Preflight, FlightCheck - Printing problems

Preflight is very important. I really never knew much about it before I started working my first job as an Art Director. In this position I had to flightcheck all projects before we would send them to the printer. Basically, if there were any issues it would come back to me as I was the one that did the final checks.

In the beginning I was very confused by the process as I found so many issues alerted I, that I was told just to ignore. With more experience I learned what issues would cause problems and which ones would not.

One key thing to keep in mind of why flightcheck is important is it will make you aware of issues that you may not have even considered. One time I was running fight check on a project to send out to a specific printer. This printer had sent me their personal settings for the flight check software, and would make sure everything was setup to their specs.

When running this project through I found that many of the gradients in the design did not meet the standards for the printer. In this case the printer wanted no color less than 10% or it would not show up. The gradients were created with 10% color, and would not show up at all.

While I was not the one that created the gradients, I would have been the one that got nailed with missing this detail when the project didn’t print correctly. I was able to flag this issue and got the company that created the gradients in some hot water.

Fight check is a great last step to ensure you will have the print you are looking for. If you don’t flight check you will probably end up making multiple trips to the printer as little details easily slip by, and affect the print. I have found something as silly as not having embedded images and not including them with my print package has wasted my time as well as the printers.

As far as checking it yourself, without software assistance, I don’t suggest it. The software is there, USE IT! There may be a small issue that you are not even aware of.

OUTPUT Resolutions LPI

Printer	LPI
Newspaper ads	85
Magazines and brochures	133
High-end magazines	150
Annual reports	175
High-end brochures	175
300 dpi laser printers	53
600 dpi laser printers	106
1200 dpi laser printers	212

Production/Output Consideration

QUESTION: When you start a new project, should you be concerned about what method of printing will be used for the final product?


Resolution:
When starting a new project if is very important to know the final output. First of all, the output will determine what resolution you will need for your images and graphics. A designer would choose a different resolution based on the final output of the project. The resolution used in a newspaper is different than a magazine and the resolution of a magazine is different from a high-end brochure.

Color:
The final output will also determine color abilities or limitations. Is the project using a CMYK or a specific pantone color? If it is a screen print the color pallet could be limited. Knowing the color limitations may also reduce your options available with specific filters and effects.

Format:
The format the file is saved in could also become an issue as well. Many printers have reported issues with trying to print TIFF files that complex colored designs. Some printers may require a specific format for production and have specific guidelines how the file needs to be set up. One printer may want .125” bleeds set, while another prefers .25”. Many printers offer a profile that will set up the file to their spec’s, or instructions of how they want the file setup. Another thing to consider is has the file been setup with the appropriate trapping, chokes and spreads.

Fonts:
Fonts are often an issue when it comes to printing and production especially if a design uses TrueType fonts. While TrueType fonts offer some benefits to designers, they are known for their history of causing printing problems. Many times to avoid printing, and clarity issues a designer should choose Type 1 or post script fonts for their high resolution output and reliability.

TrueType Font Issues

TrueType Font Issues:

In spite of these impressive benefits, many designers may not use TrueType fonts. TrueType fonts have been known to have reputation of causing printing problems when TrueType fonts are interpreted through PostScript output devices. Another reason why TrueType is not the best choice is that experienced designers notice small quality issues in the structure of the TrueType characters. In addition the file size tends to “inflate” when TrueType fonts are included in a page layout file.

Printing Issues With TIFF

Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF). Designers may not want to use .TIFF files as there has been know issues when it comes to printing.

Printers often find TIFF files difficult to work with. Avoid using TIFF files in complex multicolor designs.

Digital Illustration - Production

OBJECTIVE:
Prepare imagery for proofing and/or final out putting at a service bureau or other supplier.


While I worked as Art Director at bookmasters, Inc., it was my job to make sure all artwork was ready for print. In some cases it was digital and in others it was offset. Either way many of the books we produced were for Pearson. They contained many graphs and charts that I created in illustrator.

I also was contracted to make some corrections to some package designs.

Proofs and Adjustments for Print.
Description: Take existing design make changes to text. Create new heart icon. Adjust die cut mask. Apply to 8 designs.

I also have done some basic posters that have been printed

Poster Promotion Piece for ClickaCoupon.com
Description: Create a poster to promote the video department at clickacoupon.com. Poster needs to have the same look and feel as the existing posters. Poster needs to be created for offset printing.

A lot of the freelance work done for Jimmy D Robinson was printed through Disc Makers and using their templates in illustrator to meet their specs with bleed and folds

Illustrator Set for Production
Description: Set up files for DiskMakers Production. Photography is provided. Apply photography to disc layout template and use layer styles to add color to enhance image. Apply text.

Digial Printing - Going Gray Illustraitor CS 4

Ok Ok, I know better but I figured since I was just printing at Office Max on their digital printer I would set up my Adobe Illustrator CS4 file as RGB. But when they guy went to print it came out as gray scale? We were both stumped. I said well it is RGB, and he and i agreed it shouldn't really effect it since it was digital and it switches it on the fly. But once the fly was switched to CMYK the color came out in the print.

Another interesting thing that I found with this little experiment. It seemed like when I tried to create a PDF from the printer when the file was in RGB it would export in grayscale? I had never heard of this before.

PostScript, RIP, PREFLIGHT, Stochatic Screening

PostScript:
A programming language created by Adobe to optimize printing of text and graphics on film or paper. The language allows for multiple complex pages with text and graphics with over 300 commands for lines, shapes, fills, text and formatting. The language is a completely text explanation of the page


RIP:
Raster Image Processor. A program or device used to analyze text, raster and vector images and generate each pixel or bit of memory, which in turn creates a large bitmap interpretation to be printed. The RIP creates halftones for all the photographs, and converts vector graphics to raster, which is assigned to bits to contain the image. The fonts are also ran through a process which formats the letterforms to vector art which is then converted to raster as well.

Preflighting:
Preflight aids in making sure a document is setup correctly before sending it to print. It involves analyzing the graphics, colors, fonts, gradients, fills, trapping, and more. Many printers provide their own preflight sects their printing presses. Many times bleeds and crop marks very from printer to printer. Failure to flight checks a project before sending it to print could result in many problems. Preflight can save a lot of time, aggravation and money.

Stochastic Screening:
Stochastic Screening is a type of screening used in PostScript image setting. Its major advantage over conventional halftone screening is that it has eliminated the issues with moiré, and screen angles by using dots that are the same size with no fixed grid. The process is very similar to pointillism used in pen and ink drawing or painting. Stochastic, or FM screening has shown to provide better quality with its finer type and lines. It also has improved the look of images with crisp detail clarity.

While it does hoave its high points FM screening does have some problems. It has a high learning curve. Since there is a high dot gain the images turn out much darker. Many adjustments are necessary to get quality results. Skin tones have also been difficult to make even.


Resources:
Frank J, Romano. Pocket Guide to Digital Prepress. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning, 1996.
Foundations of Electronic Production G322 UG . Week Six Online Lecture : 5 2010
http://www.tailrecursive.org/postscript/what-is-it.html
http://multichannelmerchant.com/toolbox/awards/marketing_stochastic_screening_revisited/
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/prepress/tp/preflightcheck.htm

Offset Printing

Topic:Offset printing, often called planographic printing, prints from a flat surface with image and non-image areas on the same surface. In addition, unlike the other printing methods that print from wrong-reading plates, the offset plate contains a right-reading image. Discuss how printing can be done from a flat surface and why offset printing prints from a right-reading plate.


Offset Printing uses a cylinder or roller that has been wrapped with a plate of the image that is going to be reproduced. In this example the plate would a right reading image. Ink is applied to the plate with inking rollers. Water is used to create negative areas where because the oil based ink will not stick. This plate cylinder comes in contact with another cylinder, which is known as a rubber blanket. The ink is transferred from the plate to the rubber blanket and then holds the image as wrong reading. A third cylinder, the impression cylinder, then comes in contact with the rubber blanket with the paper placed between these two cylinders. The ink on the rubber blanket is then transferred to the paper being fed between the rubber blanket and the impression cylinder and produces a right reading image on the paper.

Resources:
Foundations of Electronic Production G322 UG . Week Six Online Lecture : Making a Printing Plate 5 2010

Frank J, Romano. Pocket Guide to Digital Prepress. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning, 1996.

TIFF file format- Tagged Image File Format

Tagged Image File Format or TIFF is used for raster images. A TIFF formatted file does not support vector data. It is a flexible platform that supports high quality graphics and works very well in many different applications and environments. They are the best format choice for printed images.

Some advantages of using TIFF format are that it retains the image layers, transparency in the alpha channels, and other Photoshop features and tools while retaining quality. A JPEG format for example will flatten an image, as well as, “lose quality every time they are opened, edited and saved” (Chastain, 2010). With all the great things a TIFF format provides there is one draw “small” draw back. All the data saved takes space. This causes the TIFF files to be pretty large.

Works Cited
Chastain, Sue. "JPEG Myths and Facts." About.com Guide. Web. 4 May 2010. .

Resources:
Frank J, Romano. Pocket Guide to Digital Prepress. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning, 1996.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/graphicformats/f/summary.htm
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/formatsjpeg/a/jpegmythsfacts.htm
http://www.prepressure.com/library/file-formats/tiff

Trapping - Chokes & Spreads

Trapping is simply adjusting the lighter colors to spread into the darker colors to ensure there will not be any gaps or misprints due to human error or poorly registered paper. By overlapping the colors shared boundaries, it ensures proper printing in the event of misregistration. Seeing as most printing is done on white stock, if an object is not properly trapped the print could result in revealing the stock paper there the objects are not perfectly aligned.

Using chokes and spreads proper printing can be accomplished. A choke is applied if an item is adjusted to reduce the shared border. For example, if there is a 5mm knockout for a gray circle to fit in a larger black square, the knockout is reduced to 4mm adjusting the black square to choke the gray circle. A spread would be the opposite effect as it would be an adjustment where one of the objects is enlarged into the shared border of another. It would be making the gray circle larger to a 6mm diameter to accomplish the trap.

Resources:

Frank J, Romano. Pocket Guide to Digital Prepress. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning, 1996.