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THE PRINT MANUAL Matttuc
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CONTENTS
PRE PRINT 1 - Artwork - Document set up - Registration - Types of black - Trapping 2 – Colour - Terminology - Colour Modes - Colour management - Colour Correction - Pantones - Spot Colours 3 – Stock - GSM - Paper Types - PaperQuality - Paper Grain - Smoothness - Absorbency - Ink Holdout - Opacity 4 – Formats - ISO Sizes - A Formats - B Formats - C Formats - DL
PRINTING 5 – Processes - Lithography - Gravure - Web - Flexography - Pad - Screen - Digital - Letterpress 6 - Special Techniques - Foils - Embossing - Debossing - Perforation - Duplexing - Cutting - Thermography - Varnish
POST PRINT 7 – Folding - Types of Folding 8 – Binding - Comb Binding - Spiral Binding - Wiro Binding - Open Bind - Stinger Stitch - Perfect Bind - Saddle Stitch - Clips & Bolts - Belly Band - Case Edition - Canadian 9 – Imposition - Considerations - Gate Folds - Tip Ins & Tip Ons
EXPENSES 10 – Costing - Use of Colour - the right Method - Contacting Printer - Proofs - Special Techniques
Artwork / Document Setup The key to any good print is the proper artwork / document set up, this will save the printer time which in turn will improve the ever tense designer / printer relationship. The first area is choosing the right format for your document, when printing it is vital that you choose CMYK, as this is how most print processes deal with colour. When working with screen use RBG that has a higher colour gamut that you get when working on screen. These are explained in the colour section.
ARTWORK A few helpful terms Bleed The printing of a design over and beyond its trim marks.
Four Colour Black It is the darkest black and is produced by overprinting the 4 process colours. This may cause issues with ink drying and smudging.
3mm
A bleed should be 3mm around the whole printed document and means there won’t be any white edges or unprinted stock when the design is printed. Trim The process of cutting away the waste stock around a design to form the final format once the job has been printed.
Registration Black a black obtained from using 100% coverage of the four process colours, using registration colour for text and greyscale graphics is a common error and gives an undesirable effect.
Types of Black
Bleed
Rich Black is an ink mixture of solid black over one or more of the other CMYK colors, resulting in a darker tone than black ink alone generates in a printing process.
Registration The exact alignment of two or more printed images with each other on the same stock Registration Marks Used by the printers to make sure the different layers of colour are aligned properly. Registration Problems A 4 colour image will look distorted or blurred if the plates are not aligned properly. This isn’t an issue with a single colour print job.
Warm & Cool blacks Flat areas of black can be enhanced by applying a shiner of another colour underneath. For example a black with cyan underneath will have a cool feel, where as if there is magenta underneath it will have a warmer feel.
Trapping Sometimes gaps can appear between the different sections of colour, this can be resolved using trapping, a process where one printed ink is surrounded by another that effectively traps it. They are all automatic features but can be increased or decreased respectively.
1. Spreading Where the lighter object is made larger to spread into another darker one
2. Choke Used to reduce the size of the aperture that an object will print in
3. Centered trapping Basically a combination of spreading and choke enlarging the object and reducing the aperture by the same amount.
Over Print When one colour prints over another. Can have some really interesting effects especially when experimenting with CMYK. Knockout Print Where a gap is left in one colour for another colour to print in.
Surprint Describes two elements that are printed on top of one another and are tints or the same colour. 1
2
3
Over Print
Reverse out When instead of the design being printed it is removed from a block of printed colour and left as an unprinted area.
COLOUR
COLOUR When designing for print its not as simple as choosing a colour on the screen and hoping it turns out the same, this section will go through the key areas to understand within colour to develop both your screen and print based design skills.
Gamut & Colour space The range of spectral colours visible to the human eye can also be described as. In the print industry the most common gamuts are RGB, CMYK & Hexachrome (CMYKOG orange and green). RGB Can produce around 70% of the colours in the spectral gamut that can be perceived by the human eye. sRGB Standard RGB is a standard, device independent, calibrated colour space defined by HP and Microsoft in the 1990’s to provide a consistent way to display colour internet images on computer screens.
CMYK Cyan/ Magenta/ Yellow/Key
RGB Red/ Blue/ Green
It uses Subtractive Colour which Represents inks of pigments that reflect the light of a certain colour, mixed together to make up millions of different colours
It is an Additive colour that uses the projected red, green and blue light as primary colours to produce the full spectrum of colours. Black is produced by the absence of primary colours
C
ColourMatch RGB Has a wider colour space than sRGB and was developed closely to simulate CMYK presswork.
Colour model for Print Colour model for screen
Y
M
CMYK Colour gamut
Pantone and spot colours Designers use spot colours to ensure that a particular colour in a design will print. This may be necessary if the colour isn’t within the CMYK spectrum. This is often applied within branding to give companies consistent visual identities.
U - Uncoated C - Coated EC - Euro Coated M – Matte
Pantone 4 Colour Process Guide // Coated
Pantone solid A range of solid metallic, pastel and process colours that can be used on different paper stocks and substrates.
Pantone Pastels A range of flat, solid, but very pale colours. Different to tints because they print as a solid colour without visible dots. Available in coated and uncoated swatches.
Pantone Hexachrome A range of 6 process colours used for hexachrome printing. It adds green and orange to the CMYK process colours allowing it reproduce 90% of the Pantone PMS coloursThe pantone system allocates a unique reference number to each hue and shade to ease communication between designers and printers
Set of Pantone books // fancy case
Pantone Metallics A range of over 300 special colours that give a metallic effect including silver, gold and copper colours. Available in varnished and unvarnished colour swatches.
STOCK
Pantones used in this manual
Pantone 804 M Expenses
Pantone 808 C Pre Print
Pantone 812 M Print
Stock has a huge effect on the final design from the feel, to colours and even the smell. This section covers some of the basic information that you need to know. GSM - Grams per square meter is a weight measurement that is part of a paper specification based on the weight of a square meter of the stock. A0 is equal to a meter squared.
Colour Correction Many image manipulation programs feature colour adjustment features to fix common problems such as red eye and colour balance problems but they can also be used to make sure there isn’t too much ink on the page and other such print related issues.
Some of the main colour corrections on Adobe Photoshop are -
Colour balance De-saturation Adjust Contract Adjust Colour Levels
Smoovthness - The smooth surface of certain stocks is obtained through the use of filter elements that may be polished with calendaring rollers. They are typically glossy as well.
Absorbency - Stocks have a variety of different absorbency levels, which is how much the ink soaks into the page. Printing inks tend to dry quicker on absorbent stocks but it may cause problems such as dot grain. Opacity - Opacity is used to describe how much what ever is printed on the page shows through to the other side. High opacity papers have no show through Ink Holdout - This is the degree to which a stock resists ink penetration due to lack of absorbency. Coated stocks may be more prone to ink holdout because it rests on the surface in turn increasing the drying time.
This publication explores how we view paper now, as a document of how paper is made, and as an artifact that captures the beauty and emotive qualities of paper as a material.
Pulp Paper Book -
Another feature that can be used as a for print is ‘Proof Colours’, the image becomes slightly duller and is now in a RGB/CMYK format. This provides a preview of how the image will look after conversion for Print. This method gives you less control over the adjustment of your image as ‘replace colour’ but may be appropriate depending on the job.
Paper Grain - Paper produced on a paper machine has a grain because the fibers from which its made line up during the manufacturing process in the direction that is passes through the paper making machine. The grain is the direction in which most fibers lay. This characteristic means that paper is easier to fold, bend or tear along its grain direction.
A6 There are a selection of standard paper sizes that make it easier communicating with your printer. Paper and envelope sizes Standardised sizes provide a ready means for selecting product formats that work together such as A4 paper and C4 envelopes ISO System - based on a ‘single aspect ratio’ of square root of 2 or approximately 1:1:4142. The wide and the height of a page relate to each other like the side of the diagonal of a square. This is especially convenient for paper size. If you put two pages next to each other, or cut a piece in half then the resulting page will have the same width / height ratio.
FORMATS
A4 ‘A’ sizes A0 - 841 x 1189 A1 - 594 x 841 A2 - 420 x 594 A3 - 297 x 420 A4 - 210 x 297 A5 - 148 x 210 A6 - 105 x 148 A7 - 74 x 105 A8 - 52 x 74 A9 - 37 x 52 A10 - 26 x 37
A5 A2
Generally used for everything from posters and magazines to notepads and postcards.
A3
‘B’ Sizes B0 - 1000 x 1414 B1 - 707 x 1000 B2 - 500 x 707 B3 - 353 x 500 B4 - 250 x 353 B5 - 176 x 250 B6 - 125 x 176 B7 - 88 x 125 B8 - 62 x 88 B9 - 44 x 62 B10 - 31 x 44
A0
Used for printing books
‘C’ Sizes C0 - 917 x 1297 C1 - 648 x 917 C2 - 458 x 648 C3 - 324 x 458 C4 - 229 x 324 C5 - 162 x 229 C6 - 114 x 162 C7/6 - 81 x 114 C7 - 81 x 114 C8 - 57 x 81 C9 - 40 x 57 C10 - 28 x 40 Used for envelopes that will hold ‘A’ sizes
A1
P R O C E S S E S Lithography
Gravure
Web
Flexography
Pad
Screen-printing
4 Colour process - CMYK Also possible to use spot colours
4 Colour Process - CMYK Also possible to use spot colours
Printing process through which the inked image from a printing plate is transferred or offset to a rubber blanket roller, which is then pressed against the substrate. When the plate passes under the ink roller, non-image areas that have a water film repel the oily inks that stick to the image areas.
The image is engraved onto a cylinder because it uses a rotary printing press. An indirect image carries such as gravure cylinders, the ink is applied directly to the cylinder and from the cylinder it is transferred to the substrate. It uses copper plates
Uses stock that is supplied on massive rolls rather than individual sheets which allows for higher volume printing speeds and a lower production cost. Webs can be used with lithography, but more commonly with relief printing methods such as rotogravure and flexography as their plates are more durable.
4 Colour Process CMYK with spot colours available The printed image is achieved by means of a soft, flexible plate that contains the image to be printed in relief, much like a rubber stamp. The plate is attached to the roller (cylinder) and placed on the press.
Printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3D object. Using an indirect offset (gravure) process, the image is transferred from the printing plate via a silicone pad onto the substrate.
Relatively low volume printing method in which inks are passed through an exposed image on a screen. Although its a slow and expensive printing method it allows printing onto a large variety of sources. The viscous inks allow specific colours to be applied and can also be used to create a raised surface that adds a tactile element to a design.
Used for Flyers Brochures Magazines Disadvantages Only available for long print runs to justify the hours of setting up machines and plates. For long print runs image quality can deteriorate due to wear on the plate.
Used for Magazines postcards corrugated (cardboard) product packaging Disadvantages Same problem as lithography as it is only available for long runs but the print quality doesn’t deteriorate because of the deep plate impression.
Used for Newspapers Catalogues Magazines Books Disadvantages Due to the scale and cost of the production it isn’t suitable for low-volume print runs.
Used for Food wrappers Labels Adhesive tapes Envelopes Newspapers Plastic bags Drink cartons
Used for Medical packaging Electronics Appliances Sports equipment Most 3D objects.
Disadvantages Time Consuming and expensive so only viable on short print runs.
Disadvantages Not the best print quality but because its used for disposable packaging its not much of an issue.
Set up screen print and inks
Pad Printer
Lithography Printer
Letterpress
Inkjet or laser printers deposit pigment or toner onto a variety of substrates. Because it doesn’t use plates and can be printed directly from a computer it saves a lot of money but isn’t suitable for longer print jobs because of the high costs for Toners and inks.
A method of relief printing whereby inked, raised surface is pressed against a substrate. The raised surface that is inked may be made from single type blocks, cast lines or engraved plates. Letterpress has a unique and beautiful aesthetic.
Perforation - A process that creates a cut out area in a substrate to weaken it so that it can be detached, or it is used to create a decorative effect.
Disadvantages Time-consuming process that takes years of practice to master, suitable for low volume print
Debossing - The same as embossing but the image is debossed into the stock.
Duplexing - The bonding of two stocks to form a single substrate with different colours or textures on each side.
Letter Pressed Designs Printed by Studio on Fire
Foils - A process whereby a coloured foil is pressed to a substrate via a heated die. Also called foil stamp, heat stamp or foil emboss, allows the designer to add specific design elements such as title text.
Build - Foiled protional branding - printed by GP
Disadvantages Expensive inks and toners, not suitable for long print runs
Embossing on watercolour stock
Used for Printing onto Canvas Glass Metal
Thermography - A print-finishing process that reproduces raised lettering by fusing thermographic powder to a design in an over Embossing - The design is embossed into the stock, and are often oversized as the design has to push through the stock.
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES
Digital
There are some really interesting printing techniques available but you need to make sure you have your budget worked out as they can be expensive
Z Fold French Fold
Gate Fold
FOLDING
Accordion Fold
3 panel Roll Fold
2 Panel Fold
Kiss Cutting - Often used with self adhesive substrates such as stickers, where by the face stock is die cut but not its backing sheet to fabricate the easy removal of the cut stock.
Tri Fold
Double Parallel
Laser Cutting - Uses a laser to cut shapes into stock rather than use a metal tool. Laser cutting can produce more intricate cut outs with a cleaner edge than a steel die although the heat on the laser burns the cut edge. Faster set up times mean faster job turn around. Rack Fold
Laser Cut CD Packaging by Candy Spotting
4 Panel Accordion Fold
4 Panel Double Fold
4 Panel Gate Fold
4 Panel Roll Fold
Colour edged business card by A Friend of Mine
Colour Edging - Where the sides of the designs stock are printed a different colour to the front.
Single Fold
Die Cutting plate at Target Print
Die cutting - Uses a steel die to cut away a specified section of a design. It is mainly used to add a decorative element to a print job and enhance the visual performance of the piece.
BINDING
Comb Binding - Spine of plastic rings that bind and allow a document to sit flat (Right)
Considerations
Spiral Binding - Spiral of metal wire that winds through punched holes allowing the publication to open flat.
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Wiro Binding - Spine of metal rings that bind and allow a document to open flat Open Bind - Book bound without a cover to leave an exposed spine Singer Stitch - Binding method whereby the pages are sewn together with one continued spine Perfect Bound - The back sections are removed and held together with a flexible adhesive, which also attaches a paper cover to the spine, and the fore edge trimmed flat. Commonly used with paper backs. Clips and Bolts - A fastening device that uses holes and bolts to fasten together loose pages. Holes are often drilled for the bolt or clip to pass through. Case or Edition Binding A common hard cover book binding method that screws signatures together, flattens the spine, applied end sheets and head tail-bands to the spine. Hard covers are attached, the spine is usually rounded and grooves along the cover to act as hinges.
Elastic Bands - An informal binding method whereby an elastic band holds the pages together and nestles in the centrefold.
Imposition shows the designer and printer how the various pages of a publication are to be arranged for print. It consists in the arrangement of the printed products pages on the printers sheet, it allows faster printing and simplified binding. It also maximises the number of pages per impression which in turn reduces the press time and paper waste.
Format Paper fibre direction Number of pages Stitching / binding method Finishing / Binding
Tip Ins and Tip Ons Extra elements can be added to designs to give them that special feel, tip ins and ons are when a page of different stock or a different size is added to the publication.
Saddle Stitch - Signatures are nested and bound with wire stitches, applied through the spine along the centre fold. (Below)
Belly Band - A printout that wraps around a publication, often used with magazines or flyers, a quick and cheap option of holding work together. (Below)
Tip Ins A tip in is an added single, page often in a different stock, or size. They are done by wrapping it around the central section of a publication and glueing along the bind. It has to be alligned to either the bottom or top of the bind. To the left are a few examples of how the different elements could be added. Cyan represents the original publication size and Magenta the tip in. Tip Ons Tip ons are when an element are pasted into publications anywhere on the host page. They can be permanent or temporary. Often used for attaching credit cards.
IMPOSITION
Some of the binds that you will help you during the design process.
Budgets and costing will unfortunately always be a huge part of graphic design wether working on personal projects or with clients. There are however a few simple tips that can keep costs down and client / designer relationships up. Use colour carefully Adding needless spot colours can add significant costs to ink and printing costs, find out if the colours can be created in CMYK and match using pantone books. Also if you want a specific colour, let you printers know, if you don’t let them know before then you have no argument once the print job is completed.
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Choose the appropriate print method An essential decision for keeping your costs down, the wrong print method could end up costing you a huge excess of costs. Lithography may be suitable for a run of 5000 or 10,000 but anything less will increase costs because of the high set up costs used in this process. Think of alternative methods such as screen-printing for a low volume job of 100 or so prints.
Proofs Always check your prints and get proofs printed before committing to a print job. This includes spell checks, colours and many other areas. One small error in a high volume print job could really damage your client / designer relations not to mention that with the printers. Special Techniques Although you may love the foiled, embossed and spot varnished cover you designed your clients wallet may not be so keen. Make sure you keep your design appropriate to the brief at hand.
COSTING
Contact your printer It is always good practice to contact your printer in relation to your job, let them know the volume of the prints.
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