Graphic printing process - highlighting the advantages in complexity and cumber
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Although computerization and digitization in the modern era have simplified or deleted some of the traditional graphic reproduction and color printing process, and reduced the pollution of air and noise and liberated the hard work of human beings, graphic printing is still one. The item is relatively complicated and cumbersome.
Despite this, with the electronic industry revolution of the past ten years, the modern graphic printing process has also undergone earth-shaking changes to meet the needs of the market climate, including: (1) short production cycle; (2) on-demand printing ( When you need to print as much as you need), do not retain too much inventory; (3) a larger proportion of short-lived activities (ie, small and fragmented printing); (4) customers and graphic printing companies (such as Fu Yunda ) Closer cooperation. Note: The development and popularity of fashion design and typesetting software (such as Adobe's Pagemaker typesetting soft Photoshop image processing software),
Today's customers know more about and better master the prepress layout work than ever before. The marketing public relations department of many multinational corporations has staff responsible for design and layout tasks.
Most of these reforms use high-tech electronics and computer technology to make the process more intuitive and easy to process, the production process is more streamlined, the production cycle is greatly shortened, labor and economic costs are relatively reduced, quality control is more precise, and more complex. Printed visual and textured effects can also be achieved.
Factors affecting the effectiveness and price of printed matter:
In addition to the production and quality control processes, the factors listed below can significantly affect the cost and final outcome of any printed product, and the customer is the ultimate decision maker of these factors: (1) Print media material (generally referred to as paper) - This is related to the visual, texture and printing methods; (2) the size of the printed matter - related to the media material specifications (such as paper); (3) the content flattening requirements - simple typesetting or complex set; (4) color and ink - Black and white, color, whether color separation is required. Ordinary ink, light ink or special ink such as gold, silver, fluorescent and other inks; (5) printing methods - offset, letterpress, gravure, screen printing, stupid ammonia printing, digital printing, electrostatic laser printing, spraying Ink printing, etc.; (6) Binding methods - hot melt binding, saddle stitching, wire loading, hardcovering, etc.; (7) Quantity - paper printing is usually printed every thousand, a small amount of every hundred.
Of course, the amount of printing required by the customer directly affects the feasibility and manufacturing cost of the other six options, but after all, under a certain amount of printing, the quantity will not have much influence on the final effect of the printed matter. Let us briefly look at the other six elements:
(1) Print media
In the process of graphic printing, the selection of printing media is a very important part. The printing effect and cost of printed products will also be affected by the printing method and the printing media used, so there should be a basic understanding of the printing media.
There are many types of printing media, the most common of which are paper and cardboard, followed by cloth, fiber materials, plastic sheets (film), metal skins and the surface of various electrical appliances that are common in everyday life.
At present, the media used in printing is mainly paper. All kinds of papers have their own uses, and the papers are very diverse, including the commonly used "copper paper" (commonly known as 'powder paper') for high-end color printing. It is a chemically coated paper that is pressed by a roller. The surface is extremely smooth and shiny. Therefore, it is also generally called "light coated paper." The surface of the glossy coated paper is additionally processed to obtain a very smooth but non-glossy effect called “matte coated paper” (commonly known as “matte paper”), which is suitable for color printing of fine dots.
The classification of paper is generally divided into the following points: (1) paper, (2) weight, (3) paper size and (4) use. The name of the paper is often named according to the purpose; in addition to coated paper, there are book paper, book paper, news paper, cardboard, cover paper and special leather paper (such as the British "Ganggu" paper). The range of weights used depends on the application, from the thinnest 45gsm (per square gram) of onion paper to 300gsm thick cardboard. Generally, a single sheet of paper commonly used for color printing has a weight of 128 gsm or 157 gsm, a black and white printing of 80 gsm to 128 gsm, a letter paper weight of 70 gsm to 120 gsm, an envelope paper weight of 100 gsm to 160 gsm, and a business card paper of 160 gsm to 250 gsm. The paper weight of a printed book is usually slightly lighter than a printed leaflet.
The choice of paper affects the printing method, ink and other post-press processing, including the cost of print delivery.
(2) Print size
The size and thickness of the printed product directly affect its appearance, manufacturing process and production methods. In a larger number of tasks, the selection of materials should be as close as possible to the finished product size specifications, so as not to waste material (paper) and incur additional processes.
(3) Content flattening (plate making) requirements
The selection of pictures, the use of fonts, and the arrangement and combination of images will affect the visual form, theme awareness and overall communication of the final print. How to choose and combine the elements of the above printed content depends on the information that the customer wishes to convey to the audience through the printed matter and the expected communication effect, and the communication art technique provided by the designer.
(4) Color and ink color
There are two ways to express the desired color with printing ink: (1) using the basic four-color ink of printed color, mixing dots and overlapping overprinting to make the desired color tone; (2) mixing printing ink, using special Color printing, using solid colors or dots to express color. These two methods are different in print design, color specification or plate making methods.
In principle, color printing uses four basic colors—YELLOW, MAGENTA, CYAN, and BLACK—to create an ever-changing color. Therefore, color separation can faithfully reproduce the color tone of color photos by color separation and four-color overlap reduction. However, some special colors such as gold, silver, and fluorescent colors cannot be composed of a basic four-color ink overprint, but must be printed by a spot color ink.
In monochrome prints, in addition to the deepest solid and white, different dots can be used to make different shades of gray (halftone) to express the level of the image. The expressive ability of multi-color printing is better than that of monochrome, but it should be properly applied and specified to get the desired effect. In the design, you should find some standard color overprinting guide as a reference, and use the appropriate dot to increase its color. The change.
The ink color on the printed matter can be expressed by the proportion of dots of each basic color in the "four-color mixing table". However, different types of inks, media, printing methods and production equipment may print different "four-color mixing tables", so there is a need for a standardized and professional method to develop a "four-color mixing table" or "color standard". As a recognized reference standard, you can communicate the printed ink color accurately and consistently through a unified color language.
PANTONE¤R Company of the United States is an expert in the development of the “Color Standard System” and is a leader in the printing industry. It offers a variety of “color standard” manuals for four, six and spot colors printed in different media.
(5) Printing method
In addition to selecting the appropriate printing media (paper) and ink, the final effect of the print needs to be done by appropriate printing methods.
There are many types of printing, different methods, different operations, and different costs and effects. The currently used printing methods can be mainly divided into four categories: letterpress, gravure, lithography and stencil printing: (1) letterpress printing, printing is higher than non-printing (2) gravure printing, printing is concave in the layout (3) lithography , the print has no convex or concave (4) stencil printing, the ink passes through the hole of the print
Since the invention of woodcut type printing technology in China, printing methods have been changing with each passing day. The most common industrial printing methods available today are:
1. Offset printing (also known as Offset printing)
One of the lithographic printing methods, which can restore the color, contrast and level of the original with high precision, is the most common paper printing method. Suitable for posters, intros, brochures, newspapers, packaging, books, magazines, calendars and other related color prints.
2. Typography
One type of letterpress printing technology, generally in the text, It is used when there are few photos and pictures, and the chances of changing the text are large and the number of printed products is small. Suitable for printing small batches of invitation cards, business cards, labels and small boxes. Traditional sequential number printing and small trademark overprinting are performed in letterpress mode.
3. Screen printing
One of the stencil printing techniques, the printing ink is particularly thick, and it is best to produce special effects printing. The amount is not large and the ink color is particularly suitable. It can also be printed on the three-dimensional surface, such as square boxes, boxes, round bottles, cans, and the like. In addition to paper, it can also be printed on cloth, plastic fabric, plywood, film, metal sheet, glass, etc. Common new products include banners, pennants, T-shirts, corrugated boxes, soda bottles and circuit boards. The flexibility of screen printing is unmatched by other printing methods.
4. Rubber printing
A type of letterpress printing that is only suitable for printing plastic bags, labels and plastic packages. Usually the media that enters the flexographic printing press is a package rather than a single sheet, which is cut one by one after printing. The fineness of printing dots and lines is far less than that of offset printing and typography, and it cannot be used to print book publications.
5. Gravure printing
Suitable for printing high quality and expensive prints, whether in color or black and white, the gravure effect is comparable to photographic photos. Since the plate making fee is expensive and the amount of printing must be large, it is also one of the less common methods. Applicable to the printing of securities, stocks, gift certificates, commercial credits or stationery.
Technology is developing rapidly, and today we can use the above-mentioned printing methods to output directly on the media. The maturity of electrostatic imaging and laser technology enables small-volume, high-quality "on-demand printing".
6. Binding method
The definition of binding is to make the printed books in order, making them sturdy, beautiful, easy to read and save. Binding also includes many other printing processes for printing finished products, such as bronzing, embossing, die cutting, digging for moon, cutting round corners, pressing lines, attaching sticker bags, punching, etc.
To produce product introductions, brochures, and annual reports, customers must consider their use, content, number of pages, paper quality, weight, size, and thickness. If you have a certain understanding of the binding method, you can get twice the result with half the effort in designing.
The most common binding methods in the office are flat (stapler) binding, apron binding, iron ring binding, (folder) loose-leaf ring, slide (plastic clip) binding and hot-melt cover binding. More serious documents can be bound using hot melt adhesive tape or a hardcover book case for the front and back of the catheter binding method.
A large number of industrial binding methods are available for saddle stitching, wireless hot melt binding, stitching (locking) binding, and hardcover book covers (such as large dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.).
Since binding is the final process of graphic printing and the most influential process of printing finished products, the binding method and materials must be carefully selected, and the quality of production must be strictly controlled, so as to avoid the final mistakes and the results of all previous processes will be lost.
Hot melt adhesive strip:
Slide rail (plastic clip type)
Catheter binding
Hot melt cover
Loose-leaf ring
Flat binding
Apron binding
Iron ring binding
Saddle stitch binding
The same content, different cover making and binding methods have different effects. Of course, if you can communicate and cooperate closely with suppliers, establish a tacit understanding and clear cooperation relationship, you will be more confident in obtaining the expected quality of printed materials and reducing production costs. However, the following common problems should be avoided:
(1) The printed matter is not urgently printed;
(2) If the printed manuscript is not fully prepared, it will be printed;
(3) Always ask for the lower the price, the better;
(4) It is not possible to issue a manuscript at one time;
(5) Modify the original at any time.
If you know more about the graphic printing process, you will be able to easily understand the supplier's production requirements; or communicate with suppliers and consult relevant professional opinions, so that the prints can be completed smoothly and more according to their own needs.