Digital Prepress and Industry Commonalities, Understanding + Design

In this lecture I cover the key differences as well as pros and cons for the primary methods of printing today. In addition, this lecture covers what commonalities there are across the different printing methods, and how those commonalities play out between both digital and traditional imaging.

• Key Takeaways
• DIGITAL ISSUES: A lot of the issues with modern technology/screens are just different versions of older issues with printing/paper.
• 2 W’s: Much of printing today is about knowing when/why to ask for something, less about who/when/where it was invented, made, or utilized.
• IF IT WALKS LIKE A DUCK: Determine where and how a design will be used to figure out much of the setup requirements.

• Lecture Outline:
• Web vs. Sheet Fed - Web is a big spool, Sheetfed = Individual sheets
• Substrates are just whatever you print on
• Plates / Cylinders / Screens are different methods of transferring ink to a substrate
• “Number Of Colors” in a job = Inks used
• DPI/PPI means “Dots Per Inch” or “Points/Pixels per Inch”

• Letterpress Printing:
• Old-world approach
• Metal casts & engraving
• Died out and came back
• More niche, expensive, ‘hip’
• Very analog, tactile
• Not very accessible

• Flexography:
• Used heavily in packaging
• Print on film, clear, unique substrates
• Uses ‘web’ method, long continuous spool
• Uses plates, fast-drying ink
• Very digital, often use Illustrator
• Very high fidelity/resolution

• Gravure / Rotogravure:
• Uses more ink, richer image
• Great for magazines, art
• Expensive if not at scale
• Plates last longer than offset
• 80% Flexo/20% Gravure US – Opposite Asia/Europe

• Digital Printing:
• Great for low quantities
• All ‘inkjet’ technology, like home use
• Printing done in passes
• Frequently CMYK, Sometimes more
• Quality varies greatly by ink use

• Screen Printing:
• High-quality final prints, soft, vibrant
• Very resource-intensive, bad for low volume
• Great for highly graphic, illustrative images
• Very analog, tactile
• More colors = more cost
• Generally for apparel, art prints

• Offset Lithography Printing:
• High-quality final prints, soft, vibrant
• Very resource-intensive, bad for low volume
• Great for highly graphic, illustrative images
• Very analog, tactile
• More colors = more cost
• Generally for apparel, art prints

• Common projects:
• Specs come printer-to-designer
• Cost-effective (cheap per piece)
• Mass quantities

• Specialty projects:
• Specs come designer-to-printer
• Cost-ineffective (expensive per piece)
• Low quantities

• All Projects:
• Regardless of method, printing is done a color-at-a-time
• Each color/plate is often called a “separation”

• Separations:
• Breaking an image up into its different colors/channels/separations.
• In printing, this is generally CMYK
• On Screen, its RGB

• Digital and Traditional Imaging:
• Both use separate channels for each color
• Both can have issues aligning those channels
• Both can have DPI/Resolution issues
• More pixels/dots = better quality

• DPI:
• 72 = Screen
• 300 = Print
• Those are common standards, but they are meant more as guidelines. Use them as clues about the file.
• “DPI” alone doesn’t mean anything. It’s like saying “I live 30mph from here.”
• You need the DOTS and the INCHES to determine its usefulness.
• If you have dots/pixels only, you get to determine the size you use it.

• Some DPI Clues:
• 72 = Screen, or no one touched the file
• < 72 = Someone messed with it, in a bad way
• 144/216/288 = Multiples of 72. Screen density.
• 150/200/250/ 300 = Print