Design Practice: Design for Print - print processes seminar

AT THE PRINTERS

Comercial print processes are usually Practical, Technical and Economical

Types of print processes

- rotary printing

- digital printing

- screen printing

- pad printing

ROTARY PRINT

Uses cylinders hence the name 'rotary'

types of rotary are - lithography/offset lithography (litho or planographic), rotogravure (intaglio or etching and flexography (flexo or relief)

offset litho - 3 cylinders - really fast - used for leaflets, flyers, comic books

has to be proofed because getting it wrong can be expensive.

Web litho - is on a massive roll and the machine can fill an entire warehouse - used mainly for publications like newspapers.

rotogravure - more durable - holds more ink - not offset - straight from the cylinder to paper - more expensive than offset - used for laminate flooring - high end maps

flexography - process for packaging - plate is silicon not metal - quality is not as good as litho - used for bottle labels - chocolate and sweet wrappers (anything produced on mass where the packaging or wrapper will be discarded shortly after purchasing the product)

DIGITAL PRINT

Not a mechanical process

Short runs are more expensive per unit

consider - material - ink quality - important not to let go after doing the artwork by just putting it through a digital printer - really good for mock ups and one off prints.

the computer - Raster Image Processor (R.I.P) - sorts of the code and sends it to the printer

SCREEN PRINT

silk screen - fabric

cheap - good for small run prints

3 types of screen print

1. mechanical screen print process

2. manual screen print - long winded

3. rotary screen printed

PAD PRINT

used for printing 2D artwork, logos, designs etc onto 3D objects

e.g. pens, golfballs, safety hats, bottle caps and so on.

KEY ASPECTS OF DIGITAL COLOUR MANAGEMENT

Additive colour - Screen print (RGB) - adds more colour the more you put on

Subtractive colour - Digital print (CMYK) takes more colour the more you put on

CMYK

C - cyan

M - magenta

Y - yellow

K - key (black)

When all four are together they make what is referred to as a 'Composite' image.

Gamut - more colours can be seen on screen than on print.

The human eye can see more colours than a screen can display and than a printer can produce.

The RGB gamut is much larger than the CMYK gamut so you have to proof your work before sending it to print otherwise you'll get completely different results to what you thought you would get.

Colour modes.

Grayscale - black, white, grey

Duotone - two colours - cyan and magenta, cyan and yellow, magenta and yellow, etc.

Spot colour - grayscale with one other colour mixed and printed on top of that image, could be over the entire image or in just one area.

Monochrome - one colour, cyan, magenta or yellow.

We have been asked to look at some links to videos that explain more about printing processes and colour management.

Lithography

Pazzaz Rant

Pad Printing

http://www.pdsconsulting.co.uk/2007/Library/Printing_Pad.asp

Screen Printing

COLOUR

This woman/video annoys me.

CMYK and printing

CMYK vs RGB

Rich Black vs Normal

http://marvin.mrtoads.com/richblack_vs_plainblack.html

About Pantone

About Colour Matching

Colour models

http://www.sketchpad.net/basics4.htm

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/19954

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Monday, 10 October 2011

Design for Print - print processes seminar

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