Central Print....Design Tips

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Here are a few tips to help your print design process go smoothly. Some of these tips may be elementary to seasoned designers, but they will definitely help anyone who is plunging into the print design realm.
Trapping
In modern printing, trapping is a fully automated procedure that you needn't worry about. It's built into our plate-burning computer.
Bleeding
When your design runs all the way to the edge, there is a danger of the ink not quite making it to the edge on every sheet. This is because the stack of paper feeding into the press cannot be perfectly aligned. Bleeding is the technical name for deliberately running the ink 1/8" off the edge of the sheet on each side that needs it. Of course, this means that the sheet will be printed oversize and then trimmed back to your intended "trim" size. For instance, an 8 1/2 by 11" sheet that bleeds may be printed on 9 1/2 by 12" paper and then cut down.
Color
Printing is done in either of three different ways: spot-color printing, process printing, or digital printing.
Spot-color printing is based on a system created by Pantone, Inc. in 1963 to assign numbers to colors. The press operator has the option of either mixing a color according to a specified formula, or purchasing the premixed color in a can. The designer, meanwhile, can select a color from a small book of colored swatches (such as PMS-293, which is a particular blue), and be assured of getting that color in the finished piece. Swatch books are fairly expensive, but one can always view one at our shop.
Process printing is based on the "four-color process" of combining the three primary colors plus black to make any other color. If you've ever played with paints, you may have noticed that the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow) can be combined to make all the other colors. Blue and yellow, for instance, combine to make green. In process printing, the blue is called cyan and the red is called magenta; hence the name CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). Colors are combined not by actually mixing but by having tiny dots of C, M, Y, and/or K interspersed so that the eye thinks it sees a mixture. For instance, a pattern of cyan dots among a pattern of yellow dots will appear green. Pantone, Inc. has even created a separate system for process colors. Swatches in these books have numbers such as DS-293-2, which is a particular green (and which has no relationship at all to PMS-293). If a designer or a client has a need for a particular color in a process-printed piece, this swatch book can be extremely useful. Again, one can always view one at our shop. As with the PMS system, you will ultimately get the color shown in the book, not necessarily the color on the proof.
Digital printing is based on six colors of toner: cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan and light magenta. The most important thing to remember here is that there are no standards as in the other types of printing. Not only will no two machines produce exactly the same colors, but the same machine may produce different colors on different days, due to changes in humidity, the amount of tonor in the tonor drum, the number of impressions made so far since the machine was started, etc. To get around this, the best one can do is to print a sheet of temporary swatches that reflect a particular machine on a particular day. Adjustments, of course, can be made to the colors in the file for additional charge. Digital printing is far faster than conventional printing (a matter of hours rather than days or weeks) and cheaper at small quantities. Once the quantities rise above a few hundred, conventional printing begins to become cheaper.
Meanwhile, customers are previewing their piece on a monitor. Monitors and televisions (whether flat screen or old-style tubes) display colors by combining red, green and blue (RGB) to make every other color. Red and green, for instance, combine to make yellow. To keep these vastly different methods of mixing colors from complicating things, avoid any use of RGB. With images, convert to CMYK or grayscale as soon as possible. With other colored objects, use PMS colors when printing by that method, but if printing process or digital, be sure to convert the color to process before submitting the file. And remember that, when it comes to color, what you see on screen is not what you get.
PDFs
If you're in a hurry, beware that submitting your piece as a PDF will often introduce delays (although our typesetting crew can make anything work, if a PDF is all you have). The delays can happen because Adobe Acrobat defaults to making PDFs for the web, not for printing. We prefer the "native" file, such as InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Publisher, Quark, CorelDraw, Freehand, etc. We have them all, and we can give you much better service if we have as much to work with as you had, when you made the file. InDesign, Quark and Publisher all include automated wizards for collecting the graphics and fonts onto your desktop. Please call if you'd like any help with that, or with any other aspect of printing.



Industry Sites Design Tips Community Info	Here are a few tips to help your print design process go smoothly. Some of these tips may be elementary to seasoned designers, but they will definitely help anyone who is plunging into the print design realm. Trapping In modern printing, trapping is a fully automated procedure that you needn't worry about. It's built into our plate-burning computer. Bleeding When your design runs all the way to the edge, there is a danger of the ink not quite making it to the edge on every sheet. This is because the stack of paper feeding into the press cannot be perfectly aligned. Bleeding is the technical name for deliberately running the ink 1/8" off the edge of the sheet on each side that needs it. Of course, this means that the sheet will be printed oversize and then trimmed back to your intended "trim" size. For instance, an 8 1/2 by 11" sheet that bleeds may be printed on 9 1/2 by 12" paper and then cut down. Color Printing is done in either of three different ways: spot-color printing, process printing, or digital printing. Spot-color printing is based on a system created by Pantone, Inc. in 1963 to assign numbers to colors. The press operator has the option of either mixing a color according to a specified formula, or purchasing the premixed color in a can. The designer, meanwhile, can select a color from a small book of colored swatches (such as PMS-293, which is a particular blue), and be assured of getting that color in the finished piece. Swatch books are fairly expensive, but one can always view one at our shop. Process printing is based on the "four-color process" of combining the three primary colors plus black to make any other color. If you've ever played with paints, you may have noticed that the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow) can be combined to make all the other colors. Blue and yellow, for instance, combine to make green. In process printing, the blue is called cyan and the red is called magenta; hence the name CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). Colors are combined not by actually mixing but by having tiny dots of C, M, Y, and/or K interspersed so that the eye thinks it sees a mixture. For instance, a pattern of cyan dots among a pattern of yellow dots will appear green. Pantone, Inc. has even created a separate system for process colors. Swatches in these books have numbers such as DS-293-2, which is a particular green (and which has no relationship at all to PMS-293). If a designer or a client has a need for a particular color in a process-printed piece, this swatch book can be extremely useful. Again, one can always view one at our shop. As with the PMS system, you will ultimately get the color shown in the book, not necessarily the color on the proof. Digital printing is based on six colors of toner: cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan and light magenta. The most important thing to remember here is that there are no standards as in the other types of printing. Not only will no two machines produce exactly the same colors, but the same machine may produce different colors on different days, due to changes in humidity, the amount of tonor in the tonor drum, the number of impressions made so far since the machine was started, etc. To get around this, the best one can do is to print a sheet of temporary swatches that reflect a particular machine on a particular day. Adjustments, of course, can be made to the colors in the file for additional charge. Digital printing is far faster than conventional printing (a matter of hours rather than days or weeks) and cheaper at small quantities. Once the quantities rise above a few hundred, conventional printing begins to become cheaper. Meanwhile, customers are previewing their piece on a monitor. Monitors and televisions (whether flat screen or old-style tubes) display colors by combining red, green and blue (RGB) to make every other color. Red and green, for instance, combine to make yellow. To keep these vastly different methods of mixing colors from complicating things, avoid any use of RGB. With images, convert to CMYK or grayscale as soon as possible. With other colored objects, use PMS colors when printing by that method, but if printing process or digital, be sure to convert the color to process before submitting the file. And remember that, when it comes to color, what you see on screen is not what you get. PDFs If you're in a hurry, beware that submitting your piece as a PDF will often introduce delays (although our typesetting crew can make anything work, if a PDF is all you have). The delays can happen because Adobe Acrobat defaults to making PDFs for the web, not for printing. We prefer the "native" file, such as InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Publisher, Quark, CorelDraw, Freehand, etc. We have them all, and we can give you much better service if we have as much to work with as you had, when you made the file. InDesign, Quark and Publisher all include automated wizards for collecting the graphics and fonts onto your desktop. Please call if you'd like any help with that, or with any other aspect of printing.