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SO MANY CHOICES....Printing - From Traditional to Digital
By Stan Foxworthy
It's funny to look back a few years ago. The experts said in the near future, we would be in a paperless society. No newspapers, catalogs, magazines or much else for that matter with ink or toner on paper. Even with the web, printing is just as prevalent as ever. The choices have grown, with the lines between traditional printing and electronic print on demand blurring even further. Things have changed since Gutenberg perfected hand set type in galleys back in 1450's.. or have they?
The need for placing information on a medium so that many may have access has always been a challenge, even more so today. Imagine back in 1400's, you walk into Herr Gutenberg's shop. As you begin your conversation, he mentions that you have two choices in type styles; roman or gothic type (Imagine that, no font issues!). Pick your paper and ink and stop back by in a week or two to see the first copy. The only compatibility problems were if he understands what you want and how you would be paying (gold, silver, chickens, goats or pigs?) for your job!
These days the printed word has as much impact as ever, and the printing customer has an almost unlimited palette to choose from; Offset, Letterpress, Gravure, Screen printing and a host of other traditional offerings. In addition to these, the new wave of electronic devices from inkjet and laser to the plateless Indigo digital printer have opened new avenues that were once time and cost prohibitive. The problem now is with so many choices, which one is the right one?
Prepress has evolved considerably with the advent of electronic imaging. Almost gone are the days of hand stripping and photographic processes like Kroy type, cutting and pasting, and shooting film with halftone screens. Computers, image setters, plate setters, and more recently the improvement of plateless technology taking its place in the fore-front of the prepress arsenal. These improvements have tightened turn times, increased repeatability, and expanded the design possibilities. Most traditional color proofing (like match prints and color keys) have been replaced by a variety of digital processes like wax thermal, inkjet, and laser. This has come at a price, in more ways than one. By relying on this technology, we have fewer chances to proof and double check the details, which may give us less than satisfactory results. The down side to this is that the closer you get to having your job on press, the more expensive it becomes to make changes if mistakes aren't caught early on. The consumer must rely on soft proofs (on Screen) and lasers prior to releasing the job to their printer.
On the positive side, by going direct to plate or press from digital file, the printer can have plates set for a four color job in about a half hour instead of one to two days with output of negatives, stripping, matchprints, and finally burning plates. This means not wasting valuable press time and keeping tight schedules of days instead of weeks.
The size and quality of the project as well as budget will dictate which direction to choose. Even though Letterpress was the original technology, it is still in use today. With its lack of speed and the inability to run four colors simultaneously, it is used mostly for shorter runs with fewer inks and specialties like die cutting, embossing, scoring, perforation, and foil stamping. Engraving is another art unto itself, found on some of the finest of print jobs like wedding invitations and high end stationery packages. Most printing is done with an offset process which uses the basic principle that water and ink don't mix. The image and non-printing areas are on a thin metal or polyester plate. Ink sticks to the image area and water (fountain solution) adheres to the non-image area. The ink is then offset to a blanket which transfers to paper or other medium on the impression cylinder. Examples of offset presses are sheet fed using cut sheets of paper, and web fed with large continuous rolls of paper. For a project like a nationally circulated magazine a large web fed press would be able to produce all the pages and cover for several hundred thousand in the time that a sheet fed could print just the covers. Smaller sheet fed presses can be much more efficient for small catalogs, brochures, post cards, spec sheets, and the like. They also efficiently produce jobs that require PMS spot colors. The advantages of traditional printing are: lower cost with higher volume, almost limitless variety of papers and inks (think metallic, pastels, and varnishes), and a high degree of consistent registration for die cutting, scoring and embossing. The disadvantages are higher initial cost to set up for short runs and time for the ink to dry before trimming.
Some projects, like tear sheets, post cards, and flyers, lend themselves well to the newer digital processes (such as the Indigo). Now it is cost effective to do very short run four color, and be able to throw variable data into the mix to completely customize your print jobs. You can now put together a targeted mailing with each piece customized to the recipient and save time as well. The advantages to these printers are; you can instantly make corrections and changes while on press, there is no drying time before trimming (got just enough time to make it to FED-EX!), and low set up costs. Common disadvantages are: cost rises linearly with quantity, all colors are in CMYK mode (no spot PMS colors or other special inks), poor repeatable registration for die cutting and embossing, and cracking when folded.
With all of these choices, it makes the mind reel. How do we get from start to finish with our projects? Perhaps the best results come from combining old and new technologies for a proper fit. An example of this would be pre-printing ten thousand brochure shells with a company logo in three PMS colors and spot varnish, and then adding the information in four color as needed to customize the final product.
With over five hundred printers in the Denver metro area alone, the choice of who to handle the job is almost as daunting as how to do it. There are factors to consider like location, services offered, and (as trite as it may sound) a good personality. The bottom line is to find companies that will be consultants on your projects and be enjoyable to do business with. With a positive relationship between client and printer, the possibilities are endless!
Stan Foxworthy is the Sales and Marketing Manager with Unique Litho, Inc. Their company has been serving the business community in Denver with phenomenal prepress, and exceptional printing for eighteen years.
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