Learning Activity 01 Prepress Research:
video research on printing processes
We are surrounded by print every day, but do we know how it was printed? From our bathrooms to the cafe where we read our newspapers, we rarely give a second thought to how the products we use everyday are printed....round objects, soft objects and foil chip packets....how do they print the packaging?
This assignment started with a video giving a background to a variety of printing methods commonly used to print a variety of substrates.....I feel wiser now!
PART A
1. List the
printing process identified in this program:
· Offset lithographic printing
· Digital printing
o electrophotography
o ink jet printing
· Flexographic printing (a type of relief printing – not as fine as
offset)
o Central impression
(plastic film)
o Stack press (prints both
sides of the substrate)
o In line press (can
accommodate a number of plates and other methods of printing)
· Screen Printing (high quality definition, high density colour,
long life inks, large paper sheets, metal & plastic products & short
runs)
o Flat bet
o Flat-to-round
o Round-to-round
2. What
products are printed using the cheaper papers in printing?
Because cheap papers have
a short lifespan, products such as newspapers, which are produced daily and
flyers and leaflets that have short-term promotions are use these types of
economical papers. Take-away food
paper bags that have a one-use purpose also use cheaper papers.
3. What
products are higher quality papers used for in printing?
Coated papers that have a
longer life span are used for colourful advertising posters, glossy magazines
and books. Heavier glossy paper is
the most expensive and used for photographic work or art prints.
4. What are
printing plates made from in the offset lithographic print process?
The lithographic plates
are mostly made of aluminium that has a light sensitive coating to which the photographic designs are exposed.
5. What are
spot colours used for?
Spot colours are used to
intensify a colour like gold, silver or to add a gloss surface for special
effects.
6. How is
digital printing different from offset lithography?
Images or pages prepared
for offset printing are transferred and fixed to a metal plate that is
permanent and unchanging. This
static image can be repeated in high volumes onto paper passing through the
offset printing press. By contrast
the data for images or pages to be printed by the digital printing method is
transferred to the digital press electronically and has the flexibility to
enable each page to be printed differently.
7. What are the
advantages of flexography printing?
Flexographic printing has
the advantage of being able to be used on a wide range of material from paper
to plastic, foils and corrugated board.
8. What methods are used
to dry inks?
· Offset lithography:
The
printed sheets are fed at high speeds through an oven heated to 140 degrees
Celsius and when it exits the oven the paper quickly passes over chilled
rollers to cool it down.
· Digital printing:
Digital
inks dry by ordinary evaporation and absorption.
· Flexography:
Chemicals
such as acetates or proponols can be added to ink to control faster or slower
drying times required between inkings
· Screen printing
Air-drying
between inkings is required for short run fine art prints
9. How is digital
printing different from traditional printing?
While the quality of
digital printing is equivalent to the printing results of traditional printing
methods, it is limited by slower printing speed and by the fact that the
printers are limited to a maximum thickness of 200gsm paper that can feed into
the machines. Digital printers
also lack the ability to accept a wide range and variety of papers that
traditional commercial presses can.
10. What is a substrate?
A substrate is any
material or product that is printable,
11. Why is coloured
artwork separated into four plates?
all other colour combinations can be made from the four colours
.cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and
this is why they are used on separate plates.
12. Book casing refers
to what?
This is the term that
refers to the finishing process for hard cover books that may include
specialised
13. Binding and
finishing uses different equipment to finish the printed work. Explain these terms:
a. Knife folding machine (also called the right-angle fold principle)
A
Knife-folding machine is one where the flat sheet of paper falls onto a flat
bed and a knife pushes the paper through a slit in the surface of the plate
between two rollers below which engage with the paper and form the fold
below. These machines are
versatile and can fold a variety of paper and cardboards.
b. Perfect binding machine
A
Perfect binding machine is a machine that glues the folds of pages of a book
together at the spine between two much heavier covers
c. Guillotine
A
guillotine is a machine with a long blade that cuts flat sheets of paper
PART B
Research
and compare two printing processes outlined in
the program to produce a magazine and comment on their suitability or
otherwise. Document your findings
and answer these questions in sentence format.
Offset Lithographic
printing
Offset
lithography is the workhorse of printing and nearly all commercial printers
have an offset printing machine, and under the best conditions and operator,
the end product can give very fine printed results.
Offset
lithography works on the basic premise that water and ink don’t mix. Images that include words and art are
transferred and set onto plates.
Paper plates produce a lower quality product while aluminium produces
the highest quality but is more costly. The plates are dampened first by water
and then ink. The ink adheres to
the image area, the water to the non-image area. The image is transferred to a rubber blanket, and from the
rubber blanket to paper. This is the reason the process is called “offset”
because the image is not printed directly to the paper from the plate as does
in etching or gravure printing.
These cylindrical offset printers can produce big runs moderately
quickly with quality results.
Sheet-fed
offset is another popular method of offset printing and can be found in many
small and large printing plants, and is capable of producing high-quality
printed products on a range wide of paper stock, as well as short runs. Sheet-fed presses print on
individual sheets of paper, as opposed to continuous rolls of paper used on
cylindrical offset presses and web presses.
Dumbo Ferather
Dumbo
Feather is a quarterly magazine periodical, which is described by its publishers as a mook – half magazine, half book - because
it is issued regularly like a magazine, but has the appearance of a book.
The
format of this magazine appeals to a green conscious, thoughtful and discerning
demographic. The publishers aim to
maintain a low footprint and are driven by passion, purpose and a sense of
community. The matt, 100% recycled
paper stock and quality images printed with soy-based ink instead of chemicals
support the intelligent content and satisfy the consumer’s expectation of a
quality alternative publication.
Printgraphics|Printgreen of Mount Waverley in
Victoria produces Dumbo Feather using the sheet-fed printing method. Modern sheet-fed presses have
sophisticated electronic controls for adjusting colour and register. This technology will often shorten
set-up time and reduce printed waste, and in a competitive market, the result
is an economical product.
The
printing method chosen by the publishers gives them the quality they need and
is balanced with the cost of the comparatively small production run. The company has a small number of
executives running the company.
Web Press printing
While
Offset lithography can accommodate small boutique printings as well as large
quality productions, web press printing is another type of offset printing that
takes production runs to another level. Web-fed printing refers to the use
of rolls (or ‘webs’) of paper that are supplied to the printer. The machines can print at very high
speeds and use very large continuous sheets of paper. Press speeds can reach up
to 50,000 impressions per hour and are ideal for high volume publications such as mass-market books,
magazines, newspapers, catalogues and brochures. While the quality is good, there
is not the same wide range of boutique papers available for specialist
jobs. These presses have the
advantage of speed and quick completion, and the larger the run the more
economical the publication becomes.
This method of printing is used for popular magazines like Women’s
Weekly, who has a mass target market where price is a consumer
consideration. Cheaper papers can
be used so that more content can be put into one magazine, making a thicker
publication with more pages appeal to a sense value in a mass market. Women’s Weekly is usually 240 pages
long and printed on thin glossy paper.
Launched in 1933, the magazine has been in continuous production since
then. Until the early 1980s it was
produced weekly, but with rising costs it was decided to release the magazine
monthly in 1983. It has a
circulation of around 530,000 and continues to be one of Australia’s most
popular magazines.
Economies of scale would suggest that web press printing is the most
economical production choice for a magazine that appeals to a mass market with
the overheads of a large production team.
Web press printing is the best choice for the Women’s Weekly.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/634568?c=people
(telephone conversation)
Nigel Quirk, Account Manager, Dumbo Feather, Printgraphics
PART C
Create
a puzzle word-search
using these printing terms:
Plates
Direct marketing
Squeegee
Ink
Blanket
Web-press
Impressions
Sheet-fed
Folder
Substrate
Ink jet
Screen
Grippers
Electrophotography
Stencil
PART D
Collect examples
of 6 different printed materials
and attach a description to each item that explains the main features of the
printing process used. Set them out in easy steps or diagrams / pictures and
clearly show how the processes relate to your examples.
1. silk textile – digitally printed fabric
Designs for textiles to be printed
digitally can be prepared electronically using graphic design software much the
same as desktop publishing from computer to printer. With a digital fabric printer that uses inkjet technology,
the textile is fed through the printer using rollers and ink is applied to the
surface in the form of thousands of tiny droplets. The fabric is finished using heat or steam to make the inks
colour fast. The inks used in digital
printing are formulated specifically for each type of fibre – cotton, silk,
linen, polyester, rayon etc.
2.
carpet samples folder - offset lithography
Offset lithography
is the standard commercial printing method used today and forms the bulk of
mass printing production because of the high quality of printing and low cost
of individual sheets the higher the printing run. The paper covering this carpet sample book would have been
printed on a cylinder and blanket offset printer, and calendared for extra
gloss. The artwork and text would
have been digitally transferred to a plate ready for the printer. The print and images on the plate would
accept the ink, and the white background would repel the ink because it would
be water absorbent and kept damp during the printing process. After printing the coated paper would
need to be die cut and laminated onto thicker cardboard as support backing. It would then be ready to be scored, the
carpet samples added and then folded ready for presentation.
A sample book like
this would be given to carpet retailers to show to their customers and would be
not be required to be printed in very high volumes. The finishing processes would be done on a flat bed die
cutting machine, which is cheaper.
3. Madura tea package – Flexographic
printing
Flexography is the
most common form of printing packaging and labels because this method can
accommodate a wide range of more flexible materials including foils and
plastics like this tea bag package made from a foil material. Flexography is a rotary relief printing
process where the raised flexible printing plate impresses ink onto the surface
of the printed material from the pressure of rollers. The substrate to be printed is fed through a series of
inking stations where spot colour like this gold lettering can be added, and
includes other processes such as laminating.
4. Esso tiger (Japan 1960s) & speed sign (current)– silkscreen on
metal
Screen-printing is
used commercially when the product has large areas of plain colour, is of a
large size and a large volume of product is not required. The overlap and mis-registration can be
seen on the vintage Esso tiger.
The recent Clarence City Council sign (done by Eye Spy Signs) would have
had screens made from accurate digital images.
5.
plastic deodorant bottle – Flexographic pad printing
Pad
printing is an indirect way of printing.
By using
extremely elastic pads such as silicon, concave, convex, regular and irregular
shaped objects can be printed. The
pad takes up the image from an etched printing plate and transfers it onto the
object. The process
works by silicon pads squishing into the object in order to apply the ink in
the appropriate places.
6.
card – Thermographic printing
Thermographic printing
is heat raised printing and is commonly used
on wedding invitations, business cards, greetings cards and can also be used to
print braille text. Thermography machines consist of three sections
connected by a through conveyor. The first section applies
thermographic/embossing powder to the substrate. The areas selected for raised printing are printed with slow
drying pigment inks that do not contain dryers or hardeners so that they remain
wet during the application of powder. This ink is dried and hardened later
during the heating process. The second section
of the process is a vacuum system that removes excess powder from uninked areas
of the substrate. The third section
of the process conveys the product through a radiant oven where it is exposed to
temperatures of 900 to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The powder melts, and the melted ink solidifies as the
product cools.
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/printing/g/thermography.htm
PART E
PART E: Terminology
In your own words, provide a brief definition of each of
the words listed below.
Analog proof: is a prepress proof that uses inkjet,
toner, dyes, overlays, photographic film or other techniques to give a close
approximation of what the finished piece will look like.
Additive Colour: red, yellow & blue
Artwork: is the complete master file that
includes images, fonts and graphics from which proofs are made to produce the
printing plates.
Ascender: is part of a letter that rises above
the main type body such the tail of the letter “h”.
Backing: part of the binding operation that
consolidates the back of a book.
Base art: before desktop publishing, base art was
the first layer of art that was applied direct to the board.
Beating: is a process of mashing the fibres of
pulp in papermaking to produce the desired quality of paper.
Bleaching: a process in papermaking to whiten
cellulose fibres.
Bleed: printing that is extended beyond the
edge of a sheet or page that is to be trimmed.
Body matter: is the main text of work not including
the headlines
Body size: is the depth of a type as distinct from
its face size
Bromide: is photographic paper used for proofing
and reproduction.
Bulk: is the thickness of paper
Calendering: is a finishing process
at the end of a papermaking machine where paper is pressed between rollers to
increase the smoothness and gloss of the paper.
Camera-ready copy: this is the final copy that
requires no further work that the printer uses as the original for making a
printing plate.
CMYK colour: is the system of primary printing
colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) used popularly to process colour
reproduction. K is used to
represent black because it is believed that ‘B’ would be confused with Cyan
(blue). It is also thought that K
could be and abbreviation for the Key
colour.
Coated paper: is paper with a surface coating to
produce a smooth finish in either matt or gloss.
Collate: to bring different
sections of work together in the right sequence.
Colour bar: is a band of colour
strips that is placed at the sides of a print job for measuring colour density
and to ensure that the four colour plates are registered correctly.
Compositor: is a tradesperson who
specialises in typesetting.
Continuous tone: a photographic image that has not been
dot screened.
Crop marks: are marks at the edge of a photograph
or plate that indicated portions to be eliminated from the image.
Cyan: is one of the primary colour process
inks that reflects or transmits blue and green light and absorbs red light.
Densitometer: is a photoelectric instrument, which
measures the density of photographic images or of colours, and is used in
colour printing for quality control to determine the consistency of colours
throughout a run.
Descender: the part of the letter, which extends
below the main body of type such as the tail of “p”.
Desktop publishing: is the process of using the computer
and specific types of software to produce text and artwork to produce of documents that are properly
formatted for print, web, mobile devices, newsletter, brochures, books,
business cards, letterhead, packaging, signage etc.
Digesting: is part of the papermaking process
where softwood chips are combined with chemicals to produce pulp for paper
manufacture.
Digital proof: a colour proof produced from digital
data that does not require colour separations for printing.
Digital electronic
printing: is a plateless method of printing that
uses desktop publishing and other digital
sources to print using laser or inkjet printers.
Doctor Blade: a knife-edged blade used in gravure
that presses against the engraved printing cylinder to wipe excess ink from
non-printing surfaces.
Dot gain: in printing this is a normal occurence
where dots print larger than original and cause darker tones.
Dots per inch: is a measure of the
resolution of a screen image or printed page.
Dummy: is a sample of proposed work that is
prepared before printing as a mock-up to assess the design and to estimate the
production requirements.
Duotone: is a term for a
two-colour halftone reproduced from a one-colour photograph.
Dye-line: is a proof prepared photographically.
Emboss: is a relief image that gives
a raised printed surface
Flexography: is a printing process
that prints from flexible rubber or plastic plates that use volatile inks that
are fast drying to enable a printer to print a variety of colours quickly and
on many different surfaces.
Flat-bed cutting: is a process of die cutting on a flat
bed rather than a rotary press.
Flatbed die cutting is not as fast as rotary cutting, but the tools are
cheaper.
Folding: is the process of creasing a page that
later can be collated, bound into a book or document.
Folio: the page number printed on the page
(not the physical page number).
Font: is the complete range of a designed
type of one size and face.
Forme: Size, style, type, margins, printing requirements, etc. of any printed
piece.
Fugitive
ink: Ink (usually water soluble)
used in security printing to combat forgery.
Galley: Shallow metal tray used to
hold type.
GSM: Grams per Square Metre; a
standard measure of the weight of paper.
Also expressed as gm2.
Gravure printing: is the opposite to relief
printing. The image is etched on
the surface of a metal plate or cylinder so that the image to be printed is in
the depressions of the plate, which are then filled with ink. The plate is wiped clean, the paper is
pressed against the inked plate and the image is transferred to the paper.
Greyscale: The range of tones from
white to black, placed at the side of original
copy during photography to measure the tonal range.
Grippers: metal fingers that hold sheets of paper as
it passes through a printing press.
Guillotine: is a machine with a blade that
cuts flat sheets of paper.
H&J: is one
of the more technical typographic terms, referring to the hyphenation and
justification settings used specifically to create and control justified type.
Halftone: is the reproduction of continuous tone
artwork, such as a photograph, with the image translated into dots of various
sizes.
Hard copy: is the physical printed copy of a file
or document for visual checking and proof reading for correction of data.
Hemp: the first book made on a
printing press, the Gutenburg Bible, was printed on hemp paper. 600 years later it is still in good
condition. Today hemp is not produced in large quantities for papermaking. Wood pulp is still the dominant
material used for papermaking.
Imposition: is the arranging of pages to ensure the
correct order after the printed sheet is folded and trimmed.
ISBN: International Standard Book Numbering
System
ISO: International Standards Organisation
ISSN: International Standard Serial Number
Justify: is to align the contents of a document
to the right and left of a column or page
Kerning: in typography, the part of a letter,
which overhangs the type body.
Kerning involves closing up type where the letter shape results in
uneven letter spacing.
Leading: is the amount of space between lines of
type.
Lithography printing: the principle of this printing method
is that water repels oil. Oil
based inks are applied to the
printed surface of a plate or cylinder, while the non printied surface is kept
moist with water. Paper and a
blanket are placed onto the plate, pressure is applied and the inked area is transferred to
the paper.
Logo: is the personalised type or design
symbol for a company or product.
Mechanical fastening: in the printing industry, fastening is the
process of attaching one part or item to another, such as when a printed label
is adhered to another. This is a method of joining or adhering
two separate parts mechanically.
Mock-up: in design, a mock-up is a scale or
full-size model of a design used for teaching, demonstration, design
evaluation, promotion and other purposes.
A mock-up is a prototype.
Moire pattern: is the pattern caused by
overlaying conflicting screen angles
OCR: Optical Character Recognition of type
by a scanner, which senses light reflected from the printed image and is able to identify each character.
Offset: is a printing process in which the
image is transferred from plate to paper by means of a rubber-covered cylinder.
Orphan: is the first line of a paragraph that
ends up as the last line of a column or the last line of a paragraph that ends
up as the firs line of a column.
Outline fonts: in the screen-printing industry,
outline font is a type of text that has characters that are defined by an
outline of the edges rather than a solid character. Also used in book printing, brochure and flyer printing.
Over-printing: double printing – printing over an area
that has already been printed
Pad printing: pad printing machines can print on 3D
and moulded objects.
Pantone colour: The Pantone Matching System (PMS) is a
registered, standardised colour reproduction system used by designers and
manufacturers to ensure colours match using swatches without having to have
direct contact with clients. Most
of the Pantone’s 1,114 spot colours cannot be simulated with CMYK, but with 13
base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts. It also allows for many special colours
to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents.
Perfecting Press: is a printing press that prints on both
sides of the page in a single pass.
Perfect binding: is a method of joining together pages,
more often with a periodical or publication printing, and can be of a variety
of methods.
Picking: is the lifting of the paper surface,
and occurs when the ink tack exceeds the surface strength of the paper.
Plate: is the printing surface. It is also tje name given to an
illustration inset in a book.
Plate setter: is a machine that processes and creates
images suitable for use on an offset printing press.
Ream: A standard of quantity of
paper meaning 20 quires or 500 sheets(formerly 480 sheets)
Register
marks: are the crosses or marks on originals
that act as a guide for printing to facilitate the perfect registration or
overlay of separate plates
Relief
printing: is a method that applies ink to a raised
surface. Paper is placed onto the
inked area. A print is taken after pressure is applied to the paper.
Resolution: in digital imaging this is the means by
which the printout quality is measured in the number of dots per inch.
RGB colour: red, green, blue additive primary
colurs.
Rotary
cutting: is die cutting method using a rotary
press with customised dies that run over the turning surface. It is useful for high volume projects
with consistent cuts and produces little waste. It is a low tolerance, precision cutting method with fast
turnaround times and is often done inline with printing. It is a more expensive method of die
cutting than flat-bed cutting.
Sanserif: a particular typeface without serifs.
Scoring: compresses a line in a
sheet, particularly of thick or heavy stock, so that it will fold without
creasing or cracking.
Screen
ruling: is a measurement equaling the number of
lines or dots per inch on a halftone screen.
Screen
printing: is a method of printing from stencils
through fine mesh or silk, metal or other material. The stencils can be photographic or cut by hand.
Short grain
paper: Paper in
which the grain direction is parallel to its shorter dimension
Signature
(print term): is the name given to a printed sheet
after it has been folded. It is
also the term for the sections of a book, which are gathered for binding.
Slug Area: a slug area is an area
that is printed but does not appear on the final document as it is outside the
trim area. It is used to send
instructions to the printer and contains file names, printer’s colour bars and
trim and register marks.
Spot-varnishing: is a small area printed in a second
colour.
Stroke: refers to the line or lines forming a
character of a typeface.
Step-and-repeat: is a system of repeating an image on a
plate by “stepping” it into position according to a predetermined layout. This method is used for multiple
printing of images on a sheet.
Substrate: is a surface that can be printed on –
paper, plastic, metal etc.
Tack: is the property of
tackiness or viscosity of ink that gives the correct cohesive qualities for
various inks and substrates.
Template: is a file that is pre-designed or
formatted as a starting point for a new document or design.
Thermal
fastening: in the printing industry, fastening is
the process of attaching one part or item to another, such as when a printed
label is adhered to another.
Thermal binding is a process that attaches a one piece cover with a glue
channel down the spine. The paper
to be bound is placed in the cover, heated in a machine, and when it cools down
the pages have adhered to the cover.
Trapping: It is very difficult to get a perfect
register. Stencils/plates are
designed to include trapping, which creates a small amount of ink spread to
overlap the previously printed area so that no mis-register lines appear.
Trim marks: are the short horizontal and vertical
lines on each corner of a printed page to denote where the page is to be
trimmed after printing.
Typography: is the art and technique of arranging
type design that are arranged into words, sentences, paragraphs and pages for
visual communication.
Variable
costs: are those costs that are not fixed, but
are relative to the costs of production.
Watermark: is a name, logo or design impressed
into paper during manufacture.
Web
(printer): is a high speed printing press that
prints on continuous rolls of paper or other substrates, and are typically used
for printing newspapers and magazines.
Printing presses for flexographic printing used for packaging are
usually web presses.
Widow: is a single
word on a line that ends a paragraph, which is thought of as poor typography.
Work-and-tumble: is a method of turning a sheet of paper
to print the other side. The
second side is printed using another gripper edge.
Work-and-turn: is the process of
printing on one side of a sheet of paper; then the sheet of paper is turned
over from left to right. The same gripper is used for printing both sides.
Wove: is the term applied to
papers made on an ordinary web in which the wires are woven.
X-height: is the height of
a lower case “x” in a font.
Graphic
Design, Australian Style manual, Barnum, Haddock, Hicks & Oppen,
McGraw-Hill 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding
