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Education – Paper, Print & Design

  3. Education – Paper, Print & Design (Page 2)

Pantone Swatchbooks

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pantone swatchbooks

Supporting the Pantone Matching System is a range of swatchbooks. Understanding the different versions and their intended uses ensure you will use the right tool for the job. GSM takes a look: Formula Guide: Two x books (C & U): Formula Guide swatchbooks show the base range of 2,400 PMS colours, along with the corresponding ink formula. Printers use these formulas to mix Pantone colours. Bridge Guide: Two x books (C & U): The Bridge Guide swatchbooks show the same base range of colours as the Formula Guide—but instead of showing the ink formula, the Bridge Guides show each Pantone...

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Pantone Colour – expanding the printable colour range

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pantone swatchbooks

For this installment of Education, we return to Pantone colour and how this can expand the printable colour range. We all know that colour is a powerful tool for a designer. But how can you get more from colour when designing towards a print outcome? The answer may be through the use of Pantone colour. But first, let’s take a quick look at the theory of printed colour, and why CMYK and Pantone colour differs.  CMYK Colour 99% of all printed material uses a CMYK-based colour model. CMYK is based on the principle that printing varying amounts of Cyan, Magenta...

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Formakote Packaging Boards-Whakatane,NZ

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whakatane formakote

Form and applied graphics aside, successful fibre-based packaging solutions require using the right stock to match the product and the demands of the retail environment. As this is such a critical consideration, we asked Brett Keen from New Zealand's Whakatane Mill to shine some light on their Formakote range of specialist packaging boards. Packaging Small-Medium Sized Goods Small-medium goods is a general term meaning; retail products that a consumer buys over a counter, off a shelf, from a website, or out of a chiller. Of course, this encompasses a wide range of products, including dry, fried or frozen foods, beverage...

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Synthetic Paper – Tear & Moisture Resistant

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syntheetic papers

The most commonly used substrates for commercial print methods - both digital & offset- are wood-based papers and boards. But what if you have a print project that needs a more robust  solution? Something that won't tear and is moisture resistant? This is where synthetic papers come in. GSM investigates... Synthetic Papers The term ‘synthetic papers’ (sometimes shortened to ‘synthetics’) is a broad category of printable substrates made from materials other than wood pulp (the base material used to make most papers & boards). Synthetic papers are extruded from polypropylene or Polyester pellets to form smooth white sheets ready for...

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Love Paper

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love paper

In a world becoming more digital by the day - where does paper fit? Perhaps, the answer lies in simply being something worth appreciating —For it's perfect simplicity> Here are some reasons why we should love paper... Paper and print are with us from an early age starting with our first book and the newsprint we scribble on at kindergarten. We send and receive birthday invitations and love letters. We write in diaries, and earn pieces of paper that say we graduated. When you marry the love of your life—we record in the eyes of the Law—on paper. It’s sometimes...

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Digital Print Specials

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digital printing

In this instalment of Education, we look at Digital Printing. Comparing two of the latest technologies— Iridesse and Indigo. We also check out some of the latest embellishments features available. With Nick Marsh @5Digital, Auckland. Photos by Xavier Murphy@xalaphotography ’Digital printing’ is a wide-ranging term that refers to methods of printing directly from ‘computer-to-output’. Technically, this includes the types of laser and inkjet technologies that you might use in a home office. However, at a professional level, this generally refers to commercial technologies that run at significantly faster speeds with much greater capabilities and higher image quality. Digital vs Offset...

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Letterpress – Creating Artwork

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Creating artwork for Letterpress is reasonably straight forward with a little understanding of the process. In conjunction with our article "The Art of Letterpress Printing"  GSM looks at the basics... Artwork It is best to create Artwork using a vector based design program like Adobe Illustrator or InDesign. Avoid using Photoshop. Colour Letterpress is effectively a one colour per pass process. This means that for every colour, we require a new plate and print pass. Therefore, limit your range to one, two or three Pantone Spot Colours. Do not use Process / CMYK colours (and definitely do not use RGB...

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Letterpress – A Timeless Print Form

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HOT TYPE

GSM takes a look at the timeless print form that is - Letterpress Letterpress is an old-school form of mass-printing. It dates back almost 600 years to when German-born Johann Gutenberg printed 180 copies of a 1,282 page Bible on his new invention. In it’s most basic form, Letterpress employs individual letterforms, or ‘moveable type’, that are ‘typeset’  within a frame or ‘Galley’. The printer loads the Galley onto the Letterpress and proceeds to ink and ‘press’ it onto the paper. When the printer has finished the job, he breaks up the Galley and the cleans the letterforms for reuse...

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The Skill of Designing Cardboard Packaging

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Packaging Die lines

GSM takes a look at how cardboard packaging formes are designed and prototyped. Plus die-making and how stamping is done... Cardboard packaging is everywhere and in a time when we are becoming increasingly aware of the need for sustainability carton board is an unsung hero. Recyclable, renewable and bio-degradable, pretty much everything plastic isn’t. Designing formes and constructing packaging using cardboard is a real skill. Even at it’s most basic, cardboard packaging is very complex. Developing a packaging forme often requires significant time in prototyping to ensure it constructs correctly. Once the forme is proven to work, the operator makes...

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Case Binding – how are hard-backed books made?

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case binding

At GSM, we've written a few articles on the various methods of binding. In this article we look specifically at the craft of case binding... Case binding is the method of binding ‘hardback’ books or documents. Unlike ‘softback’ binding methods, such as Perfect / PUR / Burst or saddle stitching, Case binding involves a significant amount of manual work. This extra work reflects the higher cost of this binding method. There are, however, many advantages with Case binding over the softback methods. Hardback documents can often be opened flat—which is not possible with a large Perfect / PUR or Burst...

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