Design for Print and Screen Research - Essay Example

DTP- DESIGN FOR PRINT AND SCREEN RESEARCH Primary Technical Difference of Creating Marketing Materials Using Lithographic and Screen Prints : Subj : Prof : Date : The printing industry has and always will be "an industry in a state of change" (DTI 2006). In the current trend, digital printing seems to offer newer opportunities for marketing and advertising, opening up new market for short-run books, brochures, fliers, and email marketing. The integration of the Internet into the newest print technology enables companies to further increase their reach and create new businesses. Web links, email marketing, and other internet-based applications are helping businesses to be more in command of their marketing. To understand and to get the greater benefits of the new print technology, one must be also familiar with the customary printing technicalities and methodology, and how it is different from one another. Litho printing is based on the principle that "water and grease do not mix" (P&D 2003), a process in which flexible aluminium or plastic printing plates are used. These printing plates are often having rough surfaces covered with photosensitive emulsion in which photographic negative of an image rest. After the plate's exposure to light, the emulsion produces a reproduction of the original image in reverse. The plate will then chemically treated to make the positive image sensitive to printing inks and later will be attach to printing press cylinders. There are two types of rollers; Water rollers are use to apply water on blank portions of the plate and ink rollers to cover the positive image area where the picture will appear. It is not possible to print these images directly on paper because the paper will become excessively wet. This is the reason why the plate rolls against a drum covered with rubber blanket to press away the water and accept the ink. Following this procedure, the paper can now safely roll against the blanket drum while the images transfer to the paper. This procedure is known as "offset" printing, where images are initially transferred to a rubber drum. For colour consideration, different colour requires separate plates thus a four colour process needs four different plates (Old Street Press 2007). Since litho printing requires costly and scrupulous creation of plates, it is only good with large printing requirements. Furthermore, the cost associated with multi-coloured print is only acceptable when thousands of copies are required. Therefore, the more copies you can make using the same plate, the better. Another printing technique is Letterpress; it is an old invention where inks are place on a raised surfaces. It is normally a set of inked letters in a frame where the paper will rest and press. In modern letterpress printing, rollers are use to carry ink over the face of the type (Old Street Press 2007). To understand the work involved in laying out artworks and printing, a desktop designer must be aware of the workflow process (see Fig. 4) and image processing techniques. If an optimized image conformed to the CMYK image format and colour guidelines, it can be simply imported to the layout program and arrange them with the text. The text can come from a word processing application (copy and paste), or inputted directly into the layout program. An artwork or a page layout program is capable of assembling and putting together text, graphic, and images. QuarkXpress and Adobe Indesign are the two most popular and favourite program in desktop designs. However, this does not mean you cannot use other programs such as Corel Draw etc. In fact, you can use any layout software available for as long as they are conforming to the requirements (Ottewill 2004). An artwork program must be capable of allowing desktop designers to change or specify process colour. It should have a graphic and image import facility capable of importing various image format such as CMYK EPS, TIFF, and Photoshop images. More importantly, it should produce a file with CMYK separations and compatible with the print company's file format specifications. The generally acceptable file format are those produced by Quark, Indesign, PDF (300 dpi), and all files conforming to the CMYK and Postscript standards. Importing an image in a layout program is simple and usually allows the designer to edit the image in low resolution. To ensure compatibility with the requirements of printing company, the colours specifications of the layout must come from the Pantone Process Colour Palette (P&D 2003) and fonts are strictly Postscript type. It is important to know that Postscript files are required to drive high quality output devices such as Laser and Digital Printers (see Fig. 4). For instance, before the actual printing, a completed artwork is first will go through RIP (Raster Image Processor) processing by the printing device itself thus producing a Postscript file that it can use to print the artwork. On the other hand, creating a four CMYK film separation for printing plates is required for the image setters in Litho printing (Ottewill 2004, P&D 2003). Proofing is a way to check the accuracy of the artwork before the actual printing. Proofing is printing an initial copy of the artwork resembling an actual offset litho run. The designers can check the actual layout of their pixel based works in paper. It is available with the Image Setting Bureau (ISB) and it comes with varieties of proofing tools for digital laser printers, dye sublimation, and photographic. The ISB accepts artwork files and RIP them in various formats. They will then produce a proof print through their Digital Colour Printers with output resembling litho and photographic print quality. They can also use Image Setting machines that can output CMYK and spot colour separation films compatible with offset litho printers. Reproducing or "repro" involves printing multiple copies of artwork and finishing them. You can choose to print in the convenience of your home using medium quality colour printers and try to check your work repeatedly. However, such process will unlikely to produce high quality artwork. It is best to print them in a professional high-quality laser printer where you can have superb quality of print. You can ask ISB to run few pages of your artwork, and from these output examine the accuracy of your work and edit them whenever required. In the Internet age, marketing products seems to find a new path and printings of artworks are no longer, for litho and digital print alone. "Once print jobs are in electronic form, new methods of printing and publishing become possible" (Romano 2004). Endorsements of products nowadays are direct via email and websites using PDF (Portable Document Format) and graphic images. The process of creating marketing materials in screen is much simpler than traditional printing process. It only involves desktop publishing programs and a bit of creative eye. Half of the tasks in the "artwork to print work process" (see Fig. 4) are no longer required since all it needs is layout, artwork, and proofing. The technical difference between marketing printed and screen material is in the printing process. Printed materials, as discussed in previous pages require a series of technical process that involves time-consuming colour separation and creation of photosensitive plates. Since screen-based marketing materials do not require hard copies of artworks and documents, it offers great advantage in terms of work, time, and cost. The digital nature of screen materials enables desktop designers to direct much of their effort and attention in design and layout instead of worrying about compatibility and prepress requirements. The high cost of litho and digital printing is probably the reason why many small companies divert their marketing strategies to the Internet and adopt screen-based marketing. Others pursue the usual path but using different approach to minimize parts of the workflow process. PDF provides an alternative for layout applications to be hand-over to print shops in a form compatible to all platforms and program versions. The Acrobat PDF is the most widespread method to "moving files from creators to reproducers to information consumers" (Romano 2004) .Adobe Acrobat usually produces PDF's and it is capable of converting Postscript files via Adobe Distiller. Designers and prepress operators will greatly benefit from PDF since it allows easy and reliable data exchange. It defines the clear "interface between creation and production" (Jaeggi 1999). Although some programs do have direct PDF import facility, this does not guarantee a compatible version of PDF. The safest and most reliable way of generating PDF documents is through Adobe Distiller, which is capable of converting Postscript data into PDF. After conversion, the PDF file is visually examine and then sent to print shops for image or plate setting preparation. The PDF workflow system for printer output using PDF in place of traditional layout program files is similar to the flow chart below (Jaeggi 1999). The most common practice in converting files to PDF is via Distiller. First, the layout of pages is created in any word processing application. This includes text formatting and image scales. Since creating a postscript file requires a common printer to print a file, the systems printer driver is set with the compatible PPD (Postscript Printer Description) file. Second, pages are printed into a Postscript file. Third, Postscript file is then converted to PDF using Acrobat Distiller. Fourth, document is check through Acrobat Reader. Last, document is ready for prepress (Jaeggi 1999). The accuracy of the layout file is critical in producing a good PDF file. PDF is final page format and this means the pages should be complete and free from errors. To help the designer ensure an accurate PDF output, there should be a checklist of technical works similar below (Jaeggi 1999). 1. Paper size should be correct and not to exceed or smaller than the size of intended output 2. For compatibility with Postscript drives, always use Postscript Type 1 fonts 3. Do not use True Type Fonts 4. Avoid electronic font enhancement like bold, shadows, contoured, etc. 5. Scan image using correct resolution and scale 6. Use an image editor when cropping images 7. Avoid using hairlines 8. Draw frames using a frame tool and avoid building frames using four lines 9. Tint areas should be at a minimum of 5% to 95% maximum 10. Find and delete unnecessary elements 11. Remove blank pages 12. Define page bleed whenever necessary One good benefit of screen-based marketing material, when use directly in marketing, is the cost of printing. PDF files, as an all platform compatible format is ideal for Internet marketing. Similar to websites artworks and presentations, PDF files are downloadable and work as an email attachment. Although pixel based screen print colour is not as accurate like litho print and its quality depends on varying resolution of computer monitors, it is still an economical marketing material with wider reach. Furthermore, the time consume in the creation process is significantly lower than the customary artwork to print process. Usage of screen output is definitely growing and electronic documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and portable PDF has now become a big part of small businesses strategies. In addition, software controlled hybrid screen display like Flash and other website enhancement attracts more customers. The big advantage of screen-based output for marketing is the speed at which editing can be done. Unlike boxes of unused prints, they can be edited within a few hours and put back to service in no time on a negligible cost. A superbly designed website not only attracts customers but build confidence. Customers tend to trust professional looking website and therefore products within these websites are more attractive and convincing. Finally, website creation and operation is cheap and it's always globally available 24 hours a day. Since it's easy to work on screen-based output and the cost of maintenance is negligible, marketing materials are always updated and therefore a more efficient source of information for customers. There is definitely no harm using traditional and quality prints for marketing materials for as long as it's within the company budget and generating considerable growth in sales. However, businesses cannot ignore the possibility of cheap global marketing using screen output material particularly those with greater impact on customers. References DTI, 2006, "Digital Printing: Future Technologies, Current Best Practices-Mission to the USA", DTI Global Watch Mission Report, the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), U.K. Printed by ProCo Print Ltd. GM Group, 2007, "Litho Print", M Business Print & Systems Ltd., Cornhill, Liverpool L1 8DZ. Registered in England No. 204615, online,. Date of Access, http://www.gmbusinessprint.co.uk /lithowhatis.html Jaeggi Stephan, 1999, "PDF-Workflow/Creation", Heidelberg-CREO, Binningen, Switzerland, online, Date of Access:06/16/07, www.prepress.ch Old Street Press, 2007, "Method of Printing", Old Street Press Limited, online, Date Access: 06/16/07, http://www.oldstreetpress.com/printing-methods.htm Ottewill Matt, 2004, "Artwork for Repro", Article from the Planet of Tunes.com, online, Date of Access: 06/15/07, www.planetoftunes.com P&D, 2003,"An Information Guide in Printing Large Posters", Print & Display International Group, Print & Display (Polska), 01-105 Warszawa. ul. Sowinskiego 47, Online, Date of Access: 06/15/07, www.printdisplay.com.pl Romano Frank, 2004, "An Investigation into Printing Industry Trend", School of Print Media, Rochester Institute of Technology, A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT Rochester, NY, December 2004 Read More