Chris Cefole_SheetFedOffsetLithography_W1

Sheet Fed Offset Lithography

1|| What Sheet Fed Offset Lithography is

A process whereby hydrophobic ink is attracted to a printing plate that carries the image of your artwork. This ink is then transferred to a printing blanket and it’s that blanket, carrying the ink, that transfers the artwork image onto the paper. With Sheet Fed Litho, the paper is in cut sheets before it enters the press as opposed to web-fed where the paper is fed as a single, continuous sheet from a huge roll.

2|| What it is best used for

• Smaller and medium sized print runs
• Magazines
• Booklets
• Brochures
• Fliers
• Business Cards

3|| Brief History

In 1906 the first "offset" press began running in NJ. A paper manufacturer, Ira A Rubel discovered the process by accident. 

4|| Cylinders Used

Plate Cylinder

Blanket Cylinder
Impression Cylinder

5|| Overview of Process

Step 1- Image Prep

Step 2- Processing Printing Plates

Step 3- Printing

Step 4- Finishing

Sources

http://printbrain.webmartuk.com/print-performance/marketers-guide-to-sheet-fed-litho-printing/

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/c/cunninghamk/links/lectures/8offset_printing.pdf

http://www.glrppr.org/hubs/hub500/lithographicoverview.htm

Prepress Proofing Systems - Nazar

Prepress Proofing Systems - 5 Facts - Nazar

1. A prepress proof is an analog or digital proof that uses inkjet, toner, dyes, overlays, photographic, film, or other techniques to give a close approximation of what the finished piece will look like. 

2. On many projects, such as business cards or postcards, a proof is often created as a PDF. Since a PDF is an electronic file, it can be emailed to the client for approval…which greatly speeds up the proofing process.

3. Prepress proofing is sometimes called off press proofing.

4. There are 6 different proofing stages that are possible when it comes to printed materials. These are:

1. Proofing on the client end
2. Soft proofing
3. Hard proofing
4. High resolution proofing
5. Blue line proofing
6. Advanced copy proofing

5. The printed proof is a dispassionate simulation of the ultimate output - a CMYK press sheet. The mission of a proofing system is to create accurate predictions, not pretty pictures.

resources:

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/basic/g/prepressproof.htm
http://formaxprinting.com/blog/2010/08/25/printing-lingo-what-does-the-term-%E2%80%9Cpre-press%E2%80%9D-mean/

http://www.lasvegascolor.com/faqs-prepress-proofing/

Thermography_Izzy Bains

1. Thermography combines ink and resin powered to give a raised look to design, it is a popular alternative to it’s counterpart, engraving, because the process is much cheaper making it more affordable to print. But because of its more affordable nature it is a little bit more delicate. Thermography should never

• ·      Be near bindings or folds, for it can crack or splinter
• ·      Cannot be run through laser printer unless special UV resin is used
• ·      Textural papers cannot be used because the resin gets trapped in the grooves and bevels of the paper
• ·      It can be scratched easily

2. The most common reoccurring uses for raised ink printing are

• ·      Letterheads
• ·      Stationary
• ·      Business cards
• ·      Wedding invitations

3. The process of thermography used transparent powders, which allows them to take on the color of the underlying ink, you can use white ink, which is called a blind design and gives the design a transparent look.

4. When designing for thermography there are a few guidelines that one must follow in order to have a successful design. You cannot design to have raised letters on two sides of a design. It is better to avoid using excessively small type; anything smaller than 6 point gets difficult to form. Also, avoid using thermography on large areas; there can be distortion of the paper when you do this.

5. Thermography has also been known to be used for brail text.

Resources

http://www.mohawkconnects.com/sites/default/files/content/ThermographyPrintingTips_021813.pdf

http://www.navitor.com/blog/thermography/

http://www.prepressure.com/printing/processes/thermography

Gravure | 5 Facts

Gravure & Rotogravure Printing

CROY

1. Typical gravure printed products include:

• Food packaging
• Wall paper
• Wrapping paper
• Furniture laminates
• Paneling 
• Greeting cards
• Magazines 

2. Gravure printing is characteristically used for long run, high quality printing producing a sharp, fine image. 

3. The number of gravure printing plants in the U.S. is significantly lower than other printing processes. This is due, in part, to the cost of presses and components. While a lithographic press will cost in the range of $100,000 the cost of gravure press will be in the range of $1 million. 

4. The process is the reverse of relief printing, in which the image is raised from the surface of the plate. The printer forms the image by cutting into the plate by hand or by using acids or other chemicals to etch the plate along the lines of the desired image. 

5. Varying the depth of the depressions provides tonal gradations in the printed image. A negative image is etched into the surface of a copper printing cylinder in tiny cells and dots of various sizes and various depths. These constitute the type characters and artwork with its tonal gradations.

Sources:

"Gravure Printing." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/topic/gravure-printing>.

"Gravure Printing." Printing Process Descriptions: Environment and Printing: The Printers' National Environmental Assistance Center: PNEAC: The Environmental Information Website for the Printing Industry. PNEAC. Web. 14 Oct. 2015. <http://www.pneac.org/printprocesses/gravure/>.

5 Facts About Post Press Binding (David Perricone)

Post Press Binding: 5 Facts

11)  The term used for all activities that are performed on printed post-printing is referred to as finishing. This includes binding and the decorative process such as die stamping, embossing, or laminating.

22)  Cutting and trimming can occur both pre printing and post printing. There are specifics on what constitutes when this occurs. Specifically, when multiple signatures are combined on one press sheet, those sheets need to be cut after printing.

33)  There are 9 primary types of post-press binding: Hardcover, tape binding, perfect binding, sewn binding, wire stitching, plastic comb binding, wire-o binding, velo-binding, and spiral binding.

44)  There is a tool called a guillotine cutter that is the primary took used for post-press trimming and cutting. A stack of sheets is placed on the bed of the cutter and the angled stainless steel blade cuts through it at a desired position. There is also a tool called a three-knife cutter, which has three blades to simultaneously trim three sides.

55)  There are five types of common folds, the half fold, the accordion fold, the gatefold, the French fold, and the letter fold. For magazines and books large press sheets need to be folded into signatures. This pertains an array of right angle folds in which two right angle folds make eight pages.

5 Facts About Flexography

1.) There are three different types of flexographic inks:

I.) Water Based

II.) Solvent Based

 III.) U.V. Based

2.) Flexographic inks are very similar to packaging gravure printing inks; fast drying, and formulated to lie on the surface of nonabsorbent substrates.

3.) Flexographic printing industries benefit in their capability to print with U.V. Curable ink. Printing with U.V. ink may not be an option for some printers due to the substrates being printed on.

4.) There are 4 rollers on a flexographic printer:
 I.) Ink Rollers
 II.) Meter Rollers
 III.) Plate Cylinder
IV.) Impression Cylinder

5.) Flexographic printing plates can be made by digital plate making, which is laser engraving through a scanned or computer generated image.

by Colleen

Letterpress—Surprising Facts

• The first time Shakespeare’s 36 plays were published together in one book called “The First Folio”, it took two years to print the nearly 400-page book. It took so long that they proofread and corrected while the job was still in production.

• Letters that are not capitalized are called “lower case” because in early printing days, they were kept in the lower drawers (or cases) of the moveable-type cabinets.

• Regardless of a printer’s chosen printing surface, a different plate must be created for every individual color that is intended for print. 

• There are two types of rotary letterpresses, sheet-fed and web-fed. Web-fed rotary presses are the most popular type of letter press printing.

Web-fed rotary letterpress presses are used primarily for printing newspapers. These presses are designed to print both sides of the web simultaneously. Typically, they can print up to four pages across the web; however, some of the new presses can print up to six pages across a 90-inch web. Rotary letterpress is also used for long-run commercial, packaging, book, and magazine printing.

• Typeface designer and gunsmith William Caslon created a type that was legible and distinct, which became popular for use in printing important documents. After his death, Caslon’s typeface was used in the printing of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, which was sent out to all the states. **

• In the 18th century, printer and typographer John Baskerville created a way to make paper whiter and smoother so that in printing, the ink showed up strong and crisp. He also was the pioneer for adding wide margins to the printed page, as well as spacing—or leading—between lines of text. **

(**Both of these typefaces are still widely used this very day!)