Design for print - Mike Flowers:

Design for print

Considerations for preparing digital artwork or layout that will be commercially printed.

Adobe softwares:

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

Commercial print?

Offset Lithography

Digital printing

Screen printing

Posters you'll find on the street are often Screen printed, I didn't know this and thought due to screen printing requiring more man hours that digital print would have been the method of choice.

Difference between Lithography and Offset Lithography

"Offset printing or web offset printing is a commonly used printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a water-based film (called "fountain solution"), keeping the non-printing areas ink-free. The modern "web" process feeds a large reel of paper through a large press machine in several parts, typically for several metres, which then prints continuously as the paper is fed through."

I think the difference comes down to the 'rubber blanket' where general Litho uses metal plates which contain each colour of the CMYK, which is used in paper printing.

Laser printers can create 'shifts in colour', which means that the colours may not always be the same as you'd expect on each printed page.

Digital colour modes

CMYK - Black subtractive colour, ink on paper

RGB - Additive colour, light via monitor/projector

Looking at how CMYK works with software:

CMYK is used to define colour in the printing process

(Process colour)

The transparency of the inks mix the colours on the paper, the colours are created during the print process due to the mixing of each colour.

Black is called K for the Key colour, the key colour is the last colour to be printed on the page. The other 3 colours without black can create dark shades but they're more of a brown which is almost black which doesn't look the best of quality.

"We need to think of colour as Ink"

Adobe Illustrator 

Use swatches rather than anything else, gives you more range and control over the colours you can use. 

Spot colours are used for brands to ensure the colours are always the same.

Using illustrator you can find a reference which will ensure the colour is always the same every time you print.

Metallic inks 

Spot colour library for Metallic inks.

Spot vanish