The last few blogs I’ve posted have been stressing the importance giving the printer correct specifications so that your returning bids will be accurate. If you do that, and do it perfectly, will that prevent errors? No. Ask any printer you know or any that you don’t know for that matter if Murphy was a printer and you’ll hear a resounding, “Yes” or maybe an emphatic, “Hell, Yes.” For those readers who may not know Murphy’s Law, it goes like this, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” What does that mean? I’ll tell you, it means that no matter how perfectly you plan a print job, and how thoroughly you execute that plan, in the end there’s a chance that a boogie will jump out and ruin the whole darn thing.

So many steps, no wonder someone trips.

Why does Murphy pick on printers? That’s a good question that I think can be answered very simply by the complexity, and number of steps it takes to get something printed. For example I once worked on a company’s brochure. They, the company, hired a graphic designer who hired a photographer to take shots of the workplace. The pictures were professionally done, and the graphic designer did an excellent job in preparing the art. This was before computer design programs when art was furnished to the printer on art boards, so the first step in the process was to shoot the art on our stat camera, and send the photos out to be drum scanned. State of the art stuff for the day. When the prepress people, who were called in the industry (don’t laugh) strippers, got the camera’s film and the film from the separator they had to strip it all together.  This required a different set of negatives for each color. Which were carefully taken over to a plate burner where the negatives were placed precisely over a printing plate and the images photographically etched onto the plate. Then the plate had to be developed. I could go on and on, but I’ve probably already put you to sleep so I’ll stop here.

miscommunications happen

Did you count the steps it took just to get a plate made, and the number of places where something could go wrong? The first possible communication error was between the customer and the graphic designer, the second between the photographer and the designer, and the third between me (the sales rep) and the designer. Another possible point of error is between the printer’s sales person and the estimator. Do you see where I’m going with this? If the job is miscommunicated up front, in any way, there isn’t anything you can do in the production to make it right. I often hear customers say, I don’t need a proof, just go on with the job. I understand, they are busy and don’t need any more to-do’s in their day, but proofs, and specs, and everything else we do to communicate the job are as necessary to the job performance as getting the art in the first place.

Ruined because of what?

Back to the brochure, after all those steps and I didn’t even enumerate what could go wrong on press, in the bindery, or even with delivery, after the job was delivered I got a phone call from the president of the company. He said, “This is a terrible brochure. You ruined what was supposed to be a showpiece for our company.”

I had samples on my desk and for the life of me couldn’t understand why he would be so upset. It was a beautiful piece. So I asked, “What exactly is the problem?”

He told me that his secretary’s dress came out too aqua it was really more of a royal blue color. I swear this is a true story! Her dress was the wrong shade of blue, are you kidding me? Assuming there was a real problem, where could it have taken a wrong turn? First if shot under fluorescent lights unless they are color corrected everything will be tinged with yellow. The color separator could have been adjusting for pleasing flesh tones and tweaked it a little off color. Printing is done with dots as I mentioned in an earlier blog (Sunday, February 15th, 2009), those dots are made with four pigments, CYMK. Not every color can be perfectly reproduced with those colors. Finally on press, the ink flow to the sheet is adjusted by the press operator to get the best result. Where did it go wrong-anywhere, nowhere.  The real question was did the brochure fulfill it’s purpose? Was it professionally produced in an accepted workmanlike manner? Yes and yes. Did any potential customer refuse to buy his product because of the color of the secretary’s dress? I don’t think so. His reaction was a bit over the top don’t you think? I wonder what was really going on?

He was

But again, Murphy was a printer. I swear that he was.

wax paper vs paper towel experiment

Another 60 second soap box lecture I like to use in teaching customers is the one about coated paper vs uncoated paper. Visualize yourself going into the kitchen and tearing off a sheet of paper towel. Lay the sheet on the counter. Now, do the same thing with a sheet of wax paper. Take a singe drop of liquid and release it on the paper towel. Do the same with the wax paper. What do you notice? The drop on the towel spreads and penetrates. The drop on the wax paper beads and stays on the surface.

paper surface

“And what does that have to do with printing?” you might ask. The above example is a dramatic representation of what happens with ink on paper. The softer the sheet the larger the ink dot gets. A hard surface keeps the ink on top. So? What does that mean? Think of a newspaper, or better yet go get a newspaper. Find a color picture of a person, usually on the front page. Now, get a shiny magazine. Compare the image on newsprint with the image out of the magazine. What are the differences? It won’t take you long to discover that the colors are more brilliant on the magazine and the images are sharper.

Does that mean that magazine printing is superior? No, not at all. There are many times that a graphic designer may want to choose an uncoated paper.  The purpose of the piece might be better served with a softer look. Pastels usually work better on uncoated paper. If there is something the customer needs to write on like an RSVP or order form, uncoated paper accepts pen, pencil, crayon or any other writing implement. Coated paper doesn’t.

gloss, dull, and matte

I’m tempted, at this point, to walk you through the paper making process so we can discuss the differences between the three most common paper coatings  gloss, dull,  and matte, but I think I’ll hold off on that. What I will talk about is how these three coatings accept ink dots. You understand by now that the harder the paper surface the more the dot stays on top and the less it penetrates into the sheet, right? Which of the three, gloss, dull, or matte would you imagine has the harder surface? If you said gloss, you are right. Dull is next, followed by matte. I’ve had customers confuse matte with uncoated paper because matte looks similar to uncoated. While the ink dot penetrates the fibers more on a matte than a gloss, it doesn’t penetrate a matte like it does on uncoated. So, if you want a softer look, but want to still get some pizazz out of the ink, try matte. If matte is good but lacks a little crispness, go to dull coat. If your image screams for brighter deeper color, by all means specify gloss.

deciding which is best

So out of gloss, dull, matte, and uncoated which paper is best? The answer is it depends. The best paper is the paper that fits your project.  It seems like that should be a no-brainer, but believe me it is not. Graphic designers usually have bookshelves full of paper swatches to play with, to aid them in deciding what stock to specify. Choosing the right paper can make the difference between a successful result and one that just doesn’t make it. If you don’t have a bookshelf full of swatches and you are a designer, or a designer wannabe, call your local paper merchant and ask to meet with their paper specifier. They can guide you and usually provide you with more samples than you will ever need to use. You can also rely on your printer for help, or if you are lucky enough to get me, you will have one of the best in the biz, I say with all humility.

Over the years I’ve developed a few soapbox sermons I use to teach my customers about the printing process. One of the easiest to visualize is the one about ink dots. I’ve taught this to small audiences and larger ones.

Lots of Dots

Printing is done with round dots. Some will argue with me about this because there are square dots called Stochastic, and elliptical dots, but let’s keep it simple for the time being–shall we? The smaller and closer the dots are together the more intense the color. For example let’s say you are using a black dot. When the dots are all shoved together you have solid black, but if you separate the dots using a screen you’ll get various shades of gray.

Copyright © 2000-2009 Dreamstime. All rights reserved.

The spiral image here clearly shows the point I’m trying to make. In printing we use four colors, sometimes called full color, or four color process. These four colors Process Cyan, Process Yellow, Process Magenta, and Black (CYMK) combine to make just about every color you can imagine. Why do I say process before each of the colors? It is because process inks are a little different than PMS (Pantone Matching System) inks. Process is this case is not a verb, it doesn’t mean the procedure. Process as printer’s use the term is a noun.

Like I said earlier, the smaller the dot and the closer they come to one another, the stronger color. Look at the Dreamstime illustration again. On the upper part of the pink, you’ll notice that the dots get so small, and so close together, that you have a difficult time distinguishing them.The same is true with the solid blacks.

Under Flawless Skin

One thing I like to show my customers who are unfamiliar with printing dots is to take a magazine, any magazine, place my printer’s loupe (a magnifier) on a color photo and let them see the printed dots. It’s always surprises them to see that a flawless model’s skin is constructed from tiny dots.

The same is true of a picture of a mountain reflected in a pristine lake, or a red tricyle in the rain, or the blue-ribbon winning pig at the fair. It’s all dots. Dots, dots, dots, and more dots. When first exposed to this, most people are a little taken aback. It somehow seems a little magical, and that is just one of the reasons that printing is a miracle.