Printing basics that graphic designers must know

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Do graphic designers lack in understanding basic printing processes?

From experience - yes :(
Take a look at those 2 real stories:
  1. Once, in a printing house, Two print workers spoke on the phone. They tried to explain to a young designer why his file cannot be printed. He didn't get it. It took 3 calls and a few emails with modified Pdf files to explain to him what is a bleed and why it's needed.
  2. A few years forward, in a digital department in one of the top agencies, an experienced digital designer struggle with printing an invitation for a family event. He didn't expect the applications and limitation of working with CMYK vs RGB and preparing the file for print properly.
While printing doesn't require super coding skills, many designers lack basic knowledge in print - causing to back and forth in production processes and furthermore, the cost of time and money when big productions fail - mass expensive prints (i.e. folders) or show booths.


The technical details: where designers fail

When it comes to printing many designers fail on the technical details. Finding it hard to even understand the explanations of the people in the printing house.

But the truth is that printing is really easy when you know how the printing machines work and get familiar with the variety of printing processes. After seeing how business cards are cut to single cards you understand the importance of generous margins.

This article is covering fundamental printing processes and subjects. We will go over common printing products like business cards, postcards, rollups, signs, folders, newspaper ads, show booth, etc.

Coloring mode: CMYK

When you open a file for print in a program make sure that the color mode is set to CMYK.
Let's go back to kindergarten for a minute. We were taught that mixing colors allow us to create new colors.
Our screens produce colors just with 3 colors - R(red) G(green) B(blue).
Each color has 255 levels/intensities.
The combinations are created with 255 reds, 255 greens, and 255 blues.
If I wish to create the color Pink I need those values:
R - 255, G - 192, B - 203

Try here different combination:
https://www.google.com/search?q=color+picker

You get the idea,
now let's go back to CMYK.

Cmyk is exactly the same as RGB.
So... why not using RGB?
Well, because there is a difference between colors that are made from the light like in our screen (RGB) and between colors that are physical materials which send backlight from the sun.
Like with RBG, where we can make millions of colors just from the combinations of different values of 3 colors. The same is with CMYK:
Cyan - light blueish
Magenta - dark pinkish
Yellow
Black


While RGB colors show us bright graphics on the screen, the print version outcome - shows up with CMYK colors - is dim and dull. To achieve brightness without light we can add in the print process (lamination) a thin see-through shiny layer. But still, usually, graphics seem much better on screens.

Types of print processes

There are a few main ways to print, and with tech evolves processes do change.

Home printer


Very easy. You press print and the machine pull a paper. A tiny head goes over the paper and drops simultaneously C M Y from one head and K (black) from another one.
When you're out of colors you buy a new CMYK container. Sometimes its one container for the 4 colors sometimes they are separated.



Offset print

If you print a mass production like newspapers you'll use the offset process. Creating an engraving on a thin aluminum foil for each one of the CMYK colors (or more for unique colors). Then the engravings are installed on cylinders. The paper is rolled like a huge toilet paper and runs in the machine going under each cylinder once and receive the colors one by one. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The outcome is a colorful newspaper, or a magazine, or your 20,000 pieces of marketing materials.

Read more here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing



Digital printer

Today's most popular for small productions. For business and people who need small amounts of prints like flyers, business cards, invitations, menus, etc.

The digital printer comes in many sizes. It's much bigger than a home printer but works pretty much the same. You send a file to print and the machine pulls a page double in size than the regular pages we use at home. The workers will add crop marks to the graphics and after printing, they will cut the graphics and leave all the white margins.

Screen printing

If you wish to print on fabric (i.e. shirts) commercially, you'll use the screen printing method, also called silk printing. There are many kinds of machines from manual to different levels of automation. The shirt is placed straight on a surface then a net goes over the shirt. The net is blocked according to the graphics. The worker spill 1 color on the net which allows the color to reach the shirt and color it. Afterward, the first net is removed and another net goes once more over the shirt. This time the net is blocked differently and accordingly to the graphic to allow the 2nd color, which is spilled by the worker on the net, to reach the shirt. This technology doesn't allow us to create millions of colors because the fabric absorbs the colors so each net is dedicated to colors. Some machines work with 8 nets. Tech has advanced and there are ways to print on fabric in different ways, But still, silk technology is still being used to print on different surfaces.


Pad printing

When you wish to print on a round area like a pen you use a pillow. You'll press a "pillow" with 1 color on the pen. It's like stamping but on surfaces that are not flat.

Plotter printer

it's a digital printing machine but instead of pages, it uses a paper rolled up on a cylinder just like a toilet paper. Small plotter machines print just like a home printer - one head going back and forth. The width is limited to about 3 feet (1 meter) for small plotters and huge machines can print billboards. Printing on papers or other nylon based materials that are much more durable for the outdoors. Rollups are printed in plotters for example, and after cutting the edges, the paper is installed as a rollup as we see everywhere.


Those are the main methods to print.
Now let’s cover 5 more important processes in printing: Cut.Fold.Varnish.
  1. Lamination.
  2. Gluing. 
  3. and Press.

Cut

After printing a pile of pages, when each page has about 10 business cards - with tiny marks between them. The print house worker collects the pile and moves it the cutting machine.
The worker will arrange the pile of pages by the crop marks of the business cards under the knife and then will make the first cut. Then he will push and turn the pile in order to cut according to all of the crop marks - leaving, in the end, the minimum amount of paper's left over, and have hundreds of business cards.

Fold

Let's say we make a 4-page brochure in the size of a regular book. The first page is the cover. You open it and reveal the 2nd and 3rd pages. In the back, there's the 4th page of course.

Design
First, you'll design the pages as spreads - one spread including pages 1 and 4, the other spread will include the 2nd and 3rd pages.

Print
Depends on the machine the print house has they'll print one spread on a small page or maybe even 4 spreads with on one huge page.

Printing again After printing one spread on one side of the paper the worker will collect the pile of pages and will insert them once more to the machine to print the other spread on the other side.

The worker will probably print one page just to make sure not printing on the same side or if the design is not flipped.

CutYou'll need crop marks to guide the worker that will cut the design and leave out the page margin.

Fold
After all the pages are printed on both sides each page is still flat.

The print worker will take the pile and put it in a machine that will pull each page and hit it with a blunt knife where needed. The blunt knife will make a deep mark without cutting the page. This kind of hit is called a "big".

The customer will receive either a pile of flat pages with a hit - ready to be fold by him - or, already folded (by hand or an automated machine) brochure.


Lamination

Most business cards have a thin plastic layer for protection. Usually, the process is done before cutting the page to single business cards.

The lamination machine pulls the page and attaches the paper a thin nylon layer. Afterward, it goes to cutting to remove the edges.


Varnish

Varnish and selective varnish are a process where a thin layer of varnish is printed on the graphics - using silk printing methods (remember the net that is blocked in some parts according to the wanted graphics?)

With selective varnish, you are able to make specific areas to shine. For example - the Logo of the company on a folder or a figure on a cover of a children's book. It adds a more prestige look and cost more in production.


Gluing

Commonly used in books. There a few kinds of attaching stuff together and it worth knowing about it. Let's take a book for example.
  1. The print house will print many book's pages on one huge page.
  2. Then the huge page will be folded into a booklet while all the pages are still connected.
  3. Than - cutting. Just so each page will be a single unit.
  4. After cutting all the booklets - Adding all the booklets together.
  5. Now we reached the gluing:
    Soft covers - the pile with all the booklets (which is the book itself) will receive hot glue on the side where the cover will be attached to. The cover itself will be printed and get hit by the blunt knife - prepared to be folded. By the way - it's highly important to calculate the width of the book's spine so the design will fit. The print house will provide the correct width according to the number of pages and the kind of pages.
    Hardcover - the cutting is a bit different. If you'll look closely you'll see that the book is made as a few notebooks attached. Than the notebooks are glued to a fabric net that is glued to the cover with an extra page on each side. Open a book and you'll notice.

Pressing

Graphics can stick out of the paper or seems a bit deep. Depending on the side you press on the paper you can add another process and choose that according to your graphic some parts will stick out of the paper. This is most common in book covers, where the title or the name of the author is popping out just a tiny bit. In general book covers are a great example of high print productions.



Examples!

Let cover the process for common print items:

Business cards


We've just covered it above when we spoke about digital printing.

But let's repeat the steps:
  1. Size - creating the document with the final size.
  2. Marking for us a safe area away from the edges to ease on the cutting.
  3. Laying graphics with bleeds - so the graphic will go "bleed" out of the print area.
  4. Test print - using the home printer to see if our fonts are readable.
  5. Cropmarks - creating a pdf with crop marks for the print house.

In the print house:
  1. The print worker will then lay many business cards on one big page and will print many copies of that page.
  2. Then they'll take all of the pages and will put it together in a Guillotine. They'll fit the pages using the crop marks as a guide and then will press with both hands on buttons that are located on the sides of the machines. The knife will cut through the whole pile of pages. That's why sometimes the business cards seems a little different by the cuts - when the pages on the bottom of the pile move just a tiny bit.

Bleeds (From Second 103)
https://youtu.be/1Ku9NXmr7NU?t=103 


Amazing business card print
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BPTv9v_gqs



Rollup

Rollups has a few common sizes, but we can print also extremely wide roll-ups - covering a full back of a booth show. Most print houses will have a regular plotter and will provide a standard size roll-up.

Usually, a roll-up is not an expensive print and always good to have when you wish to make a presence for your message.

Steps as follows:

  1. Receiving the width and length measures from the print house.
  2. Designing the graphics.
  3. Exporting a pdf without any crop marks - why without? Because its a really big print. The print worker won't use a machine to cut accurately and next to other small graphics. Usually with big graphics there, won't be any need for adding crop marks.
  4. Printing in a plotter machine which is limited only by width and can make really long prints.
  5. Cut - the worker will cut it manually with a knife and a ruler or some professional cutting item that fit for the matter.
  6. After cutting the print worker will install the print in the metal device that rolls the print inside and out.



Flyer

Make yourself a rule, every print you can hold in your hand is made like business cards. You'll need crop marks. The print worker will organize a number of prints on a huge page, will print a pile and cut the graphics.


Ad

Usually, there is a difference between ads that are printed in a Magazine (the graphics don't have a white margin around them) and between an ad in a Newspaper (where the graphic has a margin around it).

Magazine ad - requirements:
1. crop marks.
2. bleeds - the graphic will bleed" out.
3. Safe areas toward the inside of the ad - making sure that there no texts close to the edges so they won't get cut.

Newspaper ad - requirements:
No cutting involved. The gross size equals to the net size.
You’ll be asked not to do crop marks or bleeds. If its a white background ad you'll be asked to create a frame around the ad.

Left: Newspaper ad without crop marks. Right: A magazine printed page - cropped.


Signs

A sign can be print on paper, stickers and similar materials that require a colorful design.
Some signs are made of wood and metal - then the designer is asked to provide a graphic in one color and the producer will make the sign accordingly.

Folders

Folder design is a great example of the requested communication between the designer and the print house.

  1. A folder is printed on 2 sides of a page.
  2. Each page (containing one folder) receive a hit from a palette containing sharp and blunt knives - creating the cuts and folds for the folder.
  3. Many penthouses have different palettes for cutting folders, therefore the designer first will ask to receive a pdf with the drawing of the palette. Then the designer will work on the file in a different layer, sending back the file.



Show booth

A show booth firstly chose among other booths in a show. Each show booth has specs (- size, walls, limitations) and location (-indoor, outdoor, corner, close to an entrance or far from main areas). Usually, show organizers provide some supplies - chairs, tables, simple sign, electricity.

  1. Examine the specs and the location of the booth in the event.
  2. Consider the movement of the show's visitors.
  3. Design walls and elements to be readable easily for bypassers.
  4. Think on the way to show your marketing materials - what are you going to put on the table or any kind of stands.






Summary

First, Communication with the people in the production process is key in any new kind of project.
Second, Learn how any print item is being produced and understand the reason for requests from the print workers.

Good luck. 👍