6 Offset Printing Tips | 4 Color Process Offset Printing Tips and Tricks | Kim Wolfe

12 Oct 2010 • Atlanta Graphic Design, Atlanta Print Design, Favorite Posts

6 Printing and Design Tips For 4 Color Process Offset Printing

Oct

1. Text in Black Ink Only:

CMYK 4 Color Process Printing Colors

In 4 color process offset printing, 4 inks, known as CMYK, are used to print your piece.

C = Cyan, a light blue
M = Magenta, a pink – purple color or a mauve
Y = Yellow
K = Black

When printing text on a business card, postcard, flyer, etc., you want to make sure any text 12pts or lower is set to print with black ink only. Otherwise, your text will be printed with all 4 colors overlapping each other. If the registration of any of the 4 colors is off even slightly, you risk the chance of ending up with fuzzy text with hints of colors showing on the edges of the text. When text is small, this makes your text harder to read.

2. Difference between a Raster Image and Vector Image:

Raster Image with Pixels

The difference between a raster image and a vector image is how the image is constructed on the in the file.

A raster image is constructed with tiny little boxes called pixels which is also referred to as DPI (Dots per inch). Each box contains a small portion of your image and all of the little boxes put together make up your entire image. Photographs (from your camera, phone camera, etc) are usually raster images. Any image with the file extensions: .jpg, .png, .tiff are raster image files.

The (+) to using raster images: Raster images are best used for photographs. The boxes or pixels do a fantasitc job of showcasing all of the hundreds of thousands of different colors used to make up an entire photograph image.
The (-) to using raster images: Raster images can not be enlarged without distorting the piece of image in the pixel unless you adjust the DPI (Dots Per Inch) number. Otherwise, dragging the image to enlarge it does add more pixels, just makes the pixels (your image pieces larger) which creates a pixelated (boxy) look.

A vector image is constructed of points based on a mathematical equation rather than pixels. Each point is connected to another point and all of the points compose your image or design. You must design in a vector format friendly program in order to create vector files. Some of the popular programs to create vector art with are: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Indesign and Corel Draw.

The (+) to using vector images: Vector images can be enlarged just by dragging the handles and not distort the images because the mathematical format just recalculates to add more points to the image. Logo designs and text are best used in vector format which produces the clean edges providing a cleaner look (than pixels) and in some cases, easier to read text.
The (-) to using vector images: You must have a vector program, which can cost $$$ in order to create a vector image.

3. Don’t Print Web Pics:

Do not use web images for printing

Offset printing and most printing methods require a high pixel resolution also known as DPI (dots per inch) so your printed piece does not look pixelated or boxy. Your computer monitor, cell phone monitor, etc. only displays images at 72 DPI therefore which is much lower than 300 DPI.

You can’t take your logo or a photograph / image from your website image of 72 DPI and just enlarge it to be 300 DPI without distorting the image. You must start from an image that was originally taken from the camera with a high MegaPixel setting and use it for printing. Then copy that same image, reduce the DPI to 72 DPI for web and use that special “web” image for the web and the web only.

4. Embed Your Imports:

When you import images, sometimes they can be linked to your layout file which means if you don’t include the image with your layout file, the image won’t show up on another computer that doesn’t have that linked image on it. The same thing can apply for fonts. So when you are printing, you need to embed all of your fonts, images, anything that was imported to the layout image you are sending so everything will print inside your layout.

5. Bleed it if you can:

A color bleed is where the color, image or color box is printed all the way to the edge of your piece. The print machines can not print to the edge of the paper like that. So what you do is extend your photo, image, color box out pass the trim line / edge of your piece in which it’s printed on larger size paper and then cut down to the size you order. Usually the standard bleed amount is 1/8 to 3/16 of inch pass the trim line / edge or your piece regardless of what it is: a business card, postcard, flyer, brochure, etc.

5. CMYK Color Format