Printing process followed by various printing shops in Toronto

 

 print shops Toronto

 

The print shops Toronto follow the stringent printing process to create awesome prints and use them to market your products and services to the audiences. Following is a brief overview of the various steps and their respective contributions to the production process. Get a behind-the-scenes look on the complex print production process given hereby:

1. The Design Stage

The first stage in printing process followed by various print shops Toronto is the design stage. Within the design stage, the following tasks are meant to be performed by the designer:

  • Overall look & feel of the piece

  • Typography

  • Graphics creation

  • Page layout

And the given tasks can be done by the designer or by the prepress department of the print shop.

  • Color Trapping

  • Create Printer Spreads

  • Scan Halftones & Line Art

At this stage, the graphic designer designs the layout with a lot of patience; he needs to be cautious about the missing fonts, images, delays, cost overruns, unanticipated proofing rounds, late design changes and sometimes disappointment over the finished jobs. Attention to detail at each step of the process is necessary to avoid these kinds of issues.

2. The Prepress Stage

In the prepress stage followed by print shops Toronto, the artwork is taken from its delivered state (either reflective art or digital file) all the way to the press plates.

Let’s understand how is it done:

First of all, the artwork is transferred to the negative film either by imaging a digital file through an image setter, or else by shooting reflective artwork with a copy camera.

Secondly, the pages are stripped together into a flat that reflects how the pages will be printed on the press sheet.

Thirdly, the flat is then burned onto a metal plate that will wrap around a press cylinder.

Each and every color will often have its own film and flat. Ofcourse, exceptions would be there when very little color is utilized, and the colors used do not really touch each other color at any point. During this case, the color will simply be masked off while burning the first plate, and then further revealed to burn the next.

The procedures given below are performed by either the stripper or electronic prepress operator:

  • Image setting

  • Shooting Camera Ready Art & Halftones

  • Scanning Halftones & Line Art

  • Color Trapping

  • Imposition

  • Film Stripping

  • Plate Making

Other presetting steps are:

Step #1. PDF Proof: (Review copy/elements/fonts): We request for the PDF proof of the artwork from our vendors. This helps us to proofread the content one last time to make sure no mistakes are left. It also assures us that the text hasn’t shifted or the images haven’t moved while printing processes the files.

Step #2: Hard copy proof (review color match/paper): Then, we receive a final printout, it lets us view the final document, check for discrepancies and check whether the layout is good to look at.

Step #3: On-location press-check: Upon approval of the hard copy, we further go to the print shop for the final press - check in order to approve papers, inks, colors & varnishes etc.

3. File Naming:

The third stage is file naming during the printing process followed by the print shops Toronto. Files must be named properly to allow printers to work effectively. Do make sure that there are no unusual characters in the file’s name or it may cause a printer’s computer to crash. They should be labeled with the correct extension.

4. The Printing Stage

The printing stage followed by print shops Toronto encompasses the transfer of an image to the paper. Once the printing plate is made, the printing image is rendered grease-receptive and water-repellent, while the non-printing areas are rendered water-receptive as well as ink-repellent.

On the press, the plate is mounted onto the plate cylinder which, as it rotates, comes in contact with rollers wet with water (or dampening solution) & rollers wet with ink. The dampening solution wets the non-printing areas as well as prevents the ink from penetrating these areas. The ink wets the image areas, which are further transferred to the intermediate blanket cylinder. The paper further picks up the image as it passes between the blanket cylinder as well as the impression cylinder.

In order to ensure high quality printing, the printer must:

  • Reduce image distortion or noise such as dust

  • Reduce paper movement

  • Review that the pages back each other correctly

  • Evaluate halftone quality as well as attempt to hold the

highlight & shadow detail

  • Match the ink color specified

  • Control dot gain 

 

5. The Bindery Stage

Next is the bindery stage, where trimming, folding, perforating, collating, stitching, or gluing is performed as required. Print shops Toronto performs the trimming and folding in-house, and works closely with an outside bindery on the collating, stitching and gluing.

6. Delivery

Most of the jobs are shipped to our clients directly or delivered via specialized facility called a “mail-house” or “letter-shop” whenever materials are to be mailed on behalf of the client. In this printing stage followed by print shops Toronto, the addresses are computer-imprinted from the customer’s mailing list database onto the printed piece, then sorted as well as prepared for delivery to the post office.