Recent Posts in the ‘Print Resources’ Category

Color printing

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 by admin

20060309-pantoneOne of the first steps of the design process is determining how many colors you will be printing with (1-color, 2-color or 4-color). This is determined by the budget and what makes the most sense or gives a certain feeling for the piece we are designing. It used to be that  2-color printing was more cost-effective than 4-color printing, but now with digital imaging printing presses and with digital toner-based printing, the prices have come down, so that you can get the gamut of color choices.

1 & 2 Color Printing

Consists of one or two inks made of either just black and a Pantone ink, or just 1 or 2 Pantone inks. The Pantone Matching System has over 700 inks you can choose from, and ensures an exact match of color if you need a specific color for a logo.

4 Color (or Full Color) Printing

Uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks to create the spectrum of color on the paper. This offers the most versatility when choosing the color palette as well as being able to print color photographs.

Often when printing a report, it is most cost-effective to print a 4-color cover and either 1 or 2 colors on the inside.

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Printing Press or Copy Shop?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 by admin

The digital era has certainly affected the print industry. Print processes have quicker turnaround times, thanks to digital technology. And the quality of digital printing — or quick-printing — has improved dramatically.

How do you decide which technology to use for your printing needs? Offset printing is still the preferred method for printing high-quality, long-lasting materials. It is also more cost-effective (the cost-per-thousand goes down the more you print) if you are printing quantities over 500.

If you need a small run (less than 500 quantity), need temporary or short-lived materials, or need something on a fast turnaround, then digital printing is recommended.

Fortunately, Kinkos is not the only option any more for this type of printing, and there are unionized, green print shops which now offer quick-turnaround digital printing.

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Understanding Image Quality

Sunday, April 12th, 2009 by admin

When collecting digital photographs and other imagery for a printed piece, it is important to understand resolution. Digital images are made up square dots called pixels. Each pixel represents the color of a small part of an image. The more pixels you have in an image the smoother and more realistic the image will appear. Resolution refers to the density of pixels in an image. Low resolution images have lines that look jagged and you can actually see the individual pixels that make up the image. High resolution images have many more pixels. That means that each pixel makes up a much smaller part of the image - making them so small that they become invisible

How much resolution you need is determined by the size the image will appear when printed. If you’re only going to print 2 inch thumbnails of your images, than you don’t need a lot of resolution. But if you’re printing a picture of a landscape that you want to blow up to three feet tall, then you want as much resolution as you can get.

The resolution needed to view an image well on your computer screen is much lower than what is needed for a printed piece. One good rule is to make sure your photo appears on your screen at 3 times the size  at which you plan to print it.

Adapted from “Basics: Understanding Resolution” by Jim McGee, www.vividlight.com

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