Chapter 1, 2 & 3

Finishing Processes: The manufacturing processes that take place after the job leaves the printing press. Finishing can include such processes as folding, binding, trimming, die cutting, embossing, and foil stamping. 

     Finishing processes is important for every product because the visual image of the produce is as important as the product its self.

Folding Dummy: A blank sheet of paper folded in the configuration that will be used in finishing the job. Pages are numbered to indicate the correct imposed page position. A folding dummy may be made by the planning department or by imposition operators and is used to check for correct folding and impositions. 

     Folding dummy can really help a designer out when he/she is trying to design their next artwork because this gives them the visual aid to hold in front of them to see their project out.

Imagesetter: A digitally driven device for imaging film. A RIP converts incoming PostScript or PDF information to very high-resolution bitmaps that guide the imagesetter’s marking engine to expose the film with a laser or light-emitting diodes.

Pica Vs Point: Pica: A unit of measurement. There are six picas in a inch. A pica is equal to 12 points. Points: a unit of measurement. There are 72 points in an inch. Text size, leading, baseline grids, and the thickness of rules and strokes are almost always specified in points. Some designers specify everything in points and picas but many are accustomed to specifying page sizes and the dimensions of objects in inches, and they only use points when referring to text size and rule thickness. 

     Picas and points is very important to know when designing because it is the way designers measure their artwork.

Importance of Registration: The alignment of all links printed on a press. Since each color is applied by an individual unity on press, there is some possibility of the successive colors not aligning. While modern presses have sophisticated controls for maintaining proper registration, mechanical or environmental problems may cause slight misregistrations, as can stretching or deformation of the paper itself during the printing process. A multicolor fringe at the edge of color areas is a symptom of misregistrations. 

     Without registration all of our designs we have created maybe not be outputted as the designer wanted.

Purpose of a RIP: A specialized computer that uses a combination of proprietary software and hardware to translate PostScript or PDF input to a very high-resolution bitmap image that drives the marking engine of an output device, such as an imagesetter, platesetter, or desktop printers. RIP is important because without it the high definitions printer cannot read the designers file.

Define VDP: At its most basic VDP can be the personalization of a printed piece by inserting the recipient’s name and address.: “Dear Amanda.” While this can be accomplished by using press-mounted inkjet heads with acceptable results, the increased use of fully digital presses opens the way for more extensive customization. Since each impression on a toner-base digital press is unique anyways, a database-driven process can insert custom text- even images- to narrowly target the printed piece to the recipient’s demographic or buying history. While variable data printing is more expensive because of the programming and planning involved (as well as the cost of demographic information and mailing lists), the response rate from such targeted mailings is substantially higher than for generic mass mailings.
     Variable data is important because it allows yours potential clients feel like the direct mail piece is personal and directed towards them.

Two color print job: the black in black and white printing is black ink, the white is the paper. Two color job means that the two colors of ink will be required to print it.

DPI: Dots per inch used to describe the resolution of an imaging device such as a desktop printer, an imagesetter, or a platesetter. The typical desktop printer’s resolutions ranges from 600-1200 dpi, while the resolution of an imagesetter or platesetter is usually 2400 dpi or higher.

LPI: Lines per inch describes the frequency of halftone dots, measured along a row of dots.
PPI: Pixels per inch describes image resolution. For most printing applications, image resolution should be 250-300 ppi. The rule of thumb is that image resolution should be 1.5 to 2 times the printing screen ruling, but the common convention is to save images at 300 ppi.

Die Cutting Process: Using pressure and shaped metal dies to cut a printed piece in an interesting shape. Sometimes done by the printer, and sometimes done by outside specialty companies that subcontract with the printer. 

     This is a quality the designer should utilize in order to give the product a more professional and high quality feel to it.  

CMYK vs Spot Colors

     Spot colors: this is used when it is necessary to print colors that fall outside the range of CMYK inks. Spot colors and Pantone are often used interchangeably, although that’s not strictly correct. The Pantone Matching system is a recipe book for printers, providing ink-mixing formulas for over 1,000 standard colors many of which cannot be rendered in process colors. 

    Spot colors is advantageous when the designer wants a more pure color.
     CMYK is cyan magenta yellow and black is what makes up CMYK. These process inks are transparent so when they are combined on paper they produce other colors. In traditional offset printing the illusion of so many colors is the results of varying sizes of half tone dots which allow different amounts of the four process colors to interact in a given area.

     CMYK is best utilized when the artwork is either a photo or encompasses more than four colors.  

Sources came from my textbook Adobe Creative Suite Applications, written by Claudia McCue.