A primer on printing
I think this article will be of interest first of all to those who want to get involved in printing or have recently got involved in it and do not have enough knowledge and experience in this sphere. The article contains both the basics of preparing a layout for printing and some non-obvious nuances.
Let's start with the colour model (and further break down how print design differs from screen design).
The RGB colour model is used for the screen and CMYK for printing. As with RGB, it is an abbreviation of the colours used - Cyan (cyan), Magenta (magenta), Yellow (yellow) and Key colour (or BlacK, black). This model is the direct opposite of RGB, discounting the non-ideality of the colours. You can see how they correlate in the picture:
In theory, as R+G+B gives white, C+M+Y (‘triad’) should give black. Practice, as it often happens, does not correspond to the theory a little bit, and when printing from these three colours you get a dirty brownish-grey. That's why the fourth colour - black - was introduced (the same discount for non-ideality). But still this colour model has a major disadvantage - with its help it is impossible to reproduce some colours that live quite well on the screen - deep, saturated and all kinds of poisonous-acid.
Another thing related to the colour model, and one that you are likely to encounter, is the Total Ink Limit (TIL). The point is that paper can absorb a certain amount of ink without pain. If there is more ink, it will ‘overflow’, the image in this place will ‘float’ and look dirty. Since the amount of ink is measured in per cent, the TIL is measured in the same, and for different types of paper is usually set between 200 and 350%. This means that, in the latter case, you can pour, say, 100% cyan, 100% magenta, 100% yellow and 50% black onto the paper. That's plenty for just about any kind of photography.
Unlike the screen, paper does not emit light, but only reflects it (by the way, CMYK was introduced because of this feature). Therefore, the perception of the picture depends very much on the lighting, and usually photos look less contrasty and bright than on the screen.
On paper, it is much more difficult to control colour. That is, while in screen design everything depends mainly on the quality and calibration of the monitor on which the design is viewed, in printing there are many more factors affecting colour. These are the monitor, the chosen colour profile (and its correspondence to the profile of the printing machine in the printing house), the type and quality of paper, lighting and even the microclimate in the printing house and the mood of the printers. Thus, if you don't use platemark colours in the layout and personally control the printing process at all its stages, you will almost certainly not get 100% in colour. Discrepancies can occur even within the same print run - the same photos in different copies of a magazine, booklet or leaflet can have different shades (different tones).
Another nuance is that the perception of scale on the monitor and on paper is somewhat different. What looks quite normal on the monitor may turn out to be too bulky or, on the contrary, small on the printed material. So if you are unsure about something - print it on a normal A4 sheet on your home/office printer and see. This is a common practice.
One of the important differences between print design and screen design is the impossibility to quickly correct your fakap if it has already been printed. Often you have to pay your own money for these fixes, in many offices print designers are financially responsible. So check everything again. And one more time. And after the layout has been sent to the printer - one more time. Until the moment of printing you usually have some time - up to several hours - when you can fix something. Usually, when offset printing, the printing company requires you to sign prufs - prints of the layout as it will go to full printing. This is by no means a colour proof - the colours on the prufs are usually terrible, but it's the last chance for you to see the error in the layout and correct it. And try not to rush. All misfortunes are usually due to rushing.
Let's start with the colour model (and further break down how print design differs from screen design).
The RGB colour model is used for the screen and CMYK for printing. As with RGB, it is an abbreviation of the colours used - Cyan (cyan), Magenta (magenta), Yellow (yellow) and Key colour (or BlacK, black). This model is the direct opposite of RGB, discounting the non-ideality of the colours. You can see how they correlate in the picture:
In theory, as R+G+B gives white, C+M+Y (‘triad’) should give black. Practice, as it often happens, does not correspond to the theory a little bit, and when printing from these three colours you get a dirty brownish-grey. That's why the fourth colour - black - was introduced (the same discount for non-ideality). But still this colour model has a major disadvantage - with its help it is impossible to reproduce some colours that live quite well on the screen - deep, saturated and all kinds of poisonous-acid.
Another thing related to the colour model, and one that you are likely to encounter, is the Total Ink Limit (TIL). The point is that paper can absorb a certain amount of ink without pain. If there is more ink, it will ‘overflow’, the image in this place will ‘float’ and look dirty. Since the amount of ink is measured in per cent, the TIL is measured in the same, and for different types of paper is usually set between 200 and 350%. This means that, in the latter case, you can pour, say, 100% cyan, 100% magenta, 100% yellow and 50% black onto the paper. That's plenty for just about any kind of photography.
Unlike the screen, paper does not emit light, but only reflects it (by the way, CMYK was introduced because of this feature). Therefore, the perception of the picture depends very much on the lighting, and usually photos look less contrasty and bright than on the screen.
On paper, it is much more difficult to control colour. That is, while in screen design everything depends mainly on the quality and calibration of the monitor on which the design is viewed, in printing there are many more factors affecting colour. These are the monitor, the chosen colour profile (and its correspondence to the profile of the printing machine in the printing house), the type and quality of paper, lighting and even the microclimate in the printing house and the mood of the printers. Thus, if you don't use platemark colours in the layout and personally control the printing process at all its stages, you will almost certainly not get 100% in colour. Discrepancies can occur even within the same print run - the same photos in different copies of a magazine, booklet or leaflet can have different shades (different tones).
Another nuance is that the perception of scale on the monitor and on paper is somewhat different. What looks quite normal on the monitor may turn out to be too bulky or, on the contrary, small on the printed material. So if you are unsure about something - print it on a normal A4 sheet on your home/office printer and see. This is a common practice.
One of the important differences between print design and screen design is the impossibility to quickly correct your fakap if it has already been printed. Often you have to pay your own money for these fixes, in many offices print designers are financially responsible. So check everything again. And one more time. And after the layout has been sent to the printer - one more time. Until the moment of printing you usually have some time - up to several hours - when you can fix something. Usually, when offset printing, the printing company requires you to sign prufs - prints of the layout as it will go to full printing. This is by no means a colour proof - the colours on the prufs are usually terrible, but it's the last chance for you to see the error in the layout and correct it. And try not to rush. All misfortunes are usually due to rushing.
