http://www.enpimages.com Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:40:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.enpimages.com/folding-of-printed-products.html http://www.enpimages.com/folding-of-printed-products.html#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:29:22 +0000 ewwink http://localhost/wpbeta/folding-of-printed-products.html Here are a few thoughts on folding brochures or any other printed products. Paper always has a grain direction. Folding with the grain direction will give you a cleaner fold with less cracking. We all have seen brochures that are cracking on the folds. How do you reduce cracking? Folding with the grain will help.

Also, if you are dealing with heavy paper(let’s say over 100# book) you need to score or crease the paper with a machine to help train the fold to prevent or minimize cracking. Our rule of thumb is a brochure on 80# book may or may not need to score. Anything heavier than 80# book or any weight of cover will need to be scored. Scoring will minimize cracking but will not always eliminate it on the printed product. Cracking on printed products is most noticeable when there is ink over the folds. Especially darker inks.

Scoring can be done on a letterpress or on the actual folder or other machines that crease the paper. Letterpress scoring is the best quality score you can do. On cross grain folding, I would highly recommend scoring of some method to reduce or elimininate cracking.

]]> http://www.enpimages.com/folding-of-printed-products.html/feed 0 http://www.enpimages.com/ganging-print-runs.html http://www.enpimages.com/ganging-print-runs.html#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:05:12 +0000 ewwink http://localhost/wpbeta/ganging-print-runs.html When you have multiple pieces that are all on the same paper and same ink colors you can sometimes gang or put multiple pieces up on the same press sheet. This saves on makeready, setups, plates and washups and can save $$$ if you are comfortable with some of the limitations that you might have.

As an example let’s say we are printing 8-8.5×11 brochures printed process on both sides. Our quantity that we want of each brochure is 5000. If a printer has a 40″(full size) press he can put all 8 of these brochures up on the same run. There is some potential real savings in doing this but there are some drawbacks. First of all, if you have all the brochures up on the same sheet and they are different families of colors let’s say a blue color, a green color, a purple color, a red color and a yellow and orange color. Because these brochures are being printed in CMYK process screen mix you probably will have some compromise on matching any one of those colors of brochures on press.

If you have critical colors that you need to match too ganging pieces is not a very good idea. A printer should ask you if ganging is OK and tell you before he does it. Let’s say that the blue and the purple brochure are next too each other or stacked. Blue and purple in CMYK are predominantly made of cyan and magenta in different screen %. If you want to make the blue brochure bluer you are going to either take out magenta or add cyan. This will also affect your purple brochure color as well.

If you don’t have a product or corporate color or varying shades of skin tones that you must match ganging will save you money. The other drawback would be if you want to reprint just part of the brochures. You need to be prepared for possibly paying more if you only print one or two of them. It is a good option but it does have its limitations.

]]> http://www.enpimages.com/ganging-print-runs.html/feed 0 http://www.enpimages.com/reasons-for-printing-digital.html http://www.enpimages.com/reasons-for-printing-digital.html#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:28:11 +0000 ewwink http://localhost/wpbeta/reasons-for-printing-digital.html Why has digital printing become so popular? When do I need to use digital printing? There are three main reasons people have come to use digital printing.



Customers ordering lower and lower quantities. In our world of change these days information needs to be revised constantly. This has meant more obsolescence in printed products and lost $$$ in printed inventory being thrown away. This has led the trend towards print users reducing quantities ordered so they can choose to change or update information as needed.



Faster turntimes. Our world also requires on demand printing to be just that supply when needed as required. The computer revolution has led us all to want information when we need it as required. The normal turntime of a digital job is 2-3 days with many being done same day or overnight. Digital printing due to the reduction in production steps from offset printing can normally be turned quicker. This also can be attributed to the ink being dry enough to cut or fold as it comes off the press.

The third main reason is still evolving. Variable data printing or one to one marketing is where the image or text changes from impression to impression. This is still a growing market and will continue to grow as we find ways to refine marketing for individuals versus mass markets. We are not just talking salutations but pictures and text based upon that individuals needs or wants. Although, this has been in existence for many years it is still in early adoption stages and will become more important as education and technology evolves.

There are many other reasons that final users are using digital printing for more of their print needs but this seem to be the main driving factors at this time. Here are some of the products that digital printing is used for in present day(postcards, brochures, posters, flyers, sales sheets).

There are also limitations of digital printing. Be careful in using digital printing where foil stamping or laser ink jet printing is going to be done. The laser printer after digital printing can soften the ink and come off in the laser printer. Inkjet printers are normally fine but should be tested.

Digital printing after foil stamping can also release the foil from the heat of the laser printer. Foil stamping after digital printing should meet with success as long as foil stamping is not going over the digital printing. There are exceptions to this but testing is recommended. Film lamination over digital printing meets with varying success based upon liquid ink versus toner digital printing.

Testing should be done to insure success.

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