Digital and Printing Details

• Edge to edge printing is when the graphics extend to the physical size of the paper on all edges
• Edge to edge printing is also known as full bleed
• Usually commercial printers will achieve an edge to edge look by cropping the paper to size after the print
• Offset lithography requires printing on oversized paper which is then trimmed to size
• Bleed is when the graphic is extended to the outside edge of the publication
• Edge to edge printing doesn't need crop marks
• photo reduction is when the image files are compressed so that they are a smaller size
• photo reduction means that there is a limited loss of quality
• Photo reduction is useful for images for the web as it allows for quicker load times
• Photo editing programs reduce file size by removing meta date such as;

  • camera model
  • white balance
• DPI stands for dots per inch
• PPI stands for pixels per inch
• The higher the number of dots, the sharper and clearer the images
• Paper is measured in GSM
• GSM stands for grams per square metre
• Low quality sheets have low GSM value such as;

  • paper in a photocopier
  • magazine paper
  • catalogue paper
• High quality paper has a higher value of GSM such as;

  • leaflets
  • flyers
  • business cards
• Paper opacity describes how much light can pass through a piece of paper
• High opacity paper is good for duplex printing as not much light can pass through and you cant see what's on the other side
• Low opacity paper allows light to pass through easily for example tracing paper
• Paper calendaring is the process of smoothing the surface of a piece of paper by pressing it between cylinders and rollers
• Paper Calendaring produces a very smooth and uniform surface on the paper which makes it suitable for a gloss coating to be applied
• Duplexing is when a printer can print on both sides of a sheet of paper
• Duplexing is achieved when the printer catches the piece of paper after the first side has been printed on, then flips it and prints again
• Most modern printers and copiers are able to use duplexing
• graphic designers will generally produce a camera ready copy of a digital desktop publishing file before sending it off to be printed
• In order for a document to be camera ready is must adhere to the six important points
• 1. The document must be created with a software program commonly used in the industry and exported in a commonly used file format such as EPS, PDF
• 2. The document must use the correct colour setup/space. If printing a colour document all graphics should be converted to CMYK
• 3. The layout must be created at the correct and final size to be printed (no scaling)
• 4. Text or graphics, that are to bleed off the page of the final printed piece, should be extended off the document boundary in the digital file
• 5. Fonts used in the digital file must be converted to vector graphic format or be included in the final digital package sent to the printer
• 6. Raster or image files are originally created at high resolution settings (300 DPI) - no scaling/resizing