Digital Printing Prepress Design

Knowing more design content suitable for digital printing can reduce the difficulties in printing to avoid mistakes. In general, the files used for digital printing should be flexible and simple, without the need for accurate color registration, color matching, or accurate double-sided registration. Get in touch with your digital printing plant and they will give you advice on special designs, images and software settings.

Large format design

You do not need to always limit the design to the standard web size. Web digital presses, such as Agfa's Chromapress, can print larger webs because they use continuous tape. You can print posters and banners up to 11.8 meters.
Make black more abundant

When printing black (especially overprinting text), black is usually mixed with a certain proportion of other three colors to make black more abundant. The rich black color makes the underlying color less visible. The ratio of other three colors varies with different printers, paper types, background colors, and the overall effect you want. (HOHO note: generally do not add 4 colors, the main plus 20% blue is enough, black will look better)

Gradient

To prevent uneven stripes in blending or gradation, the gradation is usually controlled from 1 to 4 inches. Use lighter colors and do not exceed 50% of the gradient. Using image processing software to add noise to the gradation can also help reduce unevenness.
image

Some printing systems offer screening technology options that can improve the quality of halftone images. You can ask the operator of the printing plant for samples printed under different screens and color adjustment settings to select the settings that are best for you.

High-key and dark tone

The optimal threshold for the high-profile and dark-sounding parts varies with different presses. In general, highlights cannot be less than 5% C, 3% M, and Y; shadowing cannot be higher than 85% C, 75% M, and Y.

Field and gradient

Large areas or flat screens appear streaks on printers that use toner and should be avoided. This is due to the uneven distribution of charge or toner particles. This is especially true for thick paper because thicker paper has a lower affinity for charge than thin paper. To avoid this, use lighter colors or shading.
Fold

For the printer using dry toner, please avoid placing the dark part at the folding point of the paper. If the high temperature fixing is improper, the toner at the folding point of the paper will be cracked, leaving a crack on the day of the turtle. Therefore, if possible, try to print a lighter color or blank at the crease. Also, to prevent rough creases, make sure that the folds align along the paper texture.

Cutting and binding

You need to know clearly that the press will allow bleeding and trimming as much as possible for the size of the paper, to facilitate cutting, especially when you use saddle stitch binding, when you are on a web press or in an attached booklet. Extruding the middle page, you must use “Spin Tweaking” to make adjustments to the position of each page. (HOHO Note: This is a very important part, everyone must pay attention)

software

When using the path clipping function in Adobe Photoshop, use a smoothness of 5 or 6 for general images. For extremely small images, use a smoothness of 1 or 2 when creating a path, and set a smoothness of 5 when creating a path. . In addition, 1-bitTiff may have problems printing, please convert it to grayscale Tiff or bitmap PICT format. In IIIustrator, please convert the text font to a path.

In QuarkXPress, avoid rotating the graphics in the graphics box individually, but rotate the entire graphics box. Personalization If you want to change the image or text for personalized printing, you must determine the size of the alternative elements that fit the same location and fits the variable location. Each page requires at least two drafts containing different alternative elements, so that you can ensure that different elements are properly placed in the same location.