Print Talk

April 13, 2015

Offset printing on book cloth

Printing directly onto book cloth provides a more natural look than the more traditional foil stamping. The photo below is a dark red ink over van Heek “Natuur” cloth from Ecological Fibers.

Categories: Miscellaneous , Print Talk

January 9, 2015

Stochastic printing

We are now using both 10 and 20 micron stochastic screens for selected projects. Stochastic screens use very small randomly distributed halftone dots to create the desired ink density. Whereas our conventional halftone screen is 250 lines per inch, 20 and 10 micron stochastic screen are roughly equal to 450 and 600 lpi.

The finer dot size makes stochastic the best solution for duotone, tritone, or quadtone photo reproduction; or art with neutral cmyk builds. The process is very stable throughout a print run; sharpness and detail are enhanced significantly.

Other benefits are: no possibility of moiré pattern (so long as the original photo has no moiré); a wider color gamut; increased shadow detail; and cleaner reverse type.

On the other hand, poor photographs may look worse than expected; and flesh tones may look splotchy if the original photographs are not good. Stochastic printing is not as sensitive to on-press changes as conventional printing; if you are coming on press and expect to make color adjustments then conventional halftone screens are best.

Please let your sales rep know if you would like to see samples or are interested in using stochastic screening for your next project.

Categories: Miscellaneous , Print Talk

September 1, 2013

Full bleed envelopes

Our Heidelberg GTO will print full bleed on envelope flaps, in one through five colors.

Categories: Miscellaneous , Print Talk

January 3, 2013

Spot colors on the HP Indigo

The Indigo is a 6-color press so we can print one or two spot colors plus cmyk. This photo shows pages from a brand book printing in four process colors + two spot colors. There would be no other way to accurately reproduce the two green colors in this project.

However … because the color space of the Indigo is larger than traditional cmyk printing, we can accurately simulate many Pantone colors. We recommend trying this before going through the extra time and expense of using a spot color.

When preparing files, please define colors in your files as spot, not process. And, because the press handles coated and uncoated colors differently, make sure to specify the coated (“C”) or uncoated (“U”) version of your Pantone.

Categories: Digital printing , File preparation , Print Talk

January 2, 2013

Tritones on HP Indigo

We just produced promotional books on the HP Indigo using tritones – black plus two Pantone colors. One version on coated stock and a companion piece on Superfine White, which complements the warm tones of the art.

We took them out to the National Museum Publishing Seminar and they were a big hit. The colors are rich and consistent from image to image.

Categories: Digital printing , Print Talk

January 1, 2013

Translucent paper on HP Indigo

Consider Neenah Ultra II digital radiant white for your next book project. It works great for overlay pages or section dividers.

Categories: Digital printing , Print Talk