. You can produce a duotone by using two silk screens or on Photoshop edit an image to a duotone image.
Tints In colour theory, a tint is the mixture of a colour with white, which increases lightness. Using a range of tints from a specific colour will help you bring down the amount of colours used within your work which will bring down printing costs.
Commercial Cost
The main cost for digital print is the Toner inks which cost a lot more then the conventional inks used in lithoprinting. There is no labor costs involved in digital print, its ideal for short print runs. Litho printing's cost goes down as the quantity of prints go up, this is mainly because the most expensive part of this process is setting up the machine with the aluminum plates and after the machine has been set up it can keep running.
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Perfect Binding
Best suited for use with books and thick magazines. For a minimum thickness of 3mm, it works well with a wide range of thickness and trim sizes. To produce a perfect bound book, the folded signatures are gathered together in page sequence, clamped and then about 3mm is sliced off the edges. The edges then get glued and held together.
Saddle Stitch Ideal for small booklets, magazines and catalogues. Wire staples hold the pages together, it始s an easy quick way to bind a booklet. A saddle stitched document must be at least eight pages long, documents with more than 80 pages may demand a different bind.
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Book Binding Another consideration before print is binding, there are various different ways you can bind each type of binding had different characteristics and can enhance your books appearance and functionality. Some binding methods to consider are: case binding, perfect binding, self binding, Canadian binding.
Print Checklist
When the final design has been approved by the client and all the production work hs been completed, it is time to send the job out to the printer. The last thing you want is for an error to get through which means that everyone can point to you.
Image All images must be CMYKTIFF or CMYK-EPS format NO RGB, GIF, JPEG, BMP or PSD no redundant alpha channels No clipping paths except where they are really needed Bleed of 3mm If the images are linked rather than embedded, make sure you send the images to the printer as separate file
Type Check for no surprise fonts you did not intend to use which can confuse and hold up print production. In illustrator you have the option to create outlines on your type used, this is a quick way to make sure that the fonts wont go missing when transferring your files to your printer.
General Check that any graphic elements you created are not outlined or filled with RGB. Check that any swatches you have added are specified as process rather then spot colour, otherwise they will want to output as a separate sheet.