Ch. 1 and 2

CHAPTER 1

Then and Now

 Design has become something more encompassing than just the actual design. A designer has now taken on the responsibilities that were once separated out among many individual employees. Desktop Publishing not only changed the process of print from that of a specialized craftsman to an area of possible DIY. Companies were eager to save money by reducing the number of employees for which they must pay for their labor and quick to adopt the thought process of, "Do more with less" after the turning point of desktop publishing.



Sales Representatives are, in most cases, the first person you will have contact with with you enter a printing company. This person can help suggest size and weight of paper for your job.

Customer Service Representatives (CSR) will most likely be who you contact from here on out about your job.This person is your in to the printing company, the person who watches your back to help prevent any printing problems or unnecessary reprinting and also is your voice during the job's printing duration.

Estimators due just what their title implies, they make an educated guess to determine job costs, including labor, paper, ink, proofing materials, press time, and bindery time.

Preflight Technicians run your job through a process to check for and problems with setup and content before it is sent to print. They use dedicated software that understands the codes embedded in the specific type of file you have submitted.

Prepress Operator is a position that is rarely around now in print shop due to the fact that computer-to-plate is so common.  Prepress operators used to tape out or graft replacement film pieces for last minute corrections when a film or plate was created before the actual print was made. Now prepress is a term that combines all the prepartory work that takes place before actual printing.

Definitions

• RIP- Rastor Image Processor- interprets the incoming job information and translates it to a bitmap image that will be printed by the output device.
• Trapping- The combination of color at ajoining edges to camouflage any slippage of the page during print.
• Imposition-Placing individual pages in the correct position with the correct spacing to make a correct final project.
• Die Cutting-trimming the edge of a printed piece with a specifically shaped metal cookie cutter, no that's paper cutter.

CHAPTER 2

1/2 tone dots are shown in the example above. When a black and white image is printed it is not colored with a range of shades of gray,  it is printed by a single color of ink in a pattern of dots that create the illusion of a smooth image.

There are three common acronyms used to describe the number of dots used to create an image digitally.

1. dpi- (dots per inch) Describes the resolution of an imaging device.
• desktop printer ranges from 600-1200 dpi
• platesetter/imagesetter ranges are usually
  around 2400 dpi
2. ppi-(pixels per inch) Describes image resolution
   when viewing. 
3. lpi-(lines per inch) Describes the frequency of half tone dots within a row. 

 CMYK vs. RGB

CYMK-cyan yellow, magenta, black = process color

•     The combination of these four colors create a variety of many colors, but of course not every color.

RGB- red, green, blue = colors that can be displayed faithfully on a monitor.

CMYK can create a larger aray of colors than RGB that can be percieved by the human eye.

Monitor Gamut displays RGB range

Spot colors- used to print those colors that fall outside the range of colors created through CMYK combinations. The term spot color is commonly interchanged with Pantone colors, but this is not in correct form. Spot colors can come from other resources, such as Toyo Color Finder and the DIC guide.

Registration-  is a term meaning accurate alignment of the printed inks.This can be a problem because printing inks are not applied to paper simultaneously, but in succession which allows for some paper shifting, causeing an offset print.

Misregistration example

Rich Black- is used in areas where there will be a large area covered with black. To prevent a black that is not completely saturated it is recomended to use "Rich Black" which is a combination of all four of the CMYK colors. Be aware of the chance of color fringes causing unsharp edges where the rich black ends and paper begins.

 Color Managment - is the science of profiiling one device (monitor) to match another device (a press). This is not cheap, but does provide a more realistically represented image on the monitor. If color management is not something you feel comfortable doing quite yet there are still other ways in which you can control your environment:

• Minimize lighting interference
• Subdue the psychedelic effect of the monitor background
• Claibrate and profile your monitor
• Treat your desktop printer kindly
• Invoke printer profiles

Thanks For Reading. Enjoy the days we're given!

*All images presented in this blog were provided by "Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative suite Applications" by Claudia McCue