This ebook will educate you on the basics of commercial printing.

Transcription

1 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 1 Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing This ebook will educate you on the basics of commercial printing.

2 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 2 Who Are We? Blue Frog offers a wide range of services, from assistance with the creative process and production of marketing materials to development of a strategic marketing plan for your business. Whether you have your own marketing department and simply need production services or are a small business just starting out, we can provide you with streamlined, costeffective, and powerful marketing solutions. Blue Frog efficiently delivers the services you need and maximizes the value you receive from your marketing investment. While full-service agencies have their place, many charge rates that are cost prohibitive for some of the more basic services such as graphic design, printing, mail services, social media, and web design. Because we manage both creation and production, we provide more efficient service with greater responsiveness to the individual needs of your business. The result is high quality work, efficient processes, and personalized service.

3 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 3 The commercial printing industry uses unique language that can be confusing to people unfamiliar with the terminology used in the printing process. In order to effectively order printed materials, you should understand the basics presented throughout this ebook. Within Blue Frog s print management division, we have worked with over 400 customers of varying size, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Our experience is that more often than not, the person tasked with ordering printed materials has little if any experience with the terminology used in the print industry. This communication gap can lead to confusion and frustration in the ordering process and increase the potential for errors. At Blue Frog, we try to help our customers build a basic knowledge of print terminology so we can better deliver the products they envision. In this ebook, we define some basic print industry terms. Learning these words and phrases will give you the tools you need to confidently order printed materials for your business.

4 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 4 The Four Basics to a Standard Print Order - CREATING Dimensions: What is the size of your IRRESISTIBLE piece? OFFERS - Paper Stock: On what weight and type of paper is it to be printed? - Paper Coatings- What finish would you like the paper to have? - Color- What colors are to be used?

5 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 5 Dimensions What is the size of your piece? Are you mailing your printed piece? It s important to understand the USPS mailing requirement. If you re not sure of the requirement when mailing, be sure to ask your printer when placing the order. Do you need envelopes? When inserting a piece into an envelope you need to be aware of the various envelops options that are available Bulk mailing with an envelope: Be sure to tell your printer up front if you will be sending out a bulk mailing with an envelope so they can look for machinable envelopes. Machinable envelopes can be run through an inserting machine rather than requiring hand insertion of each piece, saving you significant money on your job. Some envelope sizes are either unavailable or very difficult to find in the machinable variety, so it is critical that you plan ahead. For mail pieces without envelopes, it is important to leave certain areas blank for postage and addressing.

6 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 6 Paper Stocks Cover Also known as card stock, this is a thicker paper used for printed items like business cards, postcards, and booklet covers. Text Also known as book, this is a thinner stock than cover and is often used for sales sheets, tri-fold brochures, and magazines. Thin to Thick 70 lb. Text, 80 lb. Text, 100 lb. Text, 80 lb. Cover, 100 lb. Cover, 120 lb. Cover

7 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 7 Paper Coatings Gloss: Paper stock coated with a gloss finish has a shiny appearance and allows for crisp, vibrant images. Matte: This paper stock is coated with a flatter finish than gloss. Dull: Dull paper stock is slightly smoother than matte. Uncoated: Since coatings act as a barrier on the paper, uncoated stocks are significantly easier to write on. People often prefer uncoated stocks for business cards, appointment cards, reply cards, and any other piece on which someone may have reason to write.

8 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 8 Colors Colors are something that causes a lot of confusion for people unfamiliar with the printing process. In full color printing, four colors are combined to create full color images. The four colors used in 4-color process printing are CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW, and BLACK. These are often referred to simply as CMYK. When ordering full color printed items, the terminology used for 4-color process jobs are as follows- 4/0, pronounced four over zero : This would be a piece that is full color on the front but blank on the back, such as most business cards. 4/4, pronounced four over four : This term reflects a piece that is full color on both sides, such as a promotional postcard you send in the mail. Some colors are difficult or even impossible to reproduce using 4-color process printing. In this case, inks are mixed to create a desired color called a PMS color, which stands for Pantone Matching System. Some colors, such as metallics, can only be printed as PMS colors. When discussing jobs with PMS colors, you should understand the following terms: 1/0, pronounced one over zero : In this case, the job would be printed with 1 PMS color on the front and a blank back. 2/0, pronounced two over zero : This would be a combination of two PMS colors on the front and a blank back. Now it gets a little bit more complex... 5/4, pronounced five over four : When a PMS color, silver for example, is used within a full color piece, a 5th color is added to the press. The combination of the silver with the other 4 colors on the front of the piece and a standard 4-color process on the back gives us an item with five colors on the front and four on the back. The CMYK Model Works By Partially masking colors on a white background.

9 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 9 Now Use The Terminology Instead of saying this: I need 500 postcards on thick shiny paper that are full color on both sides. You can now say this: I need 500 postcards, 5.5 x 8.5, printed 4/4 on 100# Gloss Cover

10 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 10 Other Useful Terminology Bindery: This includes various finishing activities such as scoring, folding, saddle stitching, foil stamping, embossing, debossing, die cutting, and perfect binding. Bleed: The bleed gives the printer a small amount of space around the edge of an image to account for movement of the paper and design inconsistencies. Artwork and background colors can extend into the bleed area, ensuring that after trimming, no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. Collating: Organizing paper in a predefined order. C1S: This is an abbreviation for a coated paper, Coated one Side. C2S stands for Coated 2 Sides. Crop Marks: The marks a designer puts on artwork to show the printer where the cuts should be made. Die: Device used in bindery for cutting, scoring, stamping, embossing, and debossing. Gang: Combination of multiple jobs run on the same sheet during one press run. M: M is the Roman numeral for 1000, used to denote the number of pieces to be printed. For instance, 25M = 25,000 pieces Crop Marks are neccesary for printers to correctly cut a piece into the right size

11 Other Useful Terminology Continued The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 11 Proof: A sample made to check for errors in copy, color, and layout, intended to represent the appearance of the final piece. Saddle Stitched: stapled along the spine, as a magazine. Scoring: Creating a crease on the fold of a piece of paper, which helps keep paper from cracking when folded. Up: When something is printed 2 up, it means that there are 2 images printed on one sheet of paper. Likewise, if an item is printed 4 up, four images are printed on one sheet of paper. Generally, as the number of pieces per sheet increase, the cost per piece goes down. UV coating: A coating applied to a printed sheet that is cured with ultraviolet light. Variable Data Printing: Printing with an image or text that changes from piece to piece, often used to add a level of personalization to each individual piece. Varnish: Liquid applied for protection and for a desired visual effect. Variable printing can be used for addressing print for mail. {YOUR NAME}

12 The Beginner s Guide to Commercial Printing 12 Conclusion After reading this ebook, you should have a better understanding of some of the basic print industry terminology. You should now be able to more effectively communicate with a print company about your projects. Having high quality printed materials can give you a leg up on your competition. Need help creating materials? Blue Frog also does graphic design! If you have further questions about commercial printing, give us a call. We would be happy to assist with any questions you may have. You can reach us at or us at sales@bluefrogdm.com