Genius

Got sent this link from a friend who is a freelance web-designer, 

I need these in my life!

Lithographic Printing

Lithographic Printing 

A printing process in which the image are and the non-image area exist together on the same plane. It is based on the principle that oil and water do not mix readily.

Offset-Lithographic Printing 

This is the process similar to lithographic print ho

wever the inked plate first transfers the image to a rubber blanket, this blanket then transfers the image to the paper or desired stock. 

This is the most common form of lithographic printing and there are two varieties of the process, these are web and sheetfed. 

The difference i shall find out shortly! 

Offset-Lithographic Anatomy 

-Inking System 

-Dampening System

-Printing Unit

-Infeed and Sheet Control

-Plates

-Blankets

Spot Varnish

Spot Varnish

This is the process that adds a special effect to a printed piece by applying a varnish to specific areas. The effect of this process leaves a shiney surface onto the desired area, this then making it easier to read when held at a certain angle to the light. 

The varnish itself is a liquid coating and can be chosen to give several effects such as, gloss, matte and satin. 

varnishing othwerwise known as coating or sealing is most frequently and succesfully applied to coated papers.  

Varnishes available; 

Gloss Varnish

this is often used to improve photographs as they reflect light thus making the colours seem richer and more vivid. Often used in promotional print work. 

Matte Varnishing 

This gives the printed surface a non-glossy smooth look. This is often used to soften an image, it scatters the light and reduces any glare. 

Silk/Satin Varnishing 

This is the middle ground between gloss and matte varnishing, making not as glossy as a full gloss but not as subtle as a matt.

UV Varnishing 

This coating achieves a very striking type of coating onto the desired material.  The varnish acquired through this process gives a noticeably richer and more luxurious. This can also either be applied as a spot varnish or an all over coating. 

Die Cut

Die Cut

die cutting is the process used to manufacture large numbers of the same shape from thin material, in the context of print production this material generally being different stocks of paper. 

The process can be done on either a rotary press or a flatbed press. The main difference between the two is that the flatbess press is not fast as rotary however the tools are cheaper, making it cheaper to produce from. 

CMYK

CMYK

-Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key

Often referred to as process or four colour, it is the method for colour printing and is known as a subtractive colour model with RGB being an additive model. CMYK is called a subtractive colour as it explains the mixing of inks creating a full range of colours, these colours caused by the subtraction of light wavelengths and the reflection of others. Subtractive models as a whole start with white light, the CMYK model in the context of printing starts with white paper (the whole, unable to print white). Out of the colour modes, the CMYK mode has the smallest colour gamete.  

Halftoning 

Halftoning is the process within CMYK printing, where tiny dots of each colour is printed in a pattern, which to the human eye look as though it is all one colour. This enables the possibility of printing a full range of colours.

This is the opposite process to Spot colour printing as that ink is printed fully, not in tiny dots.

Spot Colour

Spot Colour

-Special Colour, Tint

In general spot colours are used to highlight certain parts of a print, whether it be a logo, a headline or decorative design as they tend to stand/pop out and are Mostly used in Offset litho printing. In contrast to 4-print process(CMYK) spot colours are custom pre-mixed inks, they are opaque and therefore do not overprint well. Overprinting being clear in the name, when you print over existing ink.

         Spot colours are specified by colour matching systems, the most commonly used of them being the Pantone Matching System(PMS). It is down to systems like this how spot colours have become classified, for example, within the PMS, Spot Colours are each given a name or code, E.G. Pantone 2905C. This system can be used in several ways, firstly there are swatch books which give an example of the colours with its code. They can also be used within Adobe programs, with Illustrator, to access spot colours simply bring out the Swatch tab, click on the scroll down menu, select swatch library then select colour books and there you shall find a list of different Pantone books. When on photoshop to access the Pantone booklets, go onto colour picker and select colour library and then again is the list of booklets! 

The method of printing with Spot colours can be both expensive and cheap! If the product goes to print which has been made to use the 4-print process plus one or more spot colours the price if obviously going to increase. However it is possible to print products with just one or two spot colours therefore making it generally cheaper than using 4-process printing. 

What is quite interesting about spot colours is that they are used for printing security based products such as passports and money, the reason being is that the colours are hard to replicate and forge.