Production Overprinting Screen angle Registration Folding methods Binding methods
Overprinting The production of print is the entire process of printing, from choosing your stock and colour palette to binding your publication or applying finishes to your print. With art work, it is important to know if you are overprinting your artwork or trapping it. Trapping should always be used when two different colours, other than white, are directly touching each other. The parts of the object that are hidden under another object or colour are eliminated, this prevents one colour mixing with another.
Trapping
Overprinting is the opposite of trapping, therefore it doesn’t cut out the other object. The only colour that should be set to “overprint� is black. If overprint is used, the colours underneath are not eliminated, but printed over. This is useful a designer wants to save money on less colour plates, but have more colours on the design. Overprinting
Screen angle Screen angle refers to the inclination or angle of the rows of half-tone dots that are used to form colour images in the fourcolour printing process. The human brain finds it easy to perceive angles around 0 and 90 degrees. Diagonal placing of 45 or 135 degrees are customary for single-colour reproduction. In multi-colour printing, different screen angles are chosen for the various colours, this avoids superimposition (moiré). In offset printing, the angles 0, 15, 75 and 45 degrees are used for the four colours, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The lighter colours are usually set at the most visible angles (yellow 90 degrees and cyan 105 degrees) while the stronger colours are set at less visible angles (magenta 75 degrees and black 45 degrees) this is to prevent the less visible colours being drowned out by the stronger colours. Cyan 105 °
Magenta 75 °
Yellow 90 °
Black 45 °
Registration Registration problems occur when the impressions the plates make on the stock are not quite aligned or in key. While the responsibility for accurate reproduction lies with the printer, a designer can contribute to avoiding the errors that are made. Bleed Bleed is something that should always be applied for a design as it is the printing of a design over and beyond its trim marks. This means that when the document is trimmed, there will be no white edges. Registration marks Registration marks are used for the exact alignment of two or more printed images with each other on the same stock. This is useful when it come to screen printing. Trim marks The process of cutting away the waste stock around a design to form the final format once the job has been printed. This is so the design doesn’t need to include a black box to cut out.
Folding methods
Triple parallel fold
Incline tab Ascending folder Harmonica self-cover fold Z-fold Front/back gatefold
Front/back accordion fold Double gatefold
Binding methods Open
Perfect
A book bound without a cover to leave an exposed spine.
The book is held together by a flexible adhesive on the spine. Commonly used for paperback books.
Wire
Spiral
A spine of a metal wired rings that bind and allow a document to open flat.
A spiral of metal wire that winds through punched holes allowing the publication to open flat.
Japanese stitch Comb Easy way to repair a book, also perfect for scrapbooks or sketchbooks.
Belly band
A printed or plain band that wraps around a publication, typically used with magazines.
Open
Perfect
Wire
Spiral
Belly band
Saddle stitch
Signatures are nested and bound with wire stitches, applied through the spine along the centerfold.
Saddle stitch
Case
A comb of plastic rings Hard cover bookbinding method, that bind and allow a document to open flat. sews the pages then puts the case on, this is a durable binding method.
Japanese stitch
Comb
Case