Every industry has its own language. If you are an attorney you use words like torts, writs, and injunctions. If you are a medical practitioner you use words like subdural hemotoma, tibia, and oxygen saturation. To the initiated these words are perfectly clear and immediately understandable. To the layperson, they can be intimidating and frustrating.

The printing business is full of its own words too. I wouldn’t expect a reader of this blog to get completely up-to-speed on printer talk by reading this, but I’m going to list some printing terms and attempt to describe them in such a way that you will be a little more comfortable with them.

In a previous blog Printing Dots and CYMK http://www.billprintbroker.com/?p=336 I discussed four color process printing. Here are some words associated with color printing that you will hear spoken:

• Dots Printing is done with dots.  Not all printing dots are round, some are elliptical and others square (Stochastic).This one is easy to demonstrate.. If you look at any printed piece  under magnification you’ll see the dots. People’s faces are very interesting because all the colors of dots are there.
• Screen A screen is a pattern of dots. Each color is angled differently to avoid some unintended Moire` patterns, which could show as wavy lines or blobs.
• Registration When the colored dots are aligned perfectly on the printed sheet they are in register. If they are off they are called out of register. The easiest way to see if printing is in register is with magnification, or if your short range vision is very good, or the registration is horribly off, you’ll see blurry edges. Usually this can be corrected on press by moving the printing plates into better alignment.
• Ghosting This term is more difficult to explain. Once you see it you’ll understand. You’ll recognize it most often when solid color borders are used on a page. Imagine a picture frame. It has four sides and an empty place where the picture goes. The frame is like a printed border. On the sides the border is continuous but in the middle there is for all intents and purposes nothing. When the paper passes through the press there is an ink buildup, when it comes around again the ink buildup has to go somewhere.  Your printed image will show a distinct color variation from one side of the ghost line to the other.
• Digital Proof Most printers use digital proofs for color printing. These proofs come from the computer and are intended to be a close approximation of what you should see on press. As of this writing there is not a proofing system that will exactly replicate the image you are printing.  Close is all we can do.
• High Res Proof and Low Res Proofs: Many printers will produce two proofs for your color job. The high res proof is more expensive to make, but is more color accurate. Low res proofs are excellent for booklets and any folded piece, and cost less. It is always a good idea to see a folded example of your job, otherwise it could be backed up wrong (upside-down) or have page numbers out of sequence.
• Press Check: I’ve discussed press checks in previous blogs such as:   http://www.billprintbroker.com/?p=709. If the printer doesn’t offer a press check and the piece is critical, be sure to request one yourself. It is the last opportunity for you to check it and gives you the chance to meet those who are producing it. I firmly believe that if they associate a face with a name you’ll generally get better work. It’s best not to be invisible. Plus with each press check you will learn something new.

This list is in no way comprehensive, but if you can these seven terms and use them correctly you will get more respect from the printer. They will feel like they are dealing with someone who has some understanding of what they do. I’ll drop in other terms on future blogs, so you can keep learning.

First, I want to thank all of you who read my blog about the challenges of offset printing on black paper. I especially want to than those who have responded with additional  suggestions and recommendations.  Whenever there is a challenge you can expect the cleaver production people in the printing universe to find a way over, through, or around the problem. Kudos to you.

Mr. Carlo Toscano of Global Printing in California pointed out that the digital printing industry has solved the problem by laying down a base of white and then printing on top of it. I have not personally seen this done digitally, so I’ll have to take his word for it. My concern is founded on what I have experienced, and that is that opaque white inks aren’t opaque enough. The black paper is tamed some, but still allows the paper color to influence the image and makes it gray. Digital is so new on the scene and uses different technologies than offset printing, that they probably have found a way to make it work better. I’d like to see samples if anyone has them.

The downside? Digital printing is most cost effective in very small runs. They generally top out at 500 – 1,000 imprints. If you need a larger quantity digital may not be for you.

Mr. Harvey Halperin (no company name) wrote, “Lay down a double hit of opaque white then dry trap process colors onto it. This will require two print runs, to allow the opaque white time to dry. We often do this with foils, or foil stamp and print on the foils there are a few new press that do this in line.”

Mr. Halperin is quite correct. A dry trap is a technique used by printers wherein they lay down a color and allow it to dry thoroughly before printing on top of it. A single pass of opaque white, as I said before, hasn’t proven to my satisfaction to be sufficient. A double bump, or a double hit, would certainly form a better base. If the white ink is allowed to dry, you avoid the problems associated with co-mingling wet inks. Contaminated inks will turn your normal process colors to pastels, but maybe pastel is what you are trying to achieve.

The downside? Every pass through the press requires additional make-readies, and plates. This technique will give you a good result, but you’ll pay for it. His other suggestion of printing on top of a white foil stamp will also work, but again you have additional costs that come into play. The double-bump, dry-trap technique probably work out to be the most cost effective way to achieve it.

There was also a suggestion to screen print the sheet. Silk screen inks are more like paint than they are offset inks. Because by nature they are more opaque, you may not have to lay down a base of white at all. It is a suggestion worth considering depending on the quantity you want to print and how the printed piece is to be used.

My point? With very few exceptions, the mid-night brainstorms graphic designers have, are by-and-large achieveable. If the budget is sufficient,  we can find a way to make their artistic dreams come true.

What do you look for on a proof? That seems like an easy question and it used to be a little easier to answer than it is now. The first thing you need to understand is that your signature on the proof releases the printer, or the broker, from all responsibility for the printed piece. By that I mean, if the product is a close match to the proof, but you don’t like it after all, or you found an error, the problem is yours.  Don’t blame the printers even if they were the ones who introduced the mistake. Proofs are your chance, often your last chance, to make sure everything is right before printing. I often hear customers say they don’t need a proof, or they don’t want a press check. That, in my opinion, is a big mistake. More than once I’ve seen jobs get  all the way to the press before the customer notices a critical error like a wrong phone number, or address.

wrong + wrong = right

Printing, in general, is an imperfect process. I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating, you start with the premise that oil (ink) and water (fountain solution) don’t mix and proceed to make it work. It’s a case of two wrongs making a right.

Back to the question of checking a proof. What you look for depends on the kind of proof you received. Most printers are now using direct-to-plate technology. Direct-to-plate has revolutionized the plate making process. A print shop of not too many years past used to have large rooms with big light tables throughout. The light tables were used to strip the film. Now the tables are gone and the rooms are empty, leaving lots of space for an arcade, or shuffleboard. I’m kidding, but what do they do with the extra space? Maybe shuffleboard isn’t a bad idea. In the era of the light table and hand stripping proofs they were  either bluelines (for one color printing), or color-keys (for four color printing). You aren’t likely to come across these terms anymore, but you might, so I’m telling you about them. There were other kinds of proofs too like Matchprints, or Chromalins. No matter what kind of proof was presented to the customer there was always one flaw–the color proofs were good for four color process, but if you used a PMS color from the Pantone book, you had to guess at the result. Kind of like looking at a small  paint chip vs. painting a large wall. Most printers will provide a digital hard-copy proof.

What do I look for?

Generally you want to check a hard-copy proof for:

• Color. Does it look like the color you expected to get? Remember though, the color that appears on your computer monitor might not be the actual color. Ripped (separating the colors into dots) color is different. Your monitor’s pixels are RGB (red, green,blue) and ripped color is CYMK (cyan, yellow,magenta, black). If the color is way off, you might have to go back and fix some things or have the printer help you fix it. If the color is close, don’t make yourself crazy, let it pass.
• Size. If your image was supposed to be 8 1/2″X11″ and it comes out as 4″X6″ there is a problem.
• Type. Because computer design is done in layers, it is very easy to cover a portion of your type block with a window. You may not see it on your screen, so you need to watch for it on the proof.
• Reflow. This is becoming less of a problem than it used to be, but you should still watch for it. Reflow usually happens when the font you are using doesn’t match the font in the printer’s system. If you haven’t downloaded your fonts they will default to the printer’s defaults. Small sizing or kerning (the space between letters) can throw your document off. Particularly if you are using a PC and the printer is on Mac.
• Missing or Added elements. I think this one is self-explanatory.
• Bleeds. If you want your piece to bleed (ink goes to the edge of the sheet) did you allow a 1/8″ overhang beyond the trims?
• Back up. Does the front back up correctly with the back? You might need a second low-res proof to see this, but unless back up isn’t important, be sure you get a folded proof.

wait til the press check

What to ignore or save for the press check.

• PMS or Spot color. Ripped proofs are still using four color process dots to create approximate color. It can be way off. If you are concerned about the spot color, do yourself a favor and attend a press check.
• Small dots. The computer picks up very small dots and reproduces them on the digital proof. A 1% to 3% dot may not appear on the plate. If those dots are important to the design be aware that they could disappear. If the dots are fighting your design the same is true. To be sure, go to a press check.
• Paper. The proof you see will be different when ink touches paper, particularly if it is an uncoated sheet. All proofs are approximations. To know for sure you have to see the ink on paper.

Respect the proof. That might sound funny, but if you attempt to glance at the proof and give it a cursory approval, you are bound to have mistakes. Stop, take a deep breath, and concentrate on the proof. You’ll have fewer errors. And maybe, fewer times called on the carpet.