Back to Dye Printing Tricks & Tips
[Yes, but we hate to give away our false aura of knowledgeability...]
In layout it is how elements are arranged on a page. In typesetting it includes how the text is "justified." Type aligned left runs until a word or easily hyphenated word can continue onto the next line of type. No effort is made to add artificial spacing between words to make the "ragged right" edge conform to an arbitrary vertical line. Legibility is very good and there are no "rivers" of white space running through your text or horrendously spaced final lines.
Aligned right, ragged left is the opposite. This allows text to run with a common vertical stopping point on the right side of the paragraph leaving the left edge uneven. This effect is good for catching the readers attention--but it does cut down on legibility if the raggedness is severe enough that the eye can't easily jump to the next line. (Assuming that you are dealing with Western left-to-right reading audiences. Hebrew text is different, as is Chinese and Japanese.)
Justified text allows for the type to be evenly aligned on both the left and the right. Sometimes this works great, sometimes it leads to some lines having a forced crunched bit of type followed by a line with too much space between words. It can lead to heavy looking type that is unappealing to the eye. Some editors swear by it and can't live without it.
Studies suggest that serif fonts, set aligned left, ragged right, with a line length not longer than 60 characters have the best legibility. This is great for body text, books, articles, etc. Headlines, captions, special effects that don't require much time to read can be set any way for visual impact.
What you must do to pay off your bill... No, really. If you are planning to have text, photos, background textures or whatever to continue printing wider than an eighth of an inch inside your paper size, you want it to "bleed" off. This means the printer will actually print your piece on larger paper and trim off the excess. For successful bleed please provide a quarter inch extra of whatever you want to bleed off. Less than that and you are asking for a sliver of white to show. This is important if you have a photograph and you want it to run off an edge. If there isn't a little extra to hang over the trim line we might have to fake some pixels for a safety margin. It's best to not crop down your bleeding photos so we can have a little more material to work with.
A prepress proof. In the old days it was your last best
chance to see if the stripping department put all you pages in the right
order, and to make sure the photos were shot in the right enlargement/reduction
and placed correctly. These days it is a good step for checking to see if
any of your text substituted as Courier.
It is an expensive way to check for spelling, since a single change could
mean redoing one piece of film or
several, depending on the number of colors affected. Proof before you go
to the blueline stage.
Using the film the strippers expose light sensitive paper to a special light
box. A blue-ish cast is created where various colors will appear when the
same film is later used to make plates. While no where near a "color proof" it is a good way to
check to see where and how all the elements will look when the printing
is done. No, your text will not be that blue color. And remember, it's light
sensitive, so don't leave it on the dashboard.
Bitmap file. Great for several windows applications on the PC side of the galaxy. Mac people tend to steer clear.
ANPA (American Newspaper Publisher's Association). These are colors that successfully print on newsprint. Contact your publisher before you start sorting through this list of colors to see if they still use the same library!
CRAYON. Yep, the Crayola people got their color library in there! It's pretty neat. All the colors you are used to using in the names you remember: Maize, Spring Green, Periwinkle. Use them, then convert them to the CMYK equivalents before you take them to your printer. (Unless you want to look like you have a third-grade level of printer expertise...)
DIC Color Guide (Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc.). A Japanese system rarely used out of country.
FOCOLTONE. A British system that uses a cool process CMYK combination matrix that takes care of most trapping problems. Again, not well known off the island.
MUNSELL. Another highly organized color system, but your printer may never have heard of it.
PANTONE. An American standard for Coated, Uncoated, Process (CMYK equivalents), Tints, Metallics and Varnished Metallics. Supported well by most graphics, layout, and photo editing software.
PANTONE HEXACHROME. An offshoot of Pantone that creates colors from a hi-fidelity mix of the "Six" process colors: Cyan Magenta, Yellow, Black, and Orange and Green. Check with your printer to see if they even deal with it. Be prepared to pay for a SIX color job.
TOYO. Another Japanese color library not used much off the island.
TRUMATCH. A really cool, highly organized system of 2000 CMYK colors. Great for designers who can only live with a specific shade. Bad for anyone else hoping to print from it...
Little circles packed with information. Great for storing and transporting material to and from your commercial printer. Warning: just because you burned (or thought you burned) a CD doesn't mean anyone else will be able to read your files at another location. Click here for the whole, annoying conundrum.
When making large publications for saddle-stitch binding you may have many pieces of paper all folded and stacked up one inside the next. We think of paper as flat, but it does have mass, so the more pages you stack, the more the outer most piece of paper has to wrap around all in the middle. Think of a taco with too many ingredients--eventually you can't fold it over easily. Creep is a mathmatical calculation for determining how much to adjust the outer most pages (sequencially) so that when it's all put together and trimmed (to even the open edges) the pages appear to have the same margin throughout. As each outer page has to wrap further and further around, the interior margin slowly gets bigger, so the the fold hides the larger gutter, but the appearance is correct. Don't try this at home, let a program do the math. It's dependent on so many things, including the total imposition used on the press and the weight of the paper.
Offset Printing:
Creep is the shifting of the printing blanket during offset printing. It causes elements to misalign as various inks are laid down on the paper.
Little lines that tell the printer where to cut the paper. If you are printing an 8.5" x 11" flier, it may go on a press using larger paper, perhaps 20" x 26" or bigger. Crop marks float just outside the four corners of your piece. Lines to define folds or perforations are marked with dotted or dashed lines. If you set your document to include the crop marks or other printer's marks but your laserprinter will not run it, you might not have wide enough paper to support the extra room it takes to print these symbols.
Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black. The four primary colors
used to "mix" thousands of other colors in the printing spectrum
(five if you count the white paper).
Imagine your old box of crayons: Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White. With
the first three you could mix Orange, Green and Purple. By adding Black
you could darken any shade. By adding White you could lighten any tint.
By mixing a primary (like Red) with its complimentary secondary (Green)
you could get a Brown.
In printing we have Cyan (a light blue) Magenta (a cool red) Yellow and
Black inks. Where's White? It's the paper color. So we use these four colors
(plus the paper) to visually "mix" all the colors in a full color
photo or graphic. If we mix all the inks together you head darker and darker.
Less ink coverage allows the "white" to show through from the
paper.
Go back to your box of crayons; all the special colors--including silver,
bronze, and that cool gold one--can be considered "spot colors."
These we create by premixing a particular shade of green, pink, tan, brown,
teal, adobe, maize, metallics, pastels, etc. If you absolutely positively
have to have a certain color, you pick a spot color from the Pantone color
chips.
Here you see a photo of one of our
professional printers getting into his job. A close-up of a printed halftone
photograph would show a series of dots in Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
These four process colors are used to create a
full color rendering.
There are a few different kind of dashes. Em Dash, En Dash, and the famous Hyphen. Back in the olden days of metal typesetting, an Em Dash was the width of the letter m, the En Dash was shorter, hence, the width of the letter n. The Em Dash takes the place of two hyphens. The En Dash is often used when hyphenating a kerning pair that already is too spaced out.
On a Macintosh an Em Dash is created by holding down the Command+Shift+M. Or Shift+Option+-[Hyphen]
The En Dash is created by Command+Shift+N. Or Option+-[Hyphen]On a PC an Em Dash is created by holding down the Command+Shift+M. Or using Alt+0151
The En Dash is created by Control+Shift+N. Or using Alt+0150
No, not an employee reduction here at Dye Printing. When you need a straight trim, we pop it on the cutter and slice it. When you need a heart cut out of the middle, or a fancy scalloped trim around the edge, or a custom folder with pockets and slots for business cards, a die has to be made. A sharp metal strip is mounted on a piece of board in a pattern matching whatever you specified (within reason, if you want tiny letters cut out of something, you'd better go with a laser--and no, we don't have one). The cookie-cutter like device then is put on a special press and literally slams into each and every single page. All custom done, all time consuming. In other words, think time and money.
A black and white photograph reproduced with two color plates. A vintage sepia photograph appears to be one, it can be created in Photoshop using the duotone mode with a brown ink and black. Instead of full-color, this option can add a little life to a normally bland black and white photograph. By adding a little orange or yellow, sometimes red of blue, a duotone can be striking.
A nice typographical extra that gives you those three dots as one character. If you type period space period space period space you'll have an uglier version and you have the added problem of not being sure if your hand-made ellipsis will stay on the same line. On a Mac get an ellipsis by typing Option+; (semi-colon).
A nice typographical extra that gives you more choices than a basic hyphen. Back in the old days of metal typesetting, an Em Dash was the width of the letter m, the En Dash was shorter, hence, the width of the letter n. The Em Dash takes the place of two hyphens. The En Dash is often used when hyphenating a kerning pair that already is too spaced out.
On a Macintosh an Em Dash is created by holding down the Command+Shift+M. Or Shift+Option+-[Hyphen]
The En Dash is created by Command+Shift+N. Or Option+-[Hyphen]On a PC an Em Dash is created by holding down the Command+Shift+M. Or using Alt+0151
The En Dash is created by Control+Shift+N. Or using Alt+0150
Encapsulated PostScript file. A pretty much stand alone graphic that you can import into various word processing and page layout programs. The downside is "nested" images can cause havoc. If you use a TIFF as part of the graphic, then export that graphic as an EPS file into a page layout, then provide your service bureau with the EPS you may forget to also provide the TIFF. It's nested in there and vital. It may be visible on the screen, but it will not print. Same is true for particular fonts used in the formation of the EPS file. If working in PhotoShop, that is not a problem, since every file brought in (TIFF, BMP, etc) is converted to raster anyway. Fonts are distilled as well. In graphic programs like FreeHand and Illustrator, it is easy to accidentally forget to include nested items (TIFFs, BMPs, JPEGs, GIFs, etc). Unusual fonts can be converted to their outline graphics (convert to paths) before creating the EPS file. This works best for smaller amounts of type. Large amounts of type will become huge graphics and it will be less time consuming to include the font on disk than to ship a big fat EPS file.
BMP, DCS, EPS, Filmstrip, FlashPix, GIF, IFF, JPEG, PCX, PDF, PICT, PIXAR, PNG, Raw, Scitex CT, Targa, TIFF Click Here for definitions.
In the printing world a clear piece of thin plastic used to make plates that actually put the image you want on the paper you want. At $15 a page per color for an 8.5" x 11" it's a good idea, no a great idea, to check for spelling before you have film shot or imaged. Solid black areas are imaged where the ink will not be. The clear areas allow a light box to develop a chemical covering the metal plates.
A typeface with a particular look. Remember font names are copyrighted by the foundries that produced them. The actual image can be practically identical and sold under a different name. That is why Tekton, Techno, Technical, etc. all look alike but one cost $110 and the others were bundled free with a software upgrade! So you can use Goudy or Gowdie and have the same appearance! The only danger is some of the knock-offs don't support all the special characters (Like accent marks). Confused about font names? Go to our font list.
In the printing world four color is FULL color. The four
colors are the primary colors used to "mix" thousands of other
colors in the spectrum. Imagine your old box of crayons: Red, Yellow, Blue,
Black and White. With the first three you could mix Orange, Green and Purple.
By adding Black you could darken any shade. By adding White you could lighten
any tint. By mixing a primary (like Red) with its complimentary secondary
(Green) you could get a Brown.
In printing we have Cyan (a light blue) Magenta (a cool red) Yellow and
Black inks. Where's White? It's the paper color. So we use these four colors
(plus the paper) to visually "mix" all the colors in a full color
photo or graphic. If we mix all the inks together you head darker and darker.
Less ink coverage allows the "white" to show through from the
paper.
Go back to your box of crayons; all the special colors--including silver,
bronze, and that cool gold one--can be considered "spot colors."
These we create by premixing a particular shade of green, pink, tan, brown,
teal, adobe, maize, metallics, pastels, etc. If you absolutely positively
have to have a certain color, you pick a spot color from the Pantone color
chips.
A proof, usually from the laserprinter, that reflects a level of changes, corrections, additions, etc. A first galley may go the rounds of everyone. By the eighth or ninth galley you are basically fighting over adjectives or last minute time changes. All the galleys should be done approved and finalized before you drop off the job to be printed. If we are generating the typesetting, we will ask you to double check all the content after each and every change. You should only image film after all the cheaper laserproofs have been hashed over.
Graphics Interchange Format; a raster-based graphic, photo or arwork, color or grayscale. Some people get rather irate if you pronounce it wrong. I've heard two ways depending on the age of the artiste and the geographic area; hard "G" Giff and soft "G" Jiff.
The colors are "distilled" from what you originally scanned to a preset version of shades. Be prepared for some shift in the colors you may have chosen. Gradients, blurs, and some other special effects completely go bad. Before any printing can be done the resolution must be checked and the "indexed color" has to be adjusted to CMYK. See also JPEGs, TIFFs, and BMPs. Amazingly, the people that created this format still hold a kind a patent on it, so that they actually license its use.
Techie sounding label for black and white photos. Various shades of gray (or if you want to impress the other artistes at Coffee Underground write it "greyscale"). If you want to be absolute about it (no shades of gray) "line art" has no grayscale components. It's all black or white, like technical drawings, wood carving prints, lithographs.
Where your portfolio will end up if you do not use us to print your next job. No, really...The space running between text or images when you hold open a double page spread. If something runs through the gutter you may have to do extra work to get it all to line up unless it is all printing on the same piece of paper. If you can run the images across a reader's spread, through the gutter, you may be saving yourself and the printer a headache or five. Check with the printer first. You may think the reader's spread will work, but the imposition (see below) may demand a perfectly convoluted (but logical) reason why page 4 and 5 are not really next to one another on the film.
The smallest line you can draw in several graphics and page layout programs. It can be tricky to use though, since by default it targets your printer, it is not a standard measurement (like so many tenths of a point or thousandths of an inch). The program figures out how small you "can" print and sets the line to that thickness.
On a deskjet, a hairline is a visible line of wax ink. On a laserprinter it may be just as thick as a spot of toner. But the same visible line you specified will be reduced to the thinnest thin possible on a RIP station when you ask your printer to create film. Instead of a single spot at 300 dots per inch off your laserprinter, you're getting a high quality, but virtually invisible line that is one-twelve-hundredth of an inch thick. It's better to specify a half point (.006945") or even a quarter point (.0035"). That gives the computer a solid number to work instead of an arbitrary "as thin as you can" command.
Taking a computer file out of the cyberworld and making it tangible, either as a low resolution piece of paper, or a proper film output. Each color gets imaged to it's own piece of film. The process usually means RIPing the file to a station that uses a laser to put 2400 dots per inch across the film. Though a flier may be 8.5"x11" it may be imaged on film 24"x20" depending on the quantity, colors, and press available. It's usually best to create all your files to the finished size and let the printer do any set ups.
No, not a problem deadline! To print a book with several pages it is necessary to follow a specific pattern that looks totally random. After several sheets are printed, all at once, they are folded in half, in half, and in half again, then trimmed to open like easily. Suddenly the pages are all in the right order. Wanna try one just for fun? Go backwards; fold a piece of 8.5" x 11"paper in half to 8.5" x 5.5"; now fold it again to make a little booklet 4.25" x 5.5". Now number the bottom of each page (it's a little tight in areas) then unfold it. Bam--you have an imposition! It may not be the "correct" set up for stacked, inserted, tumble-head, or whatever, but you can see that while it doesn't look right it folds down right. I would not recommend you setting up an entire book this way. Specific imposition patterns are necessary depending on the number of pages to be printed, and how the pressmen will be executing the job. Setting up your document for "readers spread" may be the worst possible thing you can do for your book publisher.
The gooey, slow drying stuff that we put on the press that gets pushed onto the drums holding the plates. It sticks to areas on the plate that had been exposed to light under the film and gets transferred off onto the paper at high speed. Black is a basic color of ink and is generally the least expensive. Standard colors are more expensive. Metallics are even more expensive. Yes, we can print your stuff right now. No, we can't fold it, score it, laminate it, spiral it, bind it, staple it, die cut it, or deliver it until the ink dries. Sorry.
Process inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) are used to print full-color items. Spot colors are special premixed colors.
Joint Photographic Experts Group; a raster-based graphic, photo or arwork, color or grayscale. Looks good acts good. The only downside is its huge popularity in the RGB color format. If you use a low resolution RGB JPEG your final printed image will be blurry, blocky, and in the wrong color. Convert RGB to CYMK. Make sure the resolution is over 200 dpi. JPEGs are great little compression tools for sending stuff on disk or over the web, just be ready to uncompress them and fix the mode. See also TIFFs, GIFs, and BMPs.
There are many, only a few are shown here. The old typewriters
would smack one letter after the next with no regard to how well the letters
looked together. (That's why the old Courier typeface forced wide letters
like W to be the same width as thin letters like I.)
Good typesetting sometimes means kerning certain pairs of letters closer
together, kind of like tucking the lowercase a under the overhang of the
uppercase W as seen below.
It's very subjective, and changes as you increase the point size of the
letters you are working with. As shown below, with the yellow highlighting,
it can be helpful to visual the "white space" between the letters
and try to balance them throughout the word. The capital O's bowls reach
toward one another, needing a bit more kerning to balance the space above
and below the two "equators." Diagonal lines of K, R, V, W, and
X can be kerned closer too. Long arms like on a T or L also require kerning
for some words. For more information on Tracking and
Kerning, click here.
Some typefaces have autoset the most popular pairs that require kerning. With larger point sizes for headlines, you may wish to manually kern your type. With PageMaker and FreeHand insert your Text Tool I-Bar between the two letters you want to kern and hold down the Option Key while tapping the Left Arrow Key to bring them together (Option+Right Arrow spreads the pair further apart).
The arrangement of various elements (text, photos, artwork, symbols, colors, tints) on a page. The more talented the graphic artist thinks he is, the more you pay for "layout" (even if it looks completely random to you...)
The amount of space between lines of text. The default leading in many programs is 120% of the point size (called "Auto" sometimes). That works great for many applications. Larger point sizes (like over 24 point) need more. Some fonts with extra tall ascenders or long descenders might require different leading just to keep the various hooks and swashes from getting tangled. Generally on body text (8 point to 14 point) you can just add two more points for leading and be fine (8/10, 9/11, 10/12, 11/13 12/14, 13/15, 14/16). Setting type smaller than that or larger than that means having to eye it a bit. The term leading comes from the days of setting type with small cast metal "stamps" all lined up on a galley. A small strip of lead was inserted after each line to keep the letters from running too close together. Measured in points, like the type, allowed the old typesetters to grab a strip of 10 point lead to add to their 8 point type.
Examples of leading using Hoefler Text 14 point. Note in the yellow high lighting where tangled letters can cut legibility.
Joined letterforms. While they may appear to be two or more letters, they are actually one keystroke character. The most common two (and available in most fonts) is the fi and fl ligature. Instead of the slightly awkward bumping of ascenders, expert typeface craftsmen built these "co-joined" letterforms. On the Macintosh keyboard to get the f and i ligature hold down the Shift + Option keys and type a 5. To get the f and l ligature hold down the Shift + Option keys and type a 6. Other characters may require an "Expert" version of the font and various compound keyboard combinations.
(pronounced mwah-RAY) When the various colors are put down, any area that is not solid is made up of dots in a specific pattern and set at a specific angle (a great reason to NOT mess with the screen angles, if your software allows it). If the angles are not set correctly a funky pattern shows up that is very distressing to the pressmen. You might notice it most on bluelines, since those are not extremely accurate. If you scan a picture or art that has already been printed, then try to use that scan in another layout, you will experience moire patterns. It is not pretty. Click here to try some fixes.
