New to printing =]

[SpellZ]

Hellooow PrintPlanet!

I am currently in College for Graphic Design, in September I'll be going for my 3rd year (final year).

Before I graduate I want to have a SOLID portfolio for printing.
Because when we graduate all of us know how to set up tables in InDesign, all of us know how to use Photoshop and create vectors in Illustrator. We also know how to print basic CMYK and that is it!

I want to graduate with a lot more then this. A lot more.

So pretend PrintPlanet asked me, "Okay, so what do you want from us?"

I want to accomplish a few things

First.. I want to know what in the world pantone color is, how to use is, and what it is in general (a tutorial would be great)

Second.. I want to learn how to print paper that has like 'silver coated' on it and stuff, it looks really cool

Third.. I want to learn how to make paper with 'cuts' in it. So imagine a piece of paper with a big letter "T" on it, but the letter is cutout.. what do you call that?

Fourth.. I saw this magazine (only once, sadly) and they have this coffee spill all over the page (photoshopped) but the spill wasn't normal paper.. when you put your hand over it, you can feel the thickness of the spill (JUST the spill), its like... its sorta like if you spill glue, and it hardens.. that is how it felt.. any one know what of paper it is?


.. and in general, is there a brochure I can buy or some book that has ALL the different kinds of papers and stuff?

 

[irreality]

Pantone Colours are used in the printing industry to usually mimic or spotprint specific colours that normally cannot be reached with CMYK printing. Which leads me to your second question, You can have a metallic spot colour (ink with metallic flake in it), however if you are referring to the nice metalic smoothed finishes on some documents, this is done with foil stamping which normally requires a die to "hotstamp" the special metal paper onto the substrate, and third.... Im not sure of the exact process they would use for that effect - but probably a paper embossing of sorts.

anyways.... this is just a quick rundown of your questions.

 

[oxburger]

1. Pantone differs from CMYK in that the inks are mixed before printing and don't use the four CMYK plates to make up the color on press. Since they're mixed before they go on press, they need their own plate. Say you wanted a green solid background for a pocket folder. If you were to print this out of CMYK on press, you would need a combination of Cyan and Yellow to achieve the green background and the solid would be made up of the Cyan and Yellow dots so it technically wouldn't be "solid". You could see the dots that make up the green using a loupe. Using CMYK to print your green, you may run into problems such as ghosting or problems getting a consistent tint. If you were to use a Pantone, you would select the green from a Pantone book and since the ink is pre-mixed, you could run the green background as one big solid instead of making it up from dots and you would get a more consistent look. (One of the drawbacks to this is that if you have a job that uses four color images in addition to the green, you would need CMYK plates for the images and an additional plate for the green.)

2. Printing on silver paper usually requires that you put down an opaque white ink underneath the colors (especially when printing CMYK) otherwise, the silver substrate would show through the transparent CMYK inks. Irreality is talking about foil stamping where you would print on normal paper and then add a foil stamp so that only a part of it is metallic.

3. That is known as die cutting. Mostly used for business card slits or to cut out a pocket folder before it's folded, or for use in, say, a door hanger where you would want the hole so that it fits around a door knob. Be advised that anything that is die printed is going to cost you extra because the die usually has to be made by a third party. If you're designing pocket folders for a living, you can usually use the same die over and over from job to job provided you build your artwork to fit that die each time.

4. As Irreality states, it is known as "embossing" when the surface appears to "rise" up toward you when you are looking at it and "debossing" when it appears to be "sunken" into the paper. Again, you would need a special die to achieve this. It differs from the die above (that defines the edges and is actually used to trim something out) in that the die for an emboss is a solid shape that is used to "press" the paper in the direction required.


Also, there are books out there on the subject. I found a couple using a google search: "Real world print production" by Claudia McCue or "Print Work: An Exploration of Printing Techniques" by Victionary

 

[BumpFlash]

Your enthusiasm is admirable, SpellZ.
Regarding printing that feels like hardened glue: that sounds like raised print thermography. If the piece were embossed, you would have a dent on the back of the sheet where it was raised on the front. With raised print all I know is that some kind of powder is added to wet ink which is then baked causing the image to swell and harden. The effect is more like thick paint (or colored glue) than "normal" ink.

 

[Arthaven]

First off I want to say LEAVE NOW WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now on to my summation.

First.. I want to know what in the world pantone color is, how to use is, and what it is in general (a tutorial would be great)

These are specific colors that any printer can print and match. They are mostly outside of the CMYK color gamut. InDesign has them listed under SWATCHES - NEW COLOR SWATCH - COLOR MODE DROP DOWN to PANTONE Solid Coated. Your Metallic spot color will be in the Metallic Spot book.

Second.. I want to learn how to print paper that has like 'silver coated' on it and stuff, it looks really cool

Not a very good explanation of what you're referring to. There are Metallic Spot colors. There is foiling which is a whole other kind of process. Also you can buy many varieties of paper with all different kinds of techniques applied. Some come in a metallic look and can be printed right on it with a pretty cool efect.

Third.. I want to learn how to make paper with 'cuts' in it. So imagine a piece of paper with a big letter "T" on it, but the letter is cutout.. what do you call that?

This is called die cutting. You want to set up your die in a vector program. I prefer Illustrator but sometimes will get lazy and do it along with a job inside of InDesign. I will create a custom spot color called Dieline (or Die, or Die Cut, it's your call). Make sure it is a SPOT color and not CMYK. I mostly use 100% Magenta just because it shows up easily. Stroke it 1pt or even .5pt and tell it to OVERPRINT. You don't want your dieline knocking out your printed work. Remember that a die cut isn't printing, it's cutting.

Fourth.. I saw this magazine (only once, sadly) and they have this coffee spill all over the page (photoshopped) but the spill wasn't normal paper.. when you put your hand over it, you can feel the thickness of the spill (JUST the spill), its like... its sorta like if you spill glue, and it hardens.. that is how it felt.. any one know what of paper it is?

That sounds like more of a Gloss Varnish or UV to me. Maybe it was also embossed (raised surface, another Die related technique). You can have Dull Varnish, Gloss Varnish, Soft Touch Varnish and have it applied to any shape you want or a "flood" which is the entire piece/press sheet.

.. and in general, is there a brochure I can buy or some book that has ALL the different kinds of papers and stuff?

I'm sure there is plenty of resources out there but it is a lot to learn. You'll want to get to know your printers very well. The sales rep and especially get in good with the prepress department. They will hate you behind your back until you get good and know what you're doing (since it's their job to catch/fix all of those designers mistakes/ignorance). Save samples of everything that you see that you like, whether it's paper or a technique someone used. Ask your printer about some of the pieces and they can elaborate on how it was made and what it is.

Colleges mostly do a horrible job with helping designers learn the printing process. So you have a good up hill battle for at least the next 3-5 years depending on quality of experience before you will be good at that end of the production. It's good to see someone eager to get it right.

 

[nhprinter]

Correction

Correction

"Pantone differs from CMYK in that the inks are Opaque, not transparent."

Sorry Ox, but this statement is incorrect. In Pantones standard colors (excluding dayglow inks) Only black, all metallics and Opague White are non transparent. Just as CMYK inks....all of the other colors are transparent.

 

[oxburger]

nhprinter. fixed! It's hard to find the proper wording to try and explain something. It's much easier to show them.


....what is basically done is that the ink mixer guy takes vegetable oil, pigment, and halftone dots and mixes them all together in a blender.....

 

[rbailleu]

best way to learn - volunteer at a local print shop for 2 months. get real experience and knowlege in trade for your labor

 

[proclint]

Excellent advise.

 

[claude72]

"Pantone differs from CMYK in that the inks are Opaque, not transparent."

Sorry Ox, but this statement is incorrect. In Pantones standard colors (excluding dayglow inks) Only black, all metallics and Opague White are non transparent. Just as CMYK inks....all of the other colors are transparent.

Yes, but Pantone are less transparent than CMY inks...

... for example, a Pantone Process Blue has almost the same color than the Cyan used for CMYK printing, but the Pantone Process Blue "covers" the paper better than the Cyan, and if you want the same result on the paper, you have to use more Cyan ink than if you use the Pantone Process Blue ink.

(when I was a young pressman, I did the mistake on a two color job that I began to print with Pantone Process Blue and finished using Cyan by mistake... and the printing became lighter and I had to raise the ink setting to get back the good color!!!)

1. Pantone differs from CMYK in that the inks are mixed before printing and don't use the four CMYK plates to make up the color on press. Since they're mixed before they go on press, they need their own plate.
(...)
Using CMYK to print your green, you may run into problems such as ghosting or problems getting a consistent tint. If you were to use a Pantone, you would select the green from a Pantone book and since the ink is pre-mixed, you could run the green background as one big solid instead of making it up from dots and you would get a more consistent look.

And if you want to change a little bit the color of your green, using CMYK you will have to stop the press, change the CMYK settings of your green in your DTP software, re-image one or two (or more) plates (or films) and re-install the modified plates on the press... If you were to use a Pantone, you will keep the same "green" plate on the press and:
- either simply select another green from a Pantone book and change the ink in the press ink-fountain,
- or (if you want a slighly different green), you can add some blue or some yellow (or else) to the green ink directly in the ink-fountain of the press to get the wanted color.