What is Design for Print?
Stock Wieght Stock thicknesses based on the weight of a 1-metre square which is translated to GSM (Grams per Square Metre). The weight doesn't always resemble the thickness as some papers have been made to be more dense of fluffy. They majority of the time this doesn't apply and the gsm does give you an idea of thickness. it is very important to grasp the fundamentals of when to use certain weight of stocks to be successful withing graphic design. Here is a quick guide of what different thickness are used for in the industry. 90 - 100 gsm - used for stationery, text for magazines and booklets, flyers and brochures. 120 -170 gsm - used for text for booklets, flyers and brochures. The heavier the weight, the more "upmarket" the feel. 200 - 250 gsm - used for magazine and booklet covers. Robust enough to give some body and stiffness when used in a publication, but not quite heavy enough to be used on its own for cards etc. 280 - 300 gsm - used for cards of all sorts and book and booklet covers.
Print Finishes Foils A metal plate is produced which has been etched so what you are wanting to print is raised. It's then put into a machine and heated the foil. so between your product and the plate is the foil. when stamped the foil makes contact with the product then the raised heat transfers the foil from the reel to the product. Most foils are done in silver or gold, they can be don in different colours but the main attraction is the metallic surfaces. you get a much clearer colour than you would if using screen print and metallic paints. Embossing Embossing is where you areas of a surface is raised compared to the rest of a product. This is adds cost to printing but give a very professional effect. it is done by creating a stamp of what you wish to emboss. the area you wish to emboss is raise on the stamp and is simply pressed against the product on the reverse side leaving a raised imprint. Die Cutting Die Cutting is the process to cut out shapes which aren't possible with a guillotine. it is mainly used for things like business card and leaflets if they what to use an interesting shape. The die cut is made by using a metal blade shaped to the necessary design, placed into a wooden block. rollers go over the blade cutting the shape out of the product.
Stock Types brief look into paper stocks.
Bond: writing papers, including ledger, that accept ink readily and can be erased Coated: book paper with a clay coating ensuring smoothness (dull, satin, gloss, matte) Text: uncoated book paper (often of an interesting color) used for announcements and the like Offset: uncoated book paper treated with sizing to resist moisture Opaque: uncoated book paper treated to be less transparent Cover: coated and uncoated; used for book covers, brochures, etc. Mill Bristol: a board grade receptive to folding, embossing, and stamping Newsprint: used for printing newspapers; highly acidic, degrades quickly Digital: for copiers and ink-jet and laser printers, as well as high-end digital presses like Xeikon and Indigo Coated One Side - A cover stock that has a coating on one side and is dull on the reverse side. Coated Two Sides - A cover stock that has a coating on both sides.
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Paper Sizes In the Uk the most common size of sheets is based on the A0 size. Cutting down the long side of the A sheet will give you the next size down. If you want printed A4 size you will often have to print on something larger than A4 as Printers need a place to put registration marks and also printer's marks (blocks of verifying tints to measure ink density to make sure the inks are at the correct level) so a trim is needed around the outside. There are 2 size standards which allow this on "A" sheets, they are know as R which is the smaller of the 2 and then there is SR. They are used on the front of the a size such as SRA4. SR is the more commonly used by printers due to the trim given and allows more information to go around the outside, enabling a higher quality print. There are 2 other standard size used in the Uk and they are B0 which is 1000 x 1414 mm and C0 917 x 648.
Pantone The Pantone Matching System (PMS) are a huge verity of colour which have a written formula for each colour so you can get consistency within your work and also the colours printed. The colours available on pantone stretch much further than what you can achieve only using CMYK, so using PMS against CMYK can cause similar problems as CMYK and RGB dilema. This is because Pantone mixes a veriety of colours not just CMYK it uses colours such as Pantone Purple, Pantone Orange etc which come straight out of a tin. PMS is and "international reference for selecting, specifying, matching and controlling ink colours"(pantone.co.uk) Making sure you tell a printer which pantone colour you are wanting to achieve will make your work more accurate. but also the PSM comes on a variety of coats you can see how the colour you have chosen will look on different stock and coats which makes it very useful when applying it to a print based format and knowing what to expect.
Costing Costing when it comes to print isn't as simple as doubling as many prints you want for double the price. For example the difference between 5'000 and 10'000 flyer isn't double as the printing and the ink are not the highest cost factor. When using Litho print for example the main fluctuation of cost if from getting a job to converting to separate C, M, Y and K plates. printing these plates, loading them into the litho printer and checking and adjusting the inks. For ever how many items you print this cost will always be a factor. so the more you print the better price you get for each print because when the machine is going time and energy is a little factor when it gets going. in bult litho is much more cost effective. very small amounts of print is best done digitally due to the lack of manpower needed, but printing in bulk using digital will cost a more than litho as the toner used in digital print is a mammoth cost compared to the ink in litho.
Printing Checklist Preparing the file for print. When you are finished and ready to send work to a printers there is a few things you need to make sure you do. check that all your images are saved as a CMYK-Tiff/EPS, not RGB and no GIF's/JPEG's or PSD's. Bleeds that run off the page should run 3mm beyond the page except for binding where they should end at the edge of the page. it's always a good idea to send separate film containing images incase the corrupt. Make sure the printer has the fonts needed to print. Check all the graphic elements to make sure they aren't in RGB. Check if type and image overlap that they print correctly. Choosing stock and considering folding/varnishing and other print finishes and testing them before hand
Mono,Duo and Spot . Duotone is when an image is printed in 2 spot colours. this can be any to colours. This printing method can produce very different effects depending on the colours used and easily done on programs like Photoshop and InDesign. You can use more colours which are know as Tritones for 3 colours and Quadtones for 4. . Spot colour is a specially mixed colour opposed to a result of CMYK or RGB. This can be usefull for a designer wanting to produce say a campaign for a company and wanting to use a specific colour all the way through. the colours can be put into the printers to create consistancy within prinitng. This technique is extremely popular with photographers wanting to highlight part of a black and white photo. . Mono is only using one coloured ink and the stock its printed on. It doesn't have to to one tone the ink can be used at a percentage such as tints of the colour used. This creates a tonal image. Black is the most common colour used for monoprints but others can be used also.