Design for Print// Info Pack

INSIDE MY PUBLICATION: 

PROCESSES

• Flexography
• Pad printing
• Screen printing
• Letterpress 
• Six Colour 
• Digital Printing 
• Foil Blocking 
• Embossing/ De-bossing 
• Lenticular 
• Lithography
• Sheetfed  Offset (Type of Lithography)
• Web Offset (Type of Lithography)
• Offset Lithography 
• PrePress 
• Gravure 
• Thermography 
• Holography 
• Foil Stamping 

PAPER

• Coated paper 
• Coast-coated paper
• Uncoated
• Wove
• North American Paper sizes
• Getting the most from a sheet
• Writing Paper 
• A Sheets 
• B Sheets
• C Sheets
• Bass Weight Equivalents 
• Paper weight Grammage 
• Converting Basis Weight to Grammage

INK

• Scum
• Tonal Range 
• Wet Trapping 
• Spot Vanish 
• Aqueos Coating 
• Ultraviolet or UV Coating 
• High gloss 
• Heat set 
• Fluorescent 
• Soy Based 
• Metallic 

ART WORK

• This is something I am going to have throughout the publication to help the reader understand the process easier. Other people designs might include what stock they printed onto or different techniques they used to create an outcome. 

FONT

• Ariel 
• Avant Grade 
• Futura 
• Palatino 
• Georgia 
• Times new Roman 
• I want to discuss how font works work (this is something I need to think about. Does this really relate to the breif!?) 
• Bold face 

BINDING 

• Perfect binding 
• Saddle Stich binding 
• Case binding 
• Screw and Post binding 
• Tape binding
• Plastic Comb binding 
• Spiral and Double Loop binding
• Ring binding 
• FOLD? (Something else to consider)
• Four-Page simple fold
• Four page short fold
• Six Page Accordion fold 
• Six Page or Roll Fold 
• Eight page Gatefold 
• Eight page French fold
• Eight page parallel fold 
• Drilling, Punching 

PROOFING METHODS

• Paper dummy 
• Ink drawdowns 
• Blue lines 
• Analog Colour Proofs 
• Digital proofs 

COSTING

• Something I need to look into with more detail. This entails looking at companies on the internet. I think what would be good is to do a few pages on comparing prices of companies? 

FINISHING 

• Grain 
• Cutting & Trimming 
• Finishing Techniques
• Finishing Techniques are applied AFTER the job is printed to create a special effect that can't be achieved with with ink. They also include special cuts and trims that are part of the design or applications that make a piece easy to fold, tear, or ready for binding (p141 "Forms, Folds & Sizes"2004)
• The finishing is something that I might involve with the print processes, however it seems more right to have it at the end of the publication.

GLOSSARY 

• According Fold
• Bar code (this might be something I want to involve in the publication rather than the glossary.
• I will decide the glossary towards the end of my publication, anything I have mist out but think should be included.

COLOUR

Colour Modes

Colour modes are the colour spaces you can work in when using Photoshop. Since you'll be working primarily with the RGB colour mode when producing web graphics, we won't delve too deeply into the other colour modes. In this lecture an overview of the more common ones will be presented. You will eventually encounter situations where you open an image in Photoshop that is in a colour mode other than RGB so it will be good to know a bit about them and how to convert from one mode to another. Another reason is that the Adobe Colour Picker lets you mix colours based on four colour models: RGB, CMYK, L*a*b and HSB.

CMYK: Stands for "Cyan Magenta Yellow Black." These are the four basic colors used for printing color images. Unlike RGB(red, green, blue), which is used for creating images on your computer screen, CMYK colors are "subtractive." This means the colors get darker as you blend them together. Since RGB colors are used for light, not pigments, the colors grow brighter as you blend them or increase their intensity.

SPOT COLOUR: Print technicians and Graphic Designers around the world use the term spot colour to mean any colour generated by a non-standard offset ink; such as metallic, fluorescent, spot varnish, or custom hand-mixed inks. (as opposed to obtaining a colour by via mix of cmyk)

GREYSCALE: One colour black and all the shades of grey through to white (black and white photography is grey scale)

MONOCHROME (mono): Monochromatic colours are all the colours of a single hue derived from one colour and extended using the shades,tones and tints of that colour.

HALFTONE: This is a mechanical process (as opposed to chemical) for converting tonal values into a series of dots thatalthough solid dots, when printed give the impression of continuous tone.

RGB Mode

RGB mode is based on the RGB colour model. It is called an additive colour model because adding all the colours together produces white which reflects all light back to the eye. The diagram illustrates this concept.

As mentioned in previous lectures, RGB colours are created by setting red, green and blue to values between 0-255. When all three values are 0, black is produced. When all three values are 255, white is produced.

CMYK Mode

The CMYK colour model is used in images that will be output to a print mediumusing ink. The base colours of CMYK are cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K is used to distinguish it from B/blue). Theoretically, when combined, C, M, and Y should produce pure black. With black, all light is absorbed and thus this colour model is called a subtractive colour model. In reality, pure black is not produced with this combination of inks so black is included in the CMYK colours for this purpose.

In Photoshop, CMYK colours are mixed according to percentage values. Lighter colours contain lower percentage values and white is produced when all values are set to 0%. Black is produced when all values are set to 100%.

L*a*b Mode

The L*a*b colour model was designed to be device-independent. It should produce consistent colour regardless whether the output is viewed on a monitor screen or printed. L*a*b consists of three colour components. L (luminance) is the brightness value and ranges from 0-100. The a and b components are chromatic values. The a component consists of a green-red axis while the b component consists of a blue-yellow axis.

In Photoshop, the luminance values can range from 0-100. Both a and b chromatic values can range from +120 to -120. L*a*b is used internally by Photoshop in converting from one colour mode to another.

HSB Colour Model

There isn't an HSB mode that you can work with in Photoshop; however, the Adobe Colour Picker offers HSB as one method of mixing colours and it can be a useful way to do so. HSB stands for Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. A hue is a shade of colour; e.g., orange, blue, purple. Saturation determines the strength of the hue. Brightness is the lightness/darkness of a colour.

For example, let's say you add red food colouring to a glass of water. The red dye in the food colouring is the hue. One drop will result in a weak colour that is equivalent to a low saturation value. If you add six drops of food colouring, the result will be highly saturated. If you shine a light on your tinted glass of water, the colour will appear very bright but if you view it in a darkened room, the effect will be much darker.

Hue values range from 0-360 degrees, representing a location on a colour wheel. Saturation and brightness values are expressed as percentages. The image below shows two different interfaces for creating HSB colours. Both have a separate control for brightness values. The hue and saturation areas are combined, one in a circular fashion and one in a linear style. We added arrows to the drawings to indicate how different hue (H) and saturation (S) values are chosen. Brightness controls are designated with a red B.

HSB colours can be tweaked in a more intuitive way than RGB. Let's say you've mixed a colour that looks just right except that it is a little lighter or darker than you'd like it to be. Changing the brightness value will correct it and it won't disturb the hue or saturation of the colour. Likewise with saturation values. If you just need to fade or strengthen a colour's saturation without altering its hue or brightness, using HSB can be very useful for that.

Greyscale Mode

Greyscale images can contain up to 256 colours consisting of black, white and 254 shades of grey. This is a versatile mode to work in because most of the filters are available, you can work in layers, and files can be directly saved as web images from Greyscale mode. 

Bitmap Mode

Images in Bitmap mode can contain only two colours: black and white. Colour images can't be converted directly to Bitmap mode. They must first be changed to Greyscale mode. During the conversion from Greyscale to Bitmap, the pixels can be arranged in various patterns to give a more realistic look to the image. In this example, diffusion dithering was used.

Images in Bitmap mode can't contain layers. (The image must be flattened.) The Filter menu is dimmed meaning that filters can't be used on images in this mode. They can't be saved as web images using the Save for Web & Devices command unless they are first converted to a mode that supports that option. 

Duotone Mode

Duotone is an interesting mode from an artistic and creative standpoint. Images must be in Greyscale mode before converting them to Duotone. In Duotone, a colour is selected and applied to the image, replacing the grey values with shades of the new colour, as shown in the first example here. Black is retained as the second colour.

In addition to duotone (two-colour), you can also create tritone (three-colour) and quadtone (four-colour) images while in this mode. The second example shown here is a tritone image. Shades of orange and gold are combined with black to create more subtle colour variations.

While the intent of Duotone mode is to extend the tonal range of greyscale images for print, you can create interesting effects for the Web as well. Most of the Photoshop filters are available in Duotone mode, you can work in layers, and files can be directly saved as web images from Duotone mode.

Indexed Colour Mode

We already discussed this mode back in the Digital Graphics module. An image in indexed colour can contain a maximum of 256 colours and the colours are stored in a panel. If changes are made to the image resulting in colours not in the panel, Photoshop will assign the nearest panel colour to the new pixels.

Images in Indexed Colour mode cannot contain layers and filters can't be applied to them. They can be saved as web images directly from this mode.

Converting From One Mode to Another

To convert from one mode to another, go to Image > Mode and select a mode from the submenu. Sometimes you can't convert directly from one mode to another. In such cases, the modes will be dimmed in the Image menu. You will have to convert to an intermediate mode before converting to the desired mode. We won't cover every permutation of conversions. Many mode conversions can be made without any decisions required on your part and there will be little, if any, visible difference in your image. We'll discuss the conversions that require actions on your part to complete them.

RGB to Greyscale

This applies when converting from any colour mode. When you select the Greyscale option from the Image Mode submenu, you will be prompted with, "Discard colour information?" Choose OK to complete the conversion to greyscale.

RGB to Bitmap

You can't convert directly from RGB (or any other colour mode) directly to Bitmap mode. The Bitmap option will be greyed out. An image must be in Greyscale mode before it can be converted to Bitmap mode.

Greyscale to Bitmap

If your image has any alpha channels, you will be prompted to discard them. (We cover alpha channels later in the course). Then the Bitmap dialog will open, presenting you with some choices. 

Resolution

The image's current resolution will be displayed as theInput value. Set the desired resolution as a value in theOutput text field, either in pixels/inch or pixels/cm. 

Method

The method option determines how the black and white pixels will be distributed in Bitmap mode. The choices are described and illustrated below.

50% Threshold

Determines whether pixels will become black or white based on their greyscale value. Anything above a grey level of 128 (middle grey) will be rendered as white pixels and anything below that value will be black. This results in a stark, contrasty image.

Pattern Dither

Pixels will be arranged in a geometric pattern of black and white dots.

Diffusion Dither

This results in an even, grainy pattern.

Halftone Screen

When this option is selected, the Halftone Screen dialog appears. You can choose values forFrequency and Angle (print terms) and select the pattern of halftone dots in the Shape drop-down menu. The dot pattern can consist of round, diamond, ellipse, line, square, or dots.

Custom Pattern

When this option is chosen, the Pattern picker becomes available, letting you choose a preset pattern that will determine the placement of the black and white pixels. In our example below, we used an Optical Checkerboard pattern. 

Bitmap Conversion Options
Original image	50% Threshold	Pattern Dither
Diffusion Dither	Halftone Screen	Custom Pattern

Bitmap to Greyscale

The only mode that a bitmap image can be converted to is Greyscale. When you select it, the Greyscale dialog will appear. A size ratio between 1 and 16 can be entered. This determines the final size of the image as well as how the black and white pixels will be rendered as greyscale. If you enter a value of 1 (largest size), an image of the same size will be produced with no visible change in the image's colour distribution. A value of two will scale the image to 50%. With values greater than 1, the black and white pixels will be combined to create grey values in the final image. 

Greyscale to Duotone

An image must be in Greyscale mode before it can be converted to Duotone.

Colour Modes Summary

• RGB is called an additive colour model because adding the component colours together produces white which reflects all light.
• CMYK is called a subtractive colour model because its colours combine to produce black which absorbs all light.
• The CMYK mode is used to generate files that will be printed using ink.
• L*a*b mode is device-independent, meaning that it produces colours consistently for both screen display and print.
• HSB is a colour model, not a colour mode. It provides an intuitive way to mix and adjust colours.
• Greyscale mode displays colours in 256 tonal values: black, white and 254 shades of grey.
• Bitmap mode produces images in two colours: black and white. When converting greyscale images to Bitmap mode, there are several options for determining the distribution of the black and white pixels.
• Duotone, tritone and quadtone images are created from images in Greyscale mode. They consist of black and 1-3 other colours. The colours replace all the greys in the image.