When I first began selling sheet-fed printing in the early 1980′s, my company Progressive Printing, printed an announcement flier for me. Before then I didn’t have much experience with paper other than commodity sheets used on web-offset presses. Think of magazines, catalogs, and newspapers. In the sheet-fed business a whole new world of paper opened up. I was so ignorant of paper that I didn’t understand that the paper my announcement was printed on was an expensive sheet. I didn’t know it until the office manager looked at it and said, “Wow, they must really like you because this is Cranes Crest.”

“Huh,” I said, “What is Cranes Crest?”

It turns out that Cranes Crest is made from 100% cotton fibers and is most often used on upper end letterheads and such.

Nothing more was said about my flier paper, but I realized that I had a whole lot to learn. Luckily for me a paper specifier from Zellerbach Paper Company conducted a mini-seminar in our offices. He covered paper fundamentals. His name was Mark Lander and even though he is no longer in the business I can still recall almost word-for-word some of what he taught us that day. Some of the lessons I’ve adapted and use as 60 second sermons when a customer needs to understand one aspect of paper or another.

I learned about paper because I felt I had to learn to do my job. Most people, including graphic designers find paper stocks they like and pretty much stick with them. There is nothing wrong with that approach. After all we can only hold so much information in our heads at one time. Because I took mastering of paper seriously, I found that my customers trusted my opinions and sought my advice.

If you are one who would like to know more about paper and don’t know where to go to get educated, let me give you some ideas.

• Check the yellow pages, or call a printer to find out who your local  local paper merchant’s are.
• Ask the paper merchant if they hold educational classes and attend if you can.
• Be sure to get swatch books and begin building a library of paper options. If you are a frequent user of printing papers they may be willing to furnish you with a whole paper cabinet, at no charge. Ask.
• Find out how they treat new paper introductions. Do they hold paper parties or bring mill reps around to the various buyers. Ask if you can get on the invitation list.
• Research paper on the Internet, some specialty papers may not be carried by your local sources.
• Many of the paper mills have websites that allow you to sign on to their news-feeds. Sign up, this will keep you ahead of the pack.

One service provided by most paper merchants that I’ve found to be particularly helpful is their willingness to create paper dummies. If you have a project with multiple pages there may be weight issues to consider. Your choice of paper could cost or save you a ton of money in postage expense. I’ve often had dummies made and taken them to the business services department of the post office to have it weighed so we would know for sure if we would pay a higher or lesser price. Often postage on a direct mail campaign will cost more than the printing and design of the pieces.

In a future blog I’ll get into paper weights and finishes, so hold on more is coming.

It isn’t just black that creates a problem, any dark colored printing paper presents challenges. The biggest hurdle is that printing inks are transparent. CYMK (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Black) dots are meant to be seen through. Overlapping dots create the color variations, you know, blue + yellow = green or yellow + red = orange. So what happens when you print transparent ink on dark paper? Right, the stock overwhelms the ink and you either don’t see it or the image is so faint as to be useless.

“Why do the mills create printing papers that won’t work well on press?” you might ask. Ah, that is a good question. Those wily paper mills know what Graphic Designers want and bold colored paper is often the best choice for their project. Strong color adds drama that you just can’t get with pastel shades. Again, “Why use it if it won’t yield a good result?” Printers have more than one trick up their sleeves. There are other processes that can be employed to print on dark paper.

Reverse Image:

Reverse image and type

The simplest way to achieve a dark background with a light image is to print it. Print the background with solid black, plum, or forest green on a white stock. Leave a window for the images, and you can achieve almost any look you want. The difficulty here is that offset printing is done with dots, as we discussed in an earlier blog. Print the dots on a textured or soft paper surface and you’ll probably end up with streaky, or splotchy solids. The paper surface makes a big difference. Make sure you discuss these issues with your printing professional before you go to press. Streaky, splotchy surprises are not fun.

The  poster to the right for the Rhythm City Dance School is a good example of reversed images. The type is white, but the dancer is gray. White is the color of the stock and the gray was achieved by using a screen of black (separating the black dots).  The point is, that while this piece appears to be printed on black paper it is really printed on white paper with a lot of black ink.

Foil Stamp:

Most foils are made opaque on purpose. They will cover any background color. The problem is that foil stamping is more costly than offset printing because it requires a die, the foil, and equipment that runs slower. The good news is that foil is available in a wide spectrum of colors, and finishes. For example you can get gold foil in satin, flat, shiny, and really shiny. It also comes in many shades. Gold foils are available in yellowish tints, greenish tints, and nearly bronze. Other foils that work well are white, silver, or clear.

Blind Emboss:

An excellent treatment to employ using dark paper is the blind emboss. Blind embossing raises the surface of the paper creating an image that is perceived by its height. It’s like a white-on-white blouse. The color is the same, but the pattern is revealed anyway. Blind embossing will cost more also than offset printing. Dies can get very pricey depending on the number of levels in your image. Most blind embosses are one level, but I’ve seen sculptured dies with a face or animal that are very complex. Sculptured dies, as you might imagine, can get into the thousands of dollars.

Foil Emboss:

As you might expect foil embossing uses both techniques. The image is foil stamped and then raised via blind emboss. A combo die can be created for this effect. Combo dies, as you probably guessed, cost less than buying two separate dies.

Opaque Inks:

Most opaque inks are not as opaque as you would like them to be. Imagine painting a light color over a previously dark wall. If you’ve had this experience you know that one coat won’t be enough. You might have to do two, three, or four coats before the wall is right. It’s the same with opaque inks. To blot out a dark surface the printer may have to double-bump (hit the image twice with the same color) and that probably won’t be enough. Additional bumps should work, theoretically,  but with each pass through the press you risk slurring your image or ruining paper. Paper is not indestructible, you know.

Metallic inks usually work better for this purpose. Metallic inks are made with up to 70% heavy metals, but even with metallic ink you will probably have to double-bump the image. And, this technique is not recommended for large areas.Type works better than swaths  of color which may show up blotchy.

Black-on-Black:

I’ve seen some excellent results with combinations of  black. For example, black paper on the market is almost always uncoated, which means that the color is a little flatter. If you use a black foil stamp or clear foil you can create a striking look by contrasting the paper surface with the shiny image.

Spot UV Coating:

It used to be that UV coating on uncoated paper was a no,no. There are new formulas that will allow spot UV, but aren’t guaranteed. Much depends on the paper you select. If you want to try spot UV coating, be sure to get samples from your local paper merchant, and have the printer test it.

I’m not just talking through my hat, printing is a strange and wonderful miracle. The printing press has been named as the most influential invention of the last two thousand years. The most influential invention of the last two thousand years–wow! Without printing, knowledge would be limited to a very small class of people. 99.8% of us would live in ignorance. Without the printing press none of the modern day communications would exist. Do you think the telephone and electric light would have gone anywhere without an educated public? How would the engineers, and scientists collaborate if not through the printed word? This computer I’m typing on at the moment, would never have existed in a world without the printing press. Think about it. We wouldn’t be much better off than the serfs in the dark ages without the amazing transformation made possible by the press.

As enamored as I am with the miracle of printing I live and breathe in the actual world of printing,  and I’m here to tell you that keeping a printing press in good working order and producing excellent products is a challenge. I’ve heard a great many words spoken about presses other than miracle or fantastic.  Those other words are  known as printer talk. Printer talk consists of a wide range of impolite four letter words. You know the kind of language I’m talking about, don’t you?

If you see a press operator with a sprained foot and notice dents in the side of the press you can bet it has been a bad day for someone.

You’d think by now,  the science and art of printing would have resolved all of the issues. You might think that, but you would be wrong.  See, printing is a dynamic business. Things are always changing. Everyday there’s a new ink, a different kind of printing plate, and some exciting new paper that just came out. The varieties, colors, and weights, of paper can be daunting even for the experts.

The number one question I get from graphic designers is about paper. What kind? What weight should I use? Will it look good if I design this, that, or the other on it? I’ll tell you a little secret. The paper mills develop a new paper and send their mill reps out to promote it. The reps spend a lot of time getting the graphic designers stirred up about it. The designers go to the printer expecting to get the same results as the samples given to them by the mill reps, but in the real world, not the world of paper marketing, the designers have half the budget and half the time and they are often working with printers that have not yet experienced that particular paper and don’t have a clue as to how well it will print or what the challenges will be.

I remember a few years ago the rage was translucent papers. I was hired to produce a direct mail project for a prominent advertising agency. The artists were in love with the idea of a see-through envelope. The paper salespeople were excited to have someone order a large amount of stock for the mailing. I was going to get a good commission so it appeared to be a win-win-win for everyone. Wrong. No one knew just how brittle these new papers were. When they went through the mail, with the usual US post office’s normal careful handling, they looked like they had gone through a shredder. The agency was mad. Their client was mad. The paper merchant shrugged, and I somehow got egg on my face. I didn’t specify the paper. I didn’t manufacture the paper. I had never been involved in the printing of that brand of paper and yet I was supposed to intuit the immanent disaster. I’m not Jewish, but Oy Vey comes to mind.