Design for print

Printing methods

Letterpress

The first ever press was a Letterpress. It basically uses stamps to grab ink and place it on the paper (or other material). Think of a typewriter, but doing whole pages in one press. Of course, this took long to do as each page was setup before by hand and manually placing these letter stamps in place. As time went on, full page stamps were created instead to make the process easier (though still inefficient compared to other methods). Today however, the Letterpress is not used much as it is not an efficient and far too expensive method of printing.

Offset Lithography

This method of printing is the most common used today. It is also one of the oldest. It works on the principle that water and oil (ink) don't mix. Using metal or polyester sheets (called plates), image and non-image areas are burned onto the plate using light to expose the image areas. this plate is attached onto a cylinder that as it goes around on the press, picks up water onto the non image areas. since water and oil don't mix, when the plate comes into contact with the ink, it only sticks to where the water isn't, our image area. The plate then comes into contact with a rubber sheet (called a blanket) and it transfers the image. The blanket them rotates around and presses to image into the paper. This is where the offset term comes from. While other methods can be done with offset theories, the Offset Lithography is so common that when someone refers to offset printing, this is what they mean.

Flexography

This is traditionally used to print labels. If you look at a bottle of pop, the plastic or cellophane label on it was likely done by flexography. It is the packaging industry who primarily uses flexography. The idea behind flexography is similar to a Letterpress where it uses a stamp, but this one is created with rubber etched with tiny grooves that pick up ink. The rubber stamp (plate) wrapped around a cylinder which rotates and picks up ink from a reservoir then presses it into the printing material. This is often done on plastics, tissues, labels, stickers and cardboard.

Gravure

This is a method usually used in printing long runs of magazines. Much like flexography, gravure printing has a cylinder that picks up ink in tiny etched grooves and places it on the paper. The difference is, gravure doesn't use a plate. Its grooves are actually etched into the cylinder. This allows it to last much longer and can be used for more impressions (contacts with the paper/material) before it wears out.

Screen Printing

This is still a common method of printing. It is often used on all the odd materials. Solid letters on plastics, T-shirts and clothing materials, a lot of signs and others use screen printing. The idea behind screen prints is basically a screened material such as silk or nylon is stretched across a frame and fastened into place. A stencil, cut my hand or made electronically, is placed over that screen to block out non printing areas. Ink (often rubber based) is placed inside the frame and scrapped across the stencil with a rubber squeegee. The ink goes through the screen and onto the material.

Digital Printing

There are several way to do digital printing. Many methods try to reproduce the effects of the previously described styles. There are inkjet, laser and toner, and magnetic digital printers. In inkjet, the ink cartridge holds liquid ink that is released in tiny sprays onto the paper . It makes several dots, that when viewed without a magnifying glass creates the illusion of your image. Laser and toner method uses a laser to charge the paper in certain areas which will attract toner of cymk colours to it. It then goes through a fuser which melts the toner into the paper. Magnetic works in much the same way but instead of electrical charges, it uses magnetic ones. It also passes through a fuser to melt the toner on.

Linocut

The linocut is a printmaking technique similar to that of the woodcut, the difference being that the image is engraved on linoleum instead of wood. Since linoleum offers an easier surface for working, linocuts offer more precision and a greater variety of effects than woodcuts. Long disparaged by serious artists as not challenging enough, the linocut came into its own after artists like Picasso and Matisse began to work in that technique.


Etching
 
Etching is a method of making prints from a metal plate, usually copper or zinc, which has been bitten with acid. The plate is first coated with an acid-resistant substance (etching ground or varnish) through which the design is drawn with a sharp tool (burin or other). The acid eats the plate through the exposed lines; the more time the plate is left in the acid, the coarser the lines. When the plate is inked and its surface rubbed clean, and it is covered with paper and passed (between the cylinders of an etching press under high pressure) under a cylindrical press, the ink captured in the lines is transferred to the paper.



Drypoint
 
Drypoint is an engraving method in which the design is scratched directly onto the (usually copper) plate with a sharp pointed instrument. Lines in a drypoint print are characterized by a soft fuzziness caused by ink printed from the burr, or rough metal edge lifted up on each side of the furrow made by the etching (drypoint) tool. Drypoint is most often used in combination with other etching techniques, frequently to insert dark areas in an almost-finished print.



INKJET

Inkjet is a popular technology based upon the ejection of small drops of fluid by an actuator that is controlled by a digital computer system. Once ejected from a printhead orifice (nozzle), the droplets pass through the air to a printing medium, typically paper, on which they form spots or dots. By controlling both the actuator and the relative position of the medium, an array of spots is produced on the medium to form a pattern. With the appropriate ink droplet sizes, ink colors, and ink-receiving medium, an image is created. Today, image quality and permanence can be produced in commercially available inkjet systems with performance exceeding traditional photographic technology.



Research

Embossing

Linocut 

 

Embossing 

Die Cut

Foiling  

Folding 

Perforating 

Type of Binding Methods
The first factor in narrowing down binding methods is page count. The most prevalent binding method is saddle stitching. Time magazine is a good example of this binding method. Projects over approximately 112 pages cannot be saddle stitched due to the physical thickness of the piece. Yet, almost any piece may be bound using any of the methods shown below. In general, the use of the piece will guide you to the optimal binding method.
Pasting
Sheets are held together with a small bead of glue at the spine. This method can only be used for 8 or 12 page booklets. Characteristics: lowest cost of any binding method; clean, crisp appearance; booklets can be refolded with little added expense and in turn save postage.
Saddle Stitching
Sheets are held together by 2 metal stitches or staples. Characteristics: low cost, very popular, books with low or medium page counts lay relatively flat, more durable than pasting.
Perfect Binding
Perfect Binding yields what are commonly called paperback books. The interior sheets are bound to the cover using a liquid adhesive. Characteristics: impressive appearance, suitable for large page counts, spine can be printed with company name and/or title. Note: perfect bound books do not lay flat when opened.
GBC Binding
Named after the originator: General Binding Corporation. Pages are held together by a plastic comb. Characteristics: suitable for larger page counts, pieces lay flat when opened, more expensive than spiral binding.
Spiral Binding
A wire is wound in a spiral fashion through holes punched into the book. The wire can be coated with various colors. Characteristics: suitable for larger page counts, pieces lay flat when opened, in most cases the cheapest binding method for thicker books, generally thought of as having a better appearance than GBC binding.
Double-O-Wire Binding
A variation of spiral binding. Final product appears to have a series of parallel wire loops holding the book together. Characteristics: suitable for larger page counts, pieces lay flat when opened, most expensive type of loose sheet binding, generally thought of as having a better appearance than GBC binding or conventional spiral.
Lay Flat Perfect Binding
A type of perfect binding that will lay flat when opened. Useful for manuals. Much more expensive than conventional perfect binding.

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