Registration

So just a quick post today on what the term Registration means in the world of print.

Registration in its simplest form is the method of correlating overlapping colours on a single image. When printing an image with more than one colour (depending on the method of printing) each colour is placed onto the sheet at separate points. To make sure each of these colours are applied in exactly the right spot we use a method of alignment to keep consistent registration.

If you take a look at a press sheet - you'll notice various markings on them that won't necessarily on your artwork.

 

You may wonder how we're able to measure alignment from one colour? - Well Registration as well as being a method of checking alignment of colours - is actually what we call the above colour which is actually made up of 100% of each of the colours (CMYK). From this - you'll see any slight movement between any of the printing plates.

Resolution

This one always seems to have the last thought when producing print. It's most likely down to the computers we work on as to why it's sometimes forgetton. Resolution is a very important part of printing and without a hi res image or text sometimes your item will look pixelated or fuzzy.

Colour me Good!

Colours are extremely important when you're thinking of designing your printed items. Here we'll look at a few colours.. what they mean and help you choose what's best for you.

Such a Creep...

... If the title had you wondering, then don't worry - this Blog post is all about a print term called 'creep' or push out or shingling or even feathering.

If you're not sure what creep is then i'll try and explain that first. Imaging you're printing a stitched brochure - a reasonable amount of pages and can be any size. Now this part you can do on your own. Grab a handful of paper (i'd say over 20 sheets so it's exaggerated), now just bend them in half like you're about to fold them... do you see the movement of the middle pages..? They all start to extend past the first piece of paper to the thickness of all the sheets you have.. That's creep.

Now imagine you have artwork on all those sheets that have been set up with the same guides as the first sheet! You'll end up having parts of the artwork chopped off. This doesn't really happen until you're at least 48 pages in on around 100gsm paper. There are various ways to prepare for creep - printers can have automated processes involved in their prepress to crop for the page creep or you can adjust the pages yourself. It's always best for this to be accounted for at the design stage so that everything is within your control. If you're creating a brochure and you're not sure about creep - then always ask for a paper dummy from your printer - this will be an exact reproduction of your final brochure and you'll be able to account for the amount of creep needed per page.

Full Colour Printing (CMYK)

You may be surprised to find out that when any photos or pictures are printed they're printed out of 4 inks. CMYK. 


C for Cyan
M for Magenta
Y for Yellow
K for Key or Black

CMYK is the standard print terms for professional print, most of the time it's referred to just as four colour process.By overlaying each of these colours you can create a wide range of colours

If you really want to get into the science of it, feel free to click here.

Fancy a trim?

Trimming is the process of cutting a document down to its finished size.

Commerical printing presses cannot print to the very edge of a sheet of paper so in order to achieve this effect, your design is usually printed onto a larger piece of paper. The excess unprinted border is trimmed off after printing using a guillotine. 


 If you are creating artwork for print, you will need to add an area of bleed to your design which is the part that's trimmed. If you're not sure what bleed is, take a look at our article 'What is Bleed?' for more information.

A guillotine operator at work

What is Bleed?

This is the most common area of artwork that is missed when supplying files.


So we'll take a quick look at what it is and why you need to add it to your artwork.


If you're creating a flyer for instance and you have a background colour that you want filling the complete flyer -  this colour needs to 'bleed' off the edge so when trimmed, there is no white space. 


Take a look at our small image above to see what we mean - this image applies to the majority of files you may supply.


For more information on artwork and relevant settings and tips - view our artwork page on our website here.

Pantone Colour of the year 2012

The Official Pantone colour of 2012 has been announced.

The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Over the past several years, orange has grown in popularity and acceptance among designers and consumers alike. A provocative attention-getter, Tangerine Tango is especially appealing in men’s and women’s fashion. Fashion designers featured in the PANTONE Fashion Color Report Spring 2012, including Tommy Hilfiger, Nanette Lepore, Cynthia Steffe by Shaun Kearney, Elie Tahari and Adrienne Vittadini, are incorporating this attractive orange into their spring collections. A fun, lively take on a traditional autumnal hue, Tangerine Tango will surely carry through to fall fashion as well.

Source: pantone.com