create new document > set page size to exact size you're working with > decide if you need columns or guides
- clicking on 'more options' will reveal some important options - bleed and slug
- bleed is the excess that gets cut off, alway include a bleed margin
- slug is another area which sits outside your page that prints but is lost when trimmed down, used for things like trim, crop and registration marks (printer's marks)
- there is a common standard bleed (3mm), but you should speak to the printer about this before you start printing out
- you will discuss an appropriate bleed, file format, colour swatch library etc with the printer
Chosen document settings
facing pages = booklet format
bleed = 3mm
slug = 20mm
Pages palette and document
Master pages
- can be applied quickly to numerous pages
- achieve consistency with layout
- objects on a master page appear on all pages that have the master applied
- usually used to include things like logos and page numbers
- don't really have a consequence on how things print/whether they print successfully
Application of colour
- colour has to be applied to a frame to either the fill or stroke
- could use pen tool to create a frame
- frames are just vector shapes like in illustrator
- fill and stroke squares
- can apply colour by using colour palette, or click on stroke square which brings up colour picker, or using swatch palette
- swatch palette is similar to in illustrator, but will have to create own colours because default selection is small
- grey square represents a global swatch, so colours will update when changed, can also make tints of CMYK colours
- can also apply colour to text
- shortcut to increase pt size of text = command + shift + > or <
Swatches
- creating a new swatch, menu > new colour swatch
Tints
- select swatch > swatch palette menu > new tint swatch
- specify tint using percentage slider
- this will add a new tint swatch
- these tints can be grouped together by dragging the swatches around in the palette, this will make things quicker and easier
Photoshop for InDesign - preparing images
1) size of document has to be exact, cannot be enlarged or reduce whilst in InDesign
- if images are scaled down or enlarged whilst in InDesign, it will look fine on screen but when sending to print or making a PDF, this will be too much work for the software and it will error
2) CMYK or greyscale
3) resolution 300dpi
4) save as either PSD or TIFF
- PSD files support transparency
Illustrator for InDesign - preparing images
1) CMYK or spot colours, never RGB
2) save as AI or copy and paste
3) size can be changed whilst in InDesign
4) no specific resolution
Placing images
New document > file > place > image
- PHOTOSHOP/PSD FILE: when we place an image that contains spot colours, those colours will automatically be added to the swatch palette
- VECTOR/ILLUSTRATOR FILE: spot colours will be added from the image when placed into the document, quality on screen will not be the same as on illustrator, it is a low resolution preview
- TIFF FILE: can apply a spot colour to this image using InDesign, a bit like a fake monotone
- select the image > click content grabber (two circles) > black fill colour is selected in swatches palette > click on any other colour and this will change the colour of the image
- only works with greyscale TIFF files
- to edit the image > select > right click > edit original > opens up in photoshop
* if image doesn't open in photoshop, go to finder > select image > command + i > open with > photoshop *
- using this, modify the image in photoshop, save the image, and then click the warning sign in the corner of the image on InDesign and this should update the image
InDesign - when it goes to print
- open up separations preview
- this will show you all of the inks that are going to be used in order to print the document
- selecting separations preview view ON will make your artwork look much higher quality
- you can then choose which separation colours are visible
- above, only CYAN is visible
- a greyscale image represents the printing plate that would be used to print it
- delete any unused swatches from your swatch palette, you can do this by using the palette to see which ones are visible - this will lower print costs etc
Ready for print
- centre image, go to output and change colour to separations, if you don't want to output some of the positives you can uncheck certain colours
- halftones can also be viewed here - frequency and angle of each colour must be different so that the different dots don't sit on top of each other, this will create a classic rosette pattern
- angles used for rosette pattern: cyan 15, magenta 75, yellow 0, black 45
- all of this can be set in output of print separations
Overprinting and knocking out
- overlapping colours
- separations palette can be used to make sure certain colours knock each other out, this is so that the colour prints straight onto paper, and not on top of another
- some colours will not knock each other out
- spot colours can be used to apply things like varnish rather than just a colour
- use the attributes panel and select 'overprint fill' so that this doesn't knock out any of the process colours that it's sitting on top of - this allows you to specify an area for varnishes etc
Research into trapping in print
What is it and why do it?
Trapping can regularly be seen within newspaper inserts, where pages are slightly off, and the colour doesn't quite fit into the spaces that they belong in, or objects look like they've been put in the wrong position. This mean that the colours are out of registration.
This may occur for a number of reasons including:
- the paper on the printing press shifts
- the plates move
The result of this is a gap in between the colours where the white paper shows through.
Colour knockouts
When one object filled with one colour is placed on top of another object filled with a different colour, something must happen within the area that these two objects overlap. If separations are made, the top object with known a hole in the bottom object - a knockout. If the plates are registered correctly then the top object will sit perfectly inside the knockout and there will be no misregistration.
Trapping the colour
A gap of white from the page beneath may occur because the top object is exactly the same size as the knockout space. If it was smaller, or the object was bigger, then there would be an area of two colours that would overlap one another. If one of these objects were then to move, there would still be no gap. This overlap is called a trap and it can be seen in work where the overlap of the two original colours creates a third.
Avoiding trapping
1. Keep colours apart
If you want to avoid registration problem, then don't let your colours touch one another. This will create a buffer zone.
Milk carton and soft drink cup designs are excellent examples of physically separating colours to avoid trapping. They are printed on presses that have the potential for enormous misregistration. The size of the traps necessary to avoid gaps would be huge and very noticeable. In order to avoid trapping, designers add white around the elements.
2. Use an overprint
The easiest way to avoid misregistration is to overprint the colours. This will prevent the knockout in the colour below, so the top layer will print directly on top of the other. Programmes such as InDesign and Illustrator will let you overprint selected objects and colours.
With this, however, you must accept the fact that your colours are most likely going to change. If yellow overprints blue, then green will be created. Some software may allow you to preview overprinting so that you can see what the effect is going to be.
3. Use common plates
Trapping is less of an issue in a four-colour printing process. When two colours share a common plate, the misregistration from one colour going up against another isn't as noticeable.
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