Print Production.
CMYK Printing process.
Typical printing presses use 4 colors of ink. The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colors used by the printing press. C is for Cyan , M is for Magenta, Y is yellow and K is for Key (black).
Rotogravure.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the method of image photo transfer onto carbon tissue covered with lightsensitive gelatin was discovered, and was the beginning of rotogravure. In the 1930s– 1960s,newspapers published relatively few photographs and instead many newspapers published separate rotogravure sections in their Sunday editions. These sections were devoted to photographs and identifying captions, not news stories. In 1932 a George Gallup “Survey of wReader Interest in various Sections of Sunday Newspapers to Determine the Relative Value of Rotogravure as an Advertising Medium� found that these special rotogravures were the most widely read sections of the paper and that advertisements there were three times more likely to be seen by readers than in any other section. Rotogravure (Roto or Gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process; that is, it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it uses a rotary printing press. A cylinder is created with the engraved images that need to be printed: the engraving process will create on the cylinder surface the cells that will contain the ink in order to transfer it to the paper. Since the amount of ink contained in the cells correspond to different colour intensities on the paper, the dimensions of the cells must be carefully set: deeper cells will produce more intensive colours whereas less deep cells will produce less intensive ones.
Lithography. Lithographic printing is a process which the inked image from a printing plate is transferred or offset on to a arubber blanket roller, which is then pressed against the substarte. Lithography uses a smooth uses a smooth printing plate and functions on the basis that oil and water repel each other.When the plate passes through the ink roller,, non image areas that stick to the image areas. Lithography produces good photographic reproduction and fine line work on a variety of stocks. The printing plates are easy to prepare and high speeds are achievable, which helps make it a low-cost printing method.
Letterpress.
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, letterpress is also the direct impression of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc “cuts” (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.
Flexography. Flexography (often abbreviated to flexo) is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is basically an updated version of letterpress that can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper. It is widely used for printing on the non-porous substrates required for various types of food packaging (it is also well suited for printing large areas of solid color).
In the typical flexo printing sequence, the substrate is fed into the press from a roll. The image is printed as substrate is pulled through a series of stations, or print units. Each print unit is printing a single color. As with Gravure and Lithographic printing, the various tones and shading are achieved by overlaying the 4 basic shades of ink. These are magenta, cyan, yellow and black.
Aflexographic printing plate.
Screen printing.
Screen printing and silkscreening are printing techniques that use fine woven mesh or silk. to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas.
Half -tones and Gradients. A designer can use half-tones and gradients to make creative graphic interventions that add indivuality to the images used within design. A half-tone is an image composed of a series of different sized half-tone dots that are used to reproduce the continuous tones of a photograph in print. A gradient is a graduation of increasing or decreasing colour (s) applied to an image.
Embossing Embossing makes something stand out from the page. It impresses an image or text into a surface using an engraved metal die. This creates a raised impression. If the impression is to be sunk, it is known as ‘debossing’. You might also have come across the terms ‘blind embossing’, which means that no foiling or printing is required, and ‘foil embossing’ where foil is used in the process.
Overprint, reverse out and surprint.
There are three terms used to describe the different ways that ink can be laid down during the print process: overnight is when one ink prints over another ink. A reverse out is when instead of the design being printed it is removed from a block of printed colour and left as an unprinted area. A surprnit describes two elements that are printed on top of one another and are tints of the same colour, as in the example below left, where the type is 70% of the the base colour.
Overprint, reverse out and surprint. There are three terms used to describe the different ways that ink can be laid down during the print process: overprint is when one ink prints over another ink. A reverse out is when instead of the design being printed it is removed from a block of printed colour and left as an unprinted area. A surprnit describes two elements that are printed on top of one another and are tints of the same colour, as in the example below left, where the type is 70% of the the base colour.
Throwouts and Gatefolds.
Throwout and Gatefolds are methods of inserting extra and/or oversize pages into a publication, typically to provide extra to showcase a particular image or visual element, Gatefolds. A)The anles unfolding. B) The four-page spread once unfolded. C) The central panels have the same dimensions as the pages of the publication, while the outer panel are slightly narrower to allow them to nest well when folded. Throwouts. A) The panel shows the throw-out with the panel folded. B)The panel unfolding. C)The three page spread once unfolded.