Reduce printing costs! Choose the right colours

There was a time when 2 colour printing was cheaper than 4 colour. Today however, printers are reluctant to spend their valuable production time washing up their expensive presses for a couple of Pantone special inks. The nervana for a printer is to have their presses running all day with the same ink. What we have now are printers running CMYK and charging a real premium to wash-up their units for a special Pantone ink colour.

When choosing corporate colours for your business, be especially careful to select pantones that match very closely to the CMYK version of the colour. Pantones that should be avoided are the oranges ie PMS 021; they simply print as a dirty brown in CMYK rather than the vibrant orange. The Pantone Color Bridge provides a clear indication how colours appear in their CMYK breakdown form. For a more dtailed explanation of colour breakdown see our previous post on the subject.

Paper Weight Caution!

Ever ordered some expensive brochure only to find that on delivery the cover or the text pages feel a bit thin? Don't be fooled by the weight of the paper. Paper is generally measured and sold in weight ie 350gsm or for say letterheads 115gsm. Although weight is an indication of 'thickness' it's not an accurate measure of it.

The same weight paper can vary in perceived thickness. In addition, different finishes also have a different thickness:

For example: a 200gsm range of papers: a gloss coated feels thinnest , then feeling heavier as you go on from silk to matt to an uncoated board.

Top tip: if you want your brochure cover to feel substantial either avoid a gloss coated board or better go up to higher weight board. Finally, as a fail safe, always ask for a sample of the board before giving the go ahead to print!

Excellent Tutorial Site

Layers Magazine.com

This site is a slick and interesting 'tutorial' site.  Even the most experienced mac aficionado will be inspired or helped. Why not check it out and drop us a comment, or your own suggestions!

Paper Sizes - a quick reference!

The most common system of paper sizes in Europe is the ISO standard All sizes are given in millimetres

The aspect ratio of ISO paper sheets is 1 to 1.414 (the square root of 2). This creates a useful property; if you cut an A sheet in half the resulting parts will be the same proportion as the original. This also creates two sheets of the next A size down, for example an A4 cut in half = two sheets of A5.

You may hear about two other paper sizes, the RA and SRA, which are used in print manufacturing. These are larger than the A sizes to allow for trim marks and bleed. Some print jobs will also require to go on B sizes if they are non standard.

(The ISO system is much rarer in the USA)
Please bookmark this post to keep as a handy guide!

A reminder: Compress Artwork!

A common problem with sending artwork over email is the loss of file extensions (and other general corruption's). Often this is caused by cross system email's, e.g. mac to pc (or visa-versa). A simple solution is to compress the artwork within a folder. Once you have collected the artwork to a folder, simply create a compressed archive of the folder using OSX 'create archive' (right click - contextual menu) or using an application like Stuffit. The resulting .ZIP or .SIT file should retain it's integrity regardless of where it's sent to and from!

please tweet this if the information was helpful 

 For more information on apple's archive feature - Click here