Printing

The Importance of Sustainability in Printing

Like any industry, the printing sector has an environmental impact on the world. Simply put, by providing products and services, we consume resources and energy. With sustainability becoming an increasingly important goal in the face of resource depletion and climate change, key players in the printing industry, including us at Printing for Less, must look at the big picture. Taking a step back in order to reduce ecological footprints today will only benefit printing businesses and the world at large in the future.

The State of the Printing Industry

First, it’s important to understand how the printing industry actually impacts the environment. It comes down to three main factors: materials, energy, and waste.

Printing Materials

When it comes to materials, the printing industry has something of a leg up in pursuing a more sustainable future because it relies heavily on a renewable and recyclable resource: paper. Paper products have a recyclability rate of nearly 65%. For comparison, less than 10% of plastics are recycled.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t aim to improve our practices. Other materials involved in the printing process such as inks, toners, and coatings, as well as packaging materials, all influence the industry’s environmental impact. Adopting sustainable materials across the printing workflow will put us on the right track.

Energy Consumption in Printing

Energy consumption is a multifaceted topic when it comes to sustainability in printing. The printing industry consumes energy resources to power its facilities and printing processes as well as to transport products to customers. By switching to renewable energy sources, integrating smart and more efficient workflows, and establishing more localized supply chains, energy consumption can not only transition away from non-renewable fossil fuels, but it can also be reduced for a smaller carbon footprint.

Printing Waste

Waste is a significant contributor to the printing industry’s environmental impact. Finding ways to better manage waste is therefore an important part of sustainability missions. There are many ways waste management can be addressed, from transitioning to fully recyclable materials to proper printer hardware disposal.

Ultimately, the goal is to establish circular economies for printing materials and equipment so less waste ends up in landfills. Another key goal for the printing industry in reducing waste is installing robust, automated design and production workflows. A reliable process leads to fewer production errors, better print results, and less waste.

How Printing for Less Addresses Our Footprint

At Printing for Less, we are addressing the ways we impact the environment on all fronts. Not only do we diligently recycle all of our paper scraps and packaging cardboard, but we also recycle other products and materials, such as aluminum printing plates and wooden pallets used in transportation.

Moreover, we are always striving to achieve greater energy efficiency in our operations. For example, we use clean, renewable energy generated by wind turbines to power our printing facilities. This energy is provided by our local utility provider, Park Electric Cooperative, with whom we work closely to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

In our day-to-day, we also follow a lean manufacturing ideology to optimize our efficiency and minimize waste. To do this, we strategically combine print jobs to both save on paper and make the most of a printer’s energy use and output.

Another way we are improving our environmental impact on the planet is by partnering with eco-minded suppliers and vendors. All of our paper products are sourced from mills that have implemented sustainable processes and share our ecological values.

What We Want to Do Better

While we take great pride in our efforts to improve sustainability in printing, we also recognize there are areas where we can go further. Reducing our use of plastic materials is a goal we are currently working towards. “We would like to move away from plastics as much as possible and fully embrace the idea that everything we send out the door in print manufacturing is 100% recyclable,” explains Beau Thomas, Director of Print Production at Printing for Less.

At Printing for Less, we are continually researching and testing the use of more eco-friendly printing materials such as chemicals and inks. In fact, we are seeing promising developments across the printing industry to develop and adopt sustainable inks made from natural ingredients, like soy and algae, to gradually decrease reliance on inks based on petroleum oil.

Transportation emissions are another issue we aim to tackle by working progressively with domestic suppliers. “The transport of paper goods from countries overseas uses a lot of fuel at a significant cost,” Beau adds. “The pandemic and other global problems have strained this even more recently. We are working with our vendors to secure domestic products that perform well, save costs, and lower our use of resources.”

Why Sustainability is So Important to Printing for Less

Achieving greater sustainability is an important goal at Printing for Less for the same reason it should be for every organization and individual on the planet: Earth is our home and we need to take care of it.

At Printing for Less, we are lucky to call Livingston, Montana our home and the majesty of Yellowstone National Park our neighbor. The mountains, rivers, and other amazing natural resources on our doorstep have instilled in us a deep appreciation and respect for the Earth, which inform our business practices and strategies.

It goes without saying that our continued existence as a company is directly tied to the continued health and prosperity of the environment. Brooke Seidel, a Printing for Less Customer Advocate, sums it up: “We want to be in business for a long time and we cannot leave a large footprint on our environment. Being conscious of that will help us to be a great business in the long term.” Respecting and nurturing the resources we depend on in our day-to-day is vital to our continued success and that of our clients.

A Sustainable Future for Printing

At Printing For Less, we are hoping to set an example and lead the printing industry towards a more sustainable future. Our eco-forward strategies—targeting materials, energy consumption, and waste management—show us and our industry that going green is not only a responsible choice but a business-savvy one as well.

“The global community, not just the printing industry, has to be on board with environmental responsibility to make a paradigm shift,” says Printing for Less Beau Thomas. “We have to start somewhere, and if we can do it while being profitable, others will see that and follow suit.”

Printed Newsletters: Why They Are Better Than Digital

Does your company send customers printed newsletters? While sending a newsletter via snail mail sounds a little retro, it’s a great opportunity to connect with prospects. 80% of people report that they always read printed newsletters from organizations they recognize. Many companies have moved away from printed newsletters because they think their hard work will go directly into the trash. But 80%? Now, that’s a number we think is worthy of targeting.

Let’s take a deeper look at how your company can use this marketing tool to engage your loyal customers.

What Are Printed Newsletters?

Printed newsletters are marketing tools that organizations use to share valuable and entertaining information with their contacts. Newsletters have been around for thousands of years, with the earliest dating back to 131 BC, making them one of the oldest forms of advertising. Today, we have two different types of newsletters, printed and digital.

How Printed Differs From Digital Newsletters

Printed newsletters are tangible documents delivered to your customers’ mailbox, while digital newsletters are pieces of online content sent to their email. Most successful digital newsletters are about 200 words, but printed newsletters can be much longer. Some companies even treat their printed newsletter like a company magazine, helping them build credibility as thought leaders in their space.

Reasons Why Printed Newsletters May Be More Effective

Nostalgia Marketing

Our Ecommerce Sales Manager, Katie Young, thinks one of the most appealing aspects of printed newsletters is nostalgia saying, “Printed newsletters aren’t as common as they were in the past. They remind me of the nostalgia of reading a newspaper or playing the OG Nintendo.” Those warm fuzzy feelings that come with nostalgia do more than pull at heartstrings.

Research shows that consumers are more willing to spend money on products that evoke feelings of nostalgia than ones that don’t. That’s an experience you can’t recreate using the digital format.

Thought Leadership

Since physical newsletters provide more space for content than digital newsletters, company leaders can dedicate time to position themselves as experts in their industry. High-quality content that provides industry insights shows potential customers that you’re trustworthy. According to LinkedIn research, 55% of businesses use thought leadership to vet other organizations before hiring them or working with them.

Cut Through the Digital Overload

Most people have around 200 emails hanging out in their inboxes. That’s a lot of messages competing for their attention, and many get deleted. Our National Account Executive, Nathan Garnder, notes that people must interact with physical newsletters, saying, “Many emails are flagged as spam or deleted without being opened. Direct mail puts a physical piece of marketing in front of them that they must interact with. Even if it’s just five seconds of walking it to the trash, that’s five seconds of brand interaction you wouldn’t have with a deleted email.”

Completes Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

Some companies swear social media is the key to marketing success, while others say you should focus solely on email. The truth is that brands need to engage with prospects through a variety of mediums if they want to succeed. However, many forget direct mail is a vital part of that strategy.

A survey of 600 marketers using an omnichannel approach found that their campaign performance increased 63% when they began incorporating direct mail. By making physical newsletters part of your marketing plan, companies can ensure that they’re engaging with customers through a variety of channels.

How to Create a Great Newsletter

So you understand why you should send your contacts a physical newsletter. But how do you create one that’s actually engaging? Below we’ve outlined our top tips for creating a newsletter that excites your readers.

Create Quality Content

This newsletter represents your brand and influences whether or not future clients will want to work with you. So, you want to ensure it’s high quality. To do this, our In-House Mailing Expert, Wes Kirk, recommends you work with the best of the best. “Hire the best designers and copywriters. No one wants to read a mediocre newsletter you created yourself in Microsoft Word.”

If you don’t have a graphic designer on hand, Printing For Less can help. From logos to flyers, our team of designers takes pride in delivering exceptional graphic design services.

Test Different Styles

From single sheet newsletters to multi-page booklets, the design options for physical newsletters are bountiful. However, you won’t know what style resonates most with your audience unless you test multiple looks. When testing designs, only test one element at a time. That way, you know what is impacting engagement. Include a CTA at the end of your newsletter, and track which style gets more engagement. The data you collect should guide future design decisions, helping you increase your newsletter’s ROI.

Keep The Design Simple

With so many designs to choose from, it’s easy to go overboard with creative assets or designs. However, our Custom Solutions Team Lead, Melanie Handl, recommends companies keep things simple, saying, “Your design should be simple, easy to read, and have a hierarchy of importance.” While it may be tempting to add lots of graphics, stick to a few quality ones. This ensures they don’t distract from the rest of the content.

Work With A Mailing Service

What if you’re ready to create a newsletter but don’t have a mailing list? That’s where we come from. At Printing For Less we can help you create a mailing list for your direct mail campaign or enhance the one you have. If you’re interested in learning more shoot us an email at info@printingforless.com. We’d love to connect.

Guide to Using Color and Ink in Commercial Printing

Color in Printing

We want to give you a better understanding of how color works in a professional print environment so you’ll consistently achieve accurate, high quality work. There is a lot to learn about color space, color theory, and how different printing techniques can change how to use color in your print projects.

What Is RGB Color?

RGB (red, green, and blue) is a model based on light energy. It’s what’s called an “additive model,” meaning adding the highest strength of all the colors of light together will give you white. If your laptop or device were suddenly shut off, your screen would immediately become black because no light would be passing through it. Speaking of computers, RGB is the color space most commonly used to display colors on a computer monitor. That means it is the color space you likely used to build your designs.

How is CMYK different from RGB?

CMYK is a subtractive, pigment-based model. Instead of starting with black, we start with white (like white paper) and the color subtracts from the amount of white you start off seeing. In CMYK printing, there are four color different plates, each printing a different color of ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. These colors mix together to remove color from white light, producing the image you see.

While the first three letters, C, M, and Y refer to the first letter of the ink/plate they represent, the letter K refers to the black plate and represents the first letter of the word “key.” Black establishes a frame of reference by “keying” all of the colors so that your eyes can interpret a color image.

So how do the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks produce such a wide range of colors using just four inks? The colors are printed in varying percentages using something called a halftone dot. If you look at any printed piece with a magnifying glass, you’ll be able to see the halftone dots that make up the artwork.

Further Reading: RGB vs. CMYK, and Converting Your Colors

The number of colors of light you can see far surpass the number of unique colors you can get by adding four different pigment inks together. That means that the “gamut,” or range, of colors in the RGB (light-based, additive) spectrum far exceeds the gamut of the CMYK color space. In fact, some colors in the RGB model will never be achieved with CMYK printing colors alone.

A gamut describes the number of colors and tonal range that a specific device or environment can show you. Then certain colors cannot be produced on/by a device, those colors are said to be “out of gamut.”

Further Reading: Designing for Commercial Printing

Spot colors

There are times when we really need to see a specific color in print, even when it can’t be achieved by combining cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. Some brand standards, for example, specify very exact colors for their business identities and collateral. Maybe you want to increase the perceived value of your printed piece. Maybe you’ve designed a high-profile brochure or annual report that needs a little something “extra” – like a spot metallic ink – to give it a luxurious feel.

If you try to print them in CMYK, a lot of vibrant colors like bright orange and neon green come out looking kind of funny (and definitely not what you intended). Navy blue comes out looking more purple and grey. Silver looks sort of grey, and gold really just looks brown.

These specific colors can be printed even if they’re out of gamut, but they must be printed with solid or “spot” colors instead of with process inks. With spot colors, the inks are usually printed in solid, single-color blocks instead of in layers using the traditional CMYK mosaic-like dot pattern. On occasion, they also get overlaid translucently on top of a CMYK base in order to extend the available range of CMYK pigment mixes.

The Pantone color library is the industry standard library of spot colors. Their reputation grew based on the variety of multi-pigment specialty inks they offer and the legendary color-consistency of their inks. Before going crazy on adding spot colors to your pieces, though, keep in mind that these colors will significantly increase the cost of any print job since the press must be completely cleaned both before and after printing with these inks to avoid any color contamination and guarantee color accuracy. The prices of spot color inks can also vary based on which specific pigments and colorants go into a certain color (metallic inks tend to be on the higher end of the cost spectrum).

Further Reading: Pantone, RGB, and CMYK

Note: While spot colors can be fun to play with in your image editing and desktop publishing software, if you know that you’re never going to print actual spot colors, keep you color values as CMYK. You’ll have a more accurate visual preview on the monitor, and avoid additional delays with getting your project printed.

Color management

You want your printed piece to look as much as possible like the colors that you see on your computer monitor, right? That’s never really possible, to be honest. Why? Because digital screens can show you colors that you can’t actually print, and some colors that you can print can’t be displayed on a computer monitor.

We may not be able to achieve perfection, but we can make colors more consistent. That’s color management. Good color management gets you consistent and accurate results when you’re presenting, printing, or otherwise sharing your images.

Color workflow

The accurate reproduction of full color images and artwork requires following a careful and proven workflow. A color workflow maintains the best translation of colors from device to device or environment to environment throughout the production process, each with its own color processing standards and capabilities.

For example, you’d perhaps first have a digital camera. Then, you’d have a monitor (or multiple monitor) display. Then, you’d have the environment of your image editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or Acrobat), including any specific adjustments you choose to make. You’d need to consider your paper, your printer, and the pigments available for your use. Each of these environments must be carefully managed for consistent and predictable artwork results.

Further Reading: Fix Color Issues with the Ink Manager

Why, for example, might the images on your screen differ from your final printed piece?

Your human eye can see more colors than any combination of inks can create in print.
Monitors typically use RGB color (additive model — adding to make white), but offset printing uses CMYK pigments (subtractive color — subtracting from the existing white).
Printed images have less visual range, saturation, and contrast than digital images, so in print, colors will usually appear darker and less vibrant. Paper texture and brightness will also have an effect on any image, and digital displays are unable to accurately mimic those effects.
The layering and overlapping of inks results in subtle color shifts and blends that can’t be exist in the discrete pixels of a digital image on screen.

Effective color management — including color calibration — ensures that you’ll be able to predict and work around any inconsistencies.

Color calibration

Color calibration guarantees adherence to a known set of color standards. Color standards provide a common base language or code for all devices to reference, such as the proper distribution of tones from black to white. Referring to the same code allows the translation of color representation between devices to occur seamlessly. If one of the devices in your own workflow is unable to reproduce certain colors, you’ll want to know when to make adjustments and when to accept the available output.

As the first step in your color workflow, you’ll want to calibrate your computer monitors. Your monitors are the windows through which you’ll make your biggest image editing decisions. Without an accurately color calibrated monitor, you can’t be sure that any decisions you make will produce a reliable outcome. Emitted light produces an image on a screen, whereas reflected light produces a visible image in print, so you’re going to need to bridge that gap without losing visual accuracy.

What happens if you don’t calibrate your monitor color? You lose accuracy. If your monitor isn’t showing you accurate images, then ay edits you make are just guesses. Do you really want to spend hours and hours editing your artwork, only to find out you made the wrong (or even just ineffective) tweaks? Or have your prints come out looking awful because you couldn’t really see what you were doing?

When you’re ready to calibrate, here are some basic steps that a monitor calibration tool might lead you through:

Choose which monitor (if you have more than one) that you’re going to calibrate first.
Adjust your white point to be slightly cool (6,500 degrees Kelvin – closer to blue), which produces a more natural-looking image on your screen compared to warmer tones. (Note: You don’t want your monitor to be overly blue, either, which is common error – your monitor shouldn’t be so blue that you feel the need to add yellow to your images to “correct” them.)
Adjust your luminance value to 120 candelas per square meter. (Note: You don’t want your monitor to be too bright either, which is another common error.)
Some calibration software may then begin generating and then measuring a variety of color and tonal values on the monitor. The software will then make adjustments to your monitor in order to produce the most accurate colors possible within the limitations of your hardware.
You’ll then have the option to save this monitor “profile” and set it as your default.
Check the “before” and “after” comparison to confirm you’re satisfied with your new settings.
Proceed confidently with your images!

You can also buy an assortment of color calibration tools that help you calibrate display monitors. Be sure and get a calibration tool rated for print color management.

Choosing a color space for working with your images

When you’re opening a new document in your image editing or desktop publishing software, you’ll most often stick to the RGB color mode. That’s because you’ll usually be working with images in their most glorious and full color range, which only exists in the RGB color space (especially when the image was captured with a digital — meaning RGB — device in the first place).

You’d even use the RGB color mode if you wanted to work with an image in grayscale, adding adjustment layers to remove the appearance of color. You should definitely keep your image in RGB as long as you’re actively working on it, and your master file should always be RGB.

Some benefits of staying in RGB, even if you’re eventually going to print, are:

The flexibility of using the same artwork file for producing print pieces as well as vivid, web-based graphics
Keeping the image data for the larger RGB color gamut intact
Access to the benefits of all the filters and adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop (many Photoshop operations, like Filters, work in RGB but not CMYK)
Avoiding the regrets of losing huge amounts of image data by converting to CMYK too soon
Saving space on your hard drive (RGB images are 25% smaller than CMYK because they only have three color channels instead of four)
Saving the time it would take to individually convert RGB images to CMYK

Within the RGB color space, there are three main options you’ll want to consider, each with a different available range of colors:

The sRGB color space
The Adobe RGB color space
The ProPhoto RGB color space

(Ultimately, though, the impact each of these color spaces will have on the available color range isn’t going to have a critical impact due to the capabilities of today’s printers and monitors.)

sRGB

sRGB has the smallest color range (gamut) and is the most appropriate for images that will be displayed on a screen. It’s less than ideal for anything that will be printed because it’ll prevent the use of some colors that your printer actually could make. Many people put down the sRGB space. However, it is, in fact, the color space of the digital world, the color space of most modern monitors, and it’s even the color space of most commercial photo lab printers.

Adobe RGB

Adobe RGB tends to be the safest and most flexible option. It’s got a large color gamut, and there aren’t too many additional things to worry about. Adobe RGB is the most commonly used RGB profile in print; in fact, it’s even recommended to export files for prepress in Adobe RGB instead of in CMYK, since Adobe RGB completely encompasses both the sRGB and CMYK color spaces. This means Adobe RGB can keep the integrity of all the color possibilities that both of these spaces can produce.

ProPhoto RGB

ProPhoto RGB has the largest available color range, which even includes colors that aren’t part of the visible spectrum. You should only consider this color space if you’re working in the 16 bit per channel mode. The main benefit of the ProPhoto color space is that it keeps the data that applies to the colors your monitor can display, the colors your printer can produce, as well as all the colors that printers and monitors in the future will recognize.

If you’re using ProPhoto RGB, we recommend you maintain that color space throughout the image editing process, and then convert your image to sRGB when you’re saving it for the web or sending it to another party. If you’re both editing and printing your own images, you’ll have the most flexibility if you leave your images in ProPhoto RGB.

Assign Profile versus Convert to Profile

A color profile defines a particular device’s range of color reproduction as well as how that device stores the color information to begin with. If an image that you open doesn’t have an “embedded” color profile, this means that even though specific RGB values exist in your image, your image editing software doesn’t know what those values mean. It’s trying to interpret the information in the image but can’t figure out the appropriate translation.

If an image doesn’t have an existing profile, you will need to assign one so that the color data gets interpreted accurately. Assigning a profile means consciously choosing the way an image’s color values will be interpreted and matched with specific RGB values and visual display. You can do this pretty easily in most design software, such as Photoshop, with the Assign Profile option. When you assign a color profile, you’re intending to change the image’s appearance.

You can also convert color to specific color profile. This method assumes that an image already has an assigned color profile. This function will take note of the image’s current appearance and then convert the color information while keeping things looking the same (or as closely as possible, anyway). With Convert to Profile, you’re intending to maintain the status quo, color-wise.

If you still need to convert from RGB to CMYK

These days, it’s recommended to keep your artwork in RGB, even when you’re going to be sending it to print.

The old “RGB versus CMYK” color wars don’t matter much anymore. RGB content can now be seamlessly processed by most modern print workflows and gets converted on the fly to CMYK for any offset printing applications. Digital output devices like professional digital printers may even give you better color if you don’t convert to CMYK.

Sometimes, though, you won’t be given a choice.

Your printer may be gun shy. He or she may have been doing things a more traditional (“old school”) way for so long that they don’t realize the flexibility and ease that modern technology can create. What were once commonplace mistakes (like leaving artwork in RGB) no longer cause problems – and sometimes even work to our advantage.

A lot of old school print shops still recommend converting images to CMYK. In Adobe Photoshop, you could go to Image >Mode > CMYK color, which will convert the image to CMYK. But not only will you immediately lose irrecoverable image data, Photoshop will make this conversion based on your current color settings for the CMYK color space and is rarely, if ever, correct.

If your printer still insists on CMYK deliverables, first ask for a custom CMYK output profile. Not necessarily a profile created for your print job alone, but a print profile that they’ve found works well based on their specific ink and press configurations.

Even with a custom profile, be extremely careful when navigating this territory. Making a color mode conversion is a one-way street. Besides using your “Undo” command immediately after making the switch, you won’t be able to retrieve any vividness or color data that gets lost.

You don’t want to throw away any color information away prematurely, so one option is to keep your working files in RGB but export to a CMYK PDF. You can use a preset or printer profile that makes the conversion for you, creating a new CMYK file but leaving your native RGB file alone.

Further Reading: Choose the Best PDF Preset for Printing

To continue designing and editing with all of the features and possibilities while keeping an eventual CMYK output in mind, you can choose View > Proof Colors in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign. This way, you can see how your colors will look after conversion to CMYK, but all of your image data will remain intact in your original source files.

The main benefit of using “Proof Colors” is that you’ll avoid the point of no return. Your colors won’t get converted to CMYK until you actually export to a Print Ready PDF. Once you’ve exported to a Print Ready PDF and opened the file in Adobe Acrobat, you can confirm the CMYK conversion by going to Tools > Print Production > Output Preview. There, you’ll be able to see the CMYK separation plates, even though you began with an RGB image.

How are you going to print?

Today, traditional and modern printing methods coexist. You’ve got nearly unlimited options for producing your perfect printed piece. Here’s a summary of the most commonly used print processes.

Sheet-fed offset printing. Capable of printing very crisp, detailed, high-quality pieces. Can handle heavy paper stock. Allows for true spot colors. A perfect method for producing prints of fine art or brochures, or manuals. Uses process color and spot colors.
Web offset printing. The best for high volume print runs, especially those which may require inline finishing such as folding or gluing.
Letterpress. An elegant and historic method of printing most often used on heavy, textured paper stock to create memorable pieces with character.
Digital printing. An efficient method for high-quality print runs of less than 5,000 which also allows for variable data and personalized mailings. Today, digital presses are incredible advanced and are nearly indistinguishable from offset printing, but very few digital presses support true spot colors. Some inline finishing options may be available depending on the specific printer. Because they’re not just working from four plates, digital presses support the wider and more vibrant color gamut of RGB images – finally ending the RGB vs CMYK debate.
Silkscreen. The printing method most often used for apparel, products, and a variety of irregular surfaces. A screen gets burned for each ink color in place of traditional metal plates.

Of all the common printing techniques summarized above, your biggest decision will most likely come when evaluating offset versus digital. Each year, the quality of digital printing increases. In fact, the print quality of digital can often matches that of offset (often at a lower cost). Here’s a closer look at your choices:

Offset printing

Offset printing (lithography), as previously mentioned, is most commonly associated with high-volume commercial print jobs. (Visualize large rolls of newspaper running through a very large and loud press.) This traditional method of printing has been around for over one hundred years.

For offset printing, your artwork’s colors will be separated and the separations will get burned onto four plates – one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Pantone spot colors may be substituted for any four of the colors, and additional plates may be burned if special spot colors have been requested in addition to the traditional four.

The imprinted plates transfer the artwork onto rubber rolls, which get spread with the associated inks. The inked image then gets transferred (“offset”) from the plate onto a rubber blanket. Your chosen paper stock is then fed through the rubber rolls and gradually layered with the ink on each plate to complete the printing of your final artwork as designed.

How Process Inks Are Made for Offset Printing

If you choose to go with offset printing, you might want more insight into just how these workhorse inks get made, right? The perfect printing ink would achieve high marks in number of areas (including set speed, gloss, running ability, and rub resistance), so the ink-making process is just as in-depth as you’d expect.

Printing inks are made of up two primary ingredients: pigment (the color) and a vehicle which carries the color. The pigment usually starts in powder form, and the vehicle tends to be a kind of varnish-like substance that’s sticky like honey. The vehicle components (whether thick or thin) are weighed into a pot and then added to a mixer.

The mixing process heats them together and the heat makes for a thinner consistency, which allows for the pigment to be easily incorporated in the varnish until it’s no longer a powder, but a thin liquid that can easily run through a printing press.

Next, in case any pigment particles are still stuck together, the lumps of pigment get broken apart in two different machines: a bead mill filled with tiny steel balls which roughly break the pigment particles off of the clumps, and a three roller mill which has three steel rollers moving in opposite directions. The steel rollers smears the pigment particles apart instead of knocking them about like the bead mill, and results in a glossy, smooth ink with a high color intensity.

Once a batch of ink gets to this stage, several quality control tests occur. A grind test takes place to make sure that every particle of pigment has been reduced to its smallest possible size so that it’ll print smoothly and consistently. Then, the ink is run through a “bleach test” where it’s mixed with opaque white to see how far it’s been developed. If everything looks good, the ink is moved to another mixer where waxes and dryers are added to impart necessary qualities to the ink. A final quality check on ink tack ensures that the ink is just sticky enough to adhere, but not so sticky that it gums things up.

Once that ink meets quality standards, it gets packaged via another three roller mill to remove any air bubbles and add more gloss and polish.

Offset Press Setup

The first step before beginning any new process print job is cleaning the press. Everything used in the last job, from printing plates to cylinders to fountains and rollers, must be uninstalled and cleaned. Starting with a clean, fresh press isn’t just about preventing ink contamination; it’s also important to make sure that any dirt or leftover residue doesn’t disrupt the registration or alignment for the new job.
The second step is creating color separations. Your composite artwork needs to be separated into four different artwork files (one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), which are called color separations. Each separated file will get laser-engraved onto its very own thin metal own printing plate.
The third step is laser-engraving the metal printing plates. Each coated thermal plate gets inserted into an imagesetter, where lasers output each plate’s image by heating areas of the plate to different degrees (the temperature varies depending on how much color ink each area should collect). The plate moves out of the laser compartment and through a cleaning solution to wash away the heated parts of the coating. The plate now contains a negative image of what will appear when printed.
The fourth step is installing the four newly burned plates into the printing press. The plates are flexible enough to get clamped around plate cylinders inside the press, which will rotate while water and ink get added to the surface.
The fifth step is calibrating the press. The press operator will perfect the color output by using calibration software. Output color density can be changed using levels and curves, as well as other tools. The calibration software also calculates ink absorption by taking into account the thickness of the chosen paper and any coatings being used. The operator starts the press at a slow speed to check the first prints for alignment and color. Any final adjustments get made so the press can ramp up to full production speed.

Use offset printing if:

You need to print large quantities. Offset printing can be much more cost effective in bulk because you pay a lump sum for paper and press time (in addition to set up) instead of an unwavering, flat rate per piece. With offset, the more pieces you print, the less you’ve had to invest in each one.
You have very specific paper stock or ink color requirements. Digital printing tends to be more restricted in these areas.
You need consistent, reliable, perfect image quality. With offset printing, you won’t have to worry about streaks or spots or stains. Your details will be impeccably crisp and defined.
Your color really matters. Offset printing is known for the best color balance and accuracy, especially since custom color inks can be precisely mixed for your job.
You’re working with unique materials. Offset printing gives you more flexibility in terms of the weight and finish of your stock, as well as allowing custom-sized material.
You’re not in a rush. You’ll need to allow a bit of time for your plates to be created and the press to be set up for your very own print run.
You trust your editing and proofing teams completely. Once an offset print run begins, any errors (like typos) are a big deal to fix. You’ll have to start the plate and setup process all over again, and anything you’ve already printed (along with the initial setup) will be a loss.

Digital printing

Digital printers look a lot like giant versions of the printer you have in your house. They print sheets one at a time, dispensing ink on demand instead of needing to burn individual color plates. There’s a lot less mystery in the digital process, since most of us have already been using digital printers of some sort for years.

A digital press is high-end color output device, toner-based, and can print 100 pages per minute. Many digital presses can print up to 300 line screen, which is a high quality print. Some digital presses can support special-mix spot colors, but you won’t generally have access to as many Pantone colors as offset printing can accommodate. Even without exact matching, though, the colorants in digital presses can quite closely approximate special spot colors because they have access to a much wider color gamut.

Besides digital presses, inkjet devices are also powerful modern digital printing machines, and their capabilities continue to increase. We aren’t talking about the inkjet printers you have at home, these industrial presses come in large format and grand formats, both of which mean new possibilities in terms of printing surfaces and sizes. Flatbed inkjets can print on metal, glass, or plastic; product decals and window clings which used to require silkscreening can now be printed with inkjets. Inkjet UV inks even permit the printing of outdoor signage!

The wide color gamut of digital printing colorants becomes an even bigger advantage when using inkjet printers. The colorant range allows the mixes of colors beyond the offset standards of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Unique colorants can be added to inkjets to extend the range of printable colors past traditional CMYK blends.

Because of this wide color gamut, RGB files become printable. RGB images are capable of producing a wider range of colors than CMYK images. And the wide gamut of digital toners and inks surpasses the available range that offset printing inks can render; even CMYK digital toners also have a wider gamut than the four process inks. Spot colors can be closely approximated via built-in recipe books which generate the best options for producing a near-match.

Use digital printing if:

You need something printed, fast. Since digital printing doesn’t bother with the extensive setup required by offset printing, rush jobs are no problem.
You need to see a final printed piece before committing to the job. It’s easy to crank out a single copy from a digital file, but it would be awfully expensive to set up an entire offset press for just a single printed sample.
You’re printing a relatively small run. With digital printing, each printed sheet costs you the same amount of cash, so you won’t have to invest in plate and press setup when you’re just making just a few copies.
You’re using standard materials and paper stock. Digital printing just doesn’t have the flexibility of offset printing.
You need something personalized. Because of the “digital” nature of digital printing, you can easily import spreadsheets of values that need to be printed uniquely. This is called variable data printing. Offset printing, on the other hand, doesn’t accommodate such customization; every piece must be the same.
You want to print multiple versions of the same piece. Because there’s no extensive setup process, you can print as many variations as you like for the same cost per piece.
You don’t need everything to be perfectly crisp. And by perfect we mean, beyond the powers of a regular human eyeball. When printed on the best digital presses, you likely can’t tell the difference from an offset press without a microscope.
You’re not too concerned about exact color. While offset printing gives you the control of perfect color matching, digital printing just does the best it can to match whatever colors you chose. Digital printing can blend inks, but those blends will never be as perfect nor as reliable as a custom Pantone mix.

Have you enjoyed this journey through color and print, but need some more guidance? Talk to a print expert today by calling 800-930-7978.

Why Printers Prefer CMYK Versus RGB

Technology is in a constant state of flux. But although the hardware, software, and processes you use will be unique, the basic approach toward managing your color tends to remain the same year over year.

It’s a common misconception that before any type of printing, all images must be converted to print in CMYK (the four process color printing inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black — the key “color”). While it’s been the traditional practice for decades, many consumer inkjet printers now have more than just four process inks, meaning those printers are capable of printing a few hundred or even a few thousand times as many colors as you’d be able to create with just CMYK color printing.

But when you are sending a print design to a professional press, you will still need to convert your color space to CMYK. Otherwise, you risk getting strange, muddy or simply incorrect colors back from the printer.

The Skinny on RGB and CMYK

RGB stands for the independent color channels that make up the digital light display: red, green, and blue.

Think about it: every digital image you’ll encounter has been, at some point, an RGB image. This is true even if an image is currently in the CMYK color space, because the devices that likely captured that image — digital cameras and scanners — operate in RGB. They sense and store red, green, and blue light instead of physical pigments.

While progress in flexibility has been made, CMYK conversion is still required when sending out your artwork and images for commercial printing. And converting everything to CMYK before you send your files to print can also guarantee that the printed results match your expectations.

Why Manage Color?

Some designers completely ignore color management and still get acceptable colors in their printed pieces (with “acceptable” meaning good enough for a school fundraiser flyer or a bulletin about the next company picnic). But if you care about getting precise results consistently and want to make the best possible impression on your audience, then you’ll definitely want to pay attention to color management.

“Color management” is an official-sounding term for changing colors to control the visual consistency of your colors from one display (laptop, smartphone, glossy color brochure, color newspaper) to another. Maybe you need to alter your RGB colors so that your boss’s newly designed presentation looks the same on a large wall monitor as it does on your computer screen. Maybe you’re going to have to convert the RGB colors in your piece to CMYK so that they’ll exactly match your client’s brand standards once their newest printer gets the file.

Converting RGB to CMYK

The “shortcut” that many designers take when they have an RGB image that needs to be in CMYK is to toggle the Document Color Mode or Image Mode to CMYK Color.

But not so fast. If your artwork was originally in RGB color mode, you may notice that the new CMYK values aren’t whole numbers. This is because there’s a wider spectrum of options with RGB color, meaning when you convert to CMYK, there’s a chance your printed colors won’t exactly match your original intentions.

This is why some designers choose to design in CMYK: they can guarantee that the exact colors they’re using will be printable.

It’s a bit like translating from one spoken language to another; you can get the general meaning across, but the exact word-for-word translation often doesn’t correlate. Similarly, the translation of RGB colors on your screen into physical CMYK printing ink combinations that will print may be a “good enough” approximation but won’t be perfect.

Convert to Profile

The best way to convert an RGB image to the CMYK color gamut is with “Convert to Profile.” A profile is a description of the output device that tells your software what the colors mean; it defines what cyan should look like, what magenta should look like, etc. “Convert to Profile” means you’re trying to make things look the same from one profile to another.

To “Convert to Profile” in an Adobe product, go to your Edit menu, scroll down to Convert to Profile or Assign Profile, and then choose the profile for the printing device or display environment. You may notice there are many different RGB and CMYK profiles.

For example, RGB looks different from sRGB, and the appearance of CMYK depends on your exact output conditions. Once you’ve checked your original colors and then set the best destination target, your software can manage your colors correctly.

Any visual change you notice once you’ve converted RGB to CMYK using Convert to Profile might be very subtle, but be aware that sometimes the colors in your image may change significantly. Typically, CMYK makes colors look more dull or desaturated.

Why Would You Keep an Image in RGB?

Staying in RGB can allow you to keep your options open (options which disappear once the wide color range of RGB has been reduced to the much more limited CMYK space).

Because of today’s crossover between digital and print, the same artwork must often do double or even triple duty. Maybe one photo will be both printed on a magazine and posted on a website. Perhaps your image will be printed in a booklet, but the printer hasn’t yet been chosen and you’re still expected to meet the deadline for design. Maybe you’re still waiting on a few outstanding quotes for paper stock before the definite specs will be chosen.

The best way to efficiently manage all this uncertainty may be to keep your artwork in RGB. That way, you’ll be able to repurpose the same artwork with less effort. You’ll be able to target it to multiple outputs using the relevant output profiles.

Another reason to keep your images in RGB is because you’ll often need to go back and make edits (like additional retouching or color correction), and it’s much more preferable to make image edits in RGB, where much more of the original image data still exists.

If you really need to convert your artwork to CMYK, at least wait until you’re sure no more edits will be needed. The reason? Once you’ve converted your artwork to CMYK, you’ll never be able to convert it back to the original color range and intensity. So keep your options open, and let your software program (like Adobe InDesign, for example) do the any conversions to CMYK at the very last possible moment: when it’s time to go to print or export to a PDF.

Need help with your printing? Talk to a live print expert today: 800-930-7978.

Get Your Printing Done in Time

It’s the holiday season – and that means notecards, coupon mailers, and holiday thank-yous are going to be flooding mailboxes. If you’re planning on mailing printed pieces, you might already be under the gun with a looming deadline. To get your printing done in time, you have to plan for proofing, production, and mailing. We’re going to break it down for you so you can work with your printer (like us, because obviously we’re the best) to meet your deadline.

Print Production Schedules

Before you can start mailing something, you need to get it printed. Depending on what you’re printing this could take time. Typically you’re looking at 4-6 business days to turn around most print projects.

Of course, some projects get done much quicker and others take a lot longer. If you’re adding a lot of custom effects, especially effects that require a plate to be made (a plate is a custom rubber or metal plate used in printing), your set-up time could add another day into the estimate.

You can make the process go faster if you keep these points in mind:

Provide final artwork in the right format. This means using the correct color space (usually CMYK or Pantone), the right resolution (usually 300 dpi or higher) and the correct size. This will save you back-and-forth with your printer and will make sure your proof is that much better.
Always insist on a proof. A good printer will send you a proof as part of the print job, but if they don’t or if you’re even a little unsure, insist on a proof every time.
Check typos and errors before you send the final pieces to the printer. Really go over it with a close eye – retooling a print job can cost you days.

Mailing Schedules

A mailing timeline could take 4-5 business days, after production. Of course this can change dramatically depending on how you’re sending the materials through the mail. The following assumes the artwork for the printed piece is fully approved and the printing presses are about to kick on to print the final piece.

Bulk rate is the slowest but cheapest way to mail your printed materials. This option is great for huge orders – over 500 pieces – but takes about 4 weeks from the day your order is placed until the first pieces start to arrive in the mail.
Presorted first class mail is the next fastest choice, shaving about 3-4 business days off of a bulk rate’s total time. This type of mailing has requirements on the size, shape, and weight of the mailed piece. It is designed for postcards, envelopes and notecards – perfect for most holiday sends but not boxes or heavy objects.
First class mail is the fastest way to ship your print, as you may have suspected it is also the most expensive. It can reach customer’s hands within 6 business days after your order starts production. On average it is about 5 cents more expensive per mailer than presorted first class. The same size and weight limits apply.

Here’s a calendar for a typical production schedule.

Cost to Mail

It can get pricey to send a lot of marketing through the US Postal Service. To reduce cost you may want to consider using the Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) service. EDDM is a service that allows you to send direct mail to every household in a specific geographic region. You can target a zipcode or specific routes and the post office sends your mailer to every house on the list.

You don’t need a list of addresses – the mail just goes to the homes in the area. This service usually has pretty cheap rates, though it can add some time to your overall delivery dates. Learn more about EDDM here.

There are tight deadlines for getting your printed materials into your customer’s’ hands and with the holidays approaching you shouldn’t wait. If you want to get something in their hands in time for Black Friday, for example, you should be hitting production no later than the middle of October.

Need help with your print? Talk to a live print expert today: 800-930-7978.

What’s CMYK, Pantone (PMS), and RGB Color?

CMYK, Pantone, and RGB are three different color systems in graphic design and printing. Knowing what each of them means may be the difference between a perfect final draft and a project that looks completely different than what you expected.

But First, a Little Art and Physics

You’ve probably mixed paint together before, like red and green to get a murky brown. This is called subtractive color mixing.

However, if you shine red and green spotlights together on a wall, they mix to make yellow. This is additive color mixing. In additive color mixing, you get white when you mix red, green, and blue. It’s counterintuitive, and a little spooky the first time you see it — but it’s true!

This is the same thing that happens on your computer screen. Little pinpoints of red, green, and blue light (RGB) blend together and create the array of colors you’re looking at right now.

The problem is, if you’re a graphic designer working on your laptop, how can you ensure that the colors you’re seeing are going to translate to online and offline media?

Before we get into the details of converting Pantone to RGB or CMYK to PMS, let’s define these color systems.

CMYK Color

If you remember learning about primary colors in grade school, you have a good start for understanding how CMYK works. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (the “k” comes from the word “key,” a printing term). You can mix these four colors to get an array of secondary and tertiary colors like violet, orange, and just about every color from your kindergarten crayon box.

However, the one pitfall of CMYK is that different brands of ink tend to have color palettes that vary from each other. If you’re using different printers for your branded materials, your colors may not be 100% consistent.

Pantone (PMS) Color

Unlike CMYK, Pantone uses a standardized color reproduction system referred to as the PMS color process (Pantone Matching System). Each Pantone color, or “spot color”, has a unique identification number.

This system allows you to take your Pantone color to any printer on the planet and have your project come out with exactly-matching hues. And if you’re a brand that relies heavily on a very specific color (think “Home Depot Orange,” “Coca-Cola Red”, or “Barbie Pink”), you can see why Pantone would be invaluable.

The only down side to the PMS system is that your options are slightly more limited than CMYK. Because Pantone has a predetermined set of colors, you’ll have to work within their system. In other words, you can’t create any color and translate it flawlessly to Pantone.

Instead, your color-picking process is more like when you visit the paint section at the hardware store. You select from a range of shades available to you, and an employee mixes that exact shade for you to take home.

RGB Color

As we mentioned up top, RGB uses three colors (red, green, and blue) in different combinations to create every color of the rainbow. On computers, TVs, and mobile devices there are small dots of light in your screen that emit different amounts of red, green, and blue. Your eyes interpret these mixtures as different individual colors. RGB uses a subtractive color mixing process to create all colors, where RGB together makes white and the absence of red, green, and blue makes black.

Which Color System Should I Use?

Is CMYK “better” than Pantone, or RGB? No one system is inherently better, but one may be better for the project you’re working on.

The PMS process allows you to keep your colors consistent no matter where, or what, you print. This is useful if you’re a larger company with vendors across the globe: you can rest easy knowing your logo is going to look the same on a business card or a giant banner at a convention on the other side of the country.

On the other hand, if you’re printing fine art or photographs, you may find Pantone to be limiting. Pantone colors don’t blend easily, so you’ll probably need CMYK to get the variance you need.

And don’t forget to consider the type of printer you’re using. If you’re doing digital printing, Pantone colors don’t translate well on paper, so you’ll want to opt for CMYK.

However, with offset printing, you can take your pick: both CMYK and Pantone produce great results.

Combining CMYK and Pantone in One Design

You don’t always have to stick with one color system in a single design project. In fact, you may be able to achieve exactly the look you need — and save some money — by combining Pantone and CMYK inks.

This is called spot-color printing, or “five color process.” When you print this way, you use a mixture of the standard CMYK colors, but you also add one or two Pantone colors to get specific hues just right.

For example, imagine you’re Coca-Cola and you’re printing the billboard pictured above. Coca-Cola red is a very specific color, and needs to remain consistent across all branded materials — this billboard included.

However, some of the other elements of the design, like the colors of the bottle and soda, don’t need to be as exact. For the most cost-effective process, you would use a Pantone for Coca-Cola red, and CMYK for everything else.

If you were to see the printing press running for this job, you’d see one plate with the red PMS color for the Coke logo, and four other printing plates with CMYK blends to get the color just right.

Converting Between Color Systems

With the prevalence of web design and digital design today, it’s common to have to do color conversions between these three main systems when creating printed materials. Here’s a basic rundown of what to expect when converting between RGB, CMYK, and Pantone, along with links to more detailed tutorials.

RGB Conversions

RGB is used for digital rendering and can have issues when being reproduced with a CMYK or Pantone process. However, sometimes you may be working with a design that originated in RGB and needs to be converted for print. You can usually get your final design close to the original, but know that there are some colors in RGB that simply can’t be reproduced in CMYK or Pantone.

RGB to CMYK

RGB to CMYK online converter
Converting RGB to CMYK in different programs
The differences in appearance between RGB and CMYK

RGB to Pantone (PMS)

RGB to Pantone online converter

CMYK Conversions

With most CMYK colors, there is a matching Pantone color out there. The same goes for CMYK to RGB. Most graphic design programs have a built-in process for converting CMYK to Pantone, but you can also use an online tool to make these conversions.

CMYK to RGB

CMYK to RGB online converter
How CMYK and RGB are different onscreen

CMYK to Pantone (PMS)

Online CMYK to Pantone Converter

Pantone (PMS) Conversions

Converting Pantone to either RGB or CMYK isn’t problematic for most colors. However, if you’re working with a metallic, pastel, or fluorescent hue, Pantones don’t always convert well to CMYK.

PMS to RGB

PMS to CMYK

Printing for Less (Printing For Less) has been an industry leader and provider of high-quality, unique printing services since 1996. Though we are a large company with customers across the globe, we treat our customers with the attention and care you’d expect from a luxury printing boutique. From business cards and banners to letterhead, flyers, and beyond — Printing For Less knows printing like no other. Let’s talk about your project! Our print consultants are available 7am-7pm MT Monday through Friday at (800) 930-7978.