Micro-Topics
At the start of each class, we'll address a small topic listed below. We won't take too much time on each. They'll simply be a short exploration of each topic.
- Folding
- I'll bring large format sheets to class. We'll build imposition dummies.
- Misregistration
- We'll use our loupes to examine various samples of poor registration.
- Print Job Submission Sheet
- I'll distribute submission sheets. We'll take a few minutes to look at what a printer expects when the designer submits a job.
- Black Ink
- There's more to this than would meet the eye. Inconsistent blacks can be tricky to achieve. We'll build various black recipes to observe the differences and get a handle on things.
- Overprinting Vs. Knocking Out
- Should inks print on top of each other or not? I'll show you examples of how you can take control of overprinting to creative effect.
- AM Vs. FM Printing
- In the past few years, a new printing technology has become popular. It depends on digital screening. I'll show you examples to compare with traditional screening.
- Printers' Marks and Colour Bars
- There's a use to all those printers' marks and colours around your artwork. We'll produce a PDF in Illustrator and take a look at each.
- Resolution & Line Screen
- DPI, LPI, SPI, my my. There are dots everywhere. We'll make sense of them and assess their impact on printing.
Prepress Production
The Goals of this Course
Prepress is design. It's an integral part of the design process. Its anticipating and avoiding problems, and recignizing opportunities. That's why every designer nees to understand prepress and how to communicate with people at every step of the process.
Adopting a Production Mindset
In order to transform design envidioned to design produced, you should adopt and maintain a production mindset:
- Make sure you have the right software and hardware.
- Turn your workstation into a production environment.
- Establish font and file management workflows.
- Develop a strategy for file transport and storage.
- Gain an understanding of industry standards.
- Understand colour management and colour workflow.
- Learn to identify output problems and ensure print-ready files.
- Bring vendors into the process early on.
What is Prepress?
5% — We'll put our heads together to investigate what prepress actually is. We'll compile our findings and share them.
During our first class, we'll do a fly-over of the semester. This will be followed by a group exploration of prepress. We'll explore the 5 Ws of prepress. After the break, we'll actually investigate the fundamentals of colour separation to give you a real-world appreciation of how printing works.
Practice Makes Perfect
10% —This week we'll pre-flight this card that I worked on way back when. I'm providing the raw files, which were produced for visuals. You'll get them ready for press.
Download the files for this exercise.Field Trip: Printing Plant Tour
We'll hit the road in our second week to visit an actual printing plant. There's nothin like actually seeing how things work to get an appreciation for the graphic designer's responibilities in the printing process.
Preflight Business Cards
10% — I'll distribute various business cards which were designed with no regard for production. We'll get these files in order to print on an offset press. They are all two spot colour jobs.
Pre-flight Book Cover
We'll use some of the projects you have done in other courses for this exercise. You have started designing a book cover in Graphic Design. We'll make sure this comes together with production in mind.
Types of Printing
Not every printer can do every print job. Most jobs are done with offset lithography, but you need to know when to look elsewhere for that special project.
Colour Correction
10% — Levels and Curves, baby. It's all about Levels and Curves. We'll try to take most of the guess work out of this scary process. Most designers don't dare come close to this. You'll learn to handle it like a pro.
Registration
10% — Don't get trapped with bad registration. You may have to wait till this class to find out how bad a pun this is.
We'll build a file in Illustrator to play with different trapping settings. You'll be able to see with your own eyes what they look like.
Imposition & Folding
10% — At first blush, you'd think folding paper would be a pretty straightforward. Well, if you've ever tried to print a book you'll know that it's a tricky business. How do you layout pages so they're in the right order out of the printer? We'll find out.
Binding
10% — This group research exercise involves using the Web or other resources to find info on a specific binding methods.
Drawing Die Lines
10% — In order for a printer to produce a kit folder or a box, a die needs to be manufactured. The die cuts the shape out of the stock, so it can be folded. We'll create the die line which is used in the manufacturing of such a die.
10% — Most modern printers use the PDF file in their print workflows. We'll create files which are ready for press.
We'll assemble the files you created in various courses this semester to create press-ready PDF files.
File Release Checklist
This file is presented as a guide to the student who is handing in a project in the Graphic Design program. If you deviate from the specifications below, make sure your are comforming to the teacher’s instructions. Otherwise, make sure that a stranger could make sense of what your are handing in.
Presentation Standards
When handing in assignments, it is imperative that students maintain the highest standards of clenliness and accuracy. Please see the file for specifics.